The venomous use of the word "copycat" when it comes to competitors permeates the Groupon culture, from the C-Suiters to the sales folk. It's really something. They would be better off, IMO, dropping the nastiness, and simply continuing to find ways to dominate.
Why Groupon Sucks for Merchants and LivingSocial Doesn't
21–30 of 43 posts
Re: Why Groupon Sucks for Merchants and LivingSocial Doesn't
#22Longish article, summary: - Restaurateur tests both Groupon / Living social - Groupon only phone solicitations, unresolved issues after a month vs. LivingSocial took time for in-person rep visit, excellent merchant service. - Groupon at 50/50 split, LivingSocial 60/40 in merchant favor - LivingSocial charges no CC fees, Groupon charges 2.5% - Non-scientific "LivingSocial customers [have] a little more IQ it seems [th…
You missed the part about the Groupon rep encouraging fraudulent Yelp reviews, which I feel is an important point.
Re: Why Groupon Sucks for Merchants and LivingSocial Doesn't
#23How much do you get to pocket on people not redeeming their groupons/livingsocial coupons? As in, what percentage are bought but never redeemed?
50% seems like a big hit, so for these to make business sense, the merchant must either make up for it by people buying more than the minimum, getting repeat customers, or getting some cash from people that pre-paid and never bothered to claim their goods/services and having that subsidize the others.
Also, speaking as a customer, you should not be bothered by those who use the deals without buying more than the minimum. It irritates me to no end when someone offers a deal to promote their business or to try and hook you, then treats you like a second class citizen for taking advantage of the terms that they offered. If I like it, and feel that it is a good value without the discount, I will come back.
Realize that many of these offerings can push things into different affordability ranges, so you will definitely get non-repeat customers just because the deal is too good to pass up. Granted, this probably doesn't apply to a "$5 for $10" deal.
Re: Why Groupon Sucks for Merchants and LivingSocial Doesn't
#24Confirms everything I've suspected for a while. Great article.
Re: Why Groupon Sucks for Merchants and LivingSocial Doesn't
#25Prediction: Groupon will eventually become old news, and irrelevant. A "Copy-Cat" will focus on developing a customer base consisting of quality niche customers, and become the dominate player.
prediction on top of prediction. There'll be multiple players, in multiple niches and a few larger players in the general market.
prediction on top of prediction on top of prediction: Market forces and economics will come to play. (nature abhors a vacuum, where there's money people will flock).
Re: Why Groupon Sucks for Merchants and LivingSocial Doesn't
#26Prediction: Groupon will eventually become old news, and irrelevant. A "Copy-Cat" will focus on developing a customer base consisting of quality niche customers, and become the dominate player.
prediction on top of prediction. There'll be multiple players, in multiple niches and a few larger players in the general market. prediction on top of prediction on top of prediction: Market forces and economics will come to play. (nature abhors a vacuum, where there's money people will flock).
prediction^3: Interest in group buying wanes both from consumers and business owners. Groupon branches out to a more traditional ad network/ad services company with a local focus to try to leverage their sales staff. Living Social accepts reduced margins compared to todays market and sticks it out in some of the niches that work well like day spas.
Re: Why Groupon Sucks for Merchants and LivingSocial Doesn't
#27How much do you get to pocket on people not redeeming their groupons/livingsocial coupons? As in, what percentage are bought but never redeemed? 50% seems like a big hit, so for these to make business sense, the merchant must either make up for it by people buying more than the minimum, getting repeat customers, or getting some cash from people that pre-paid and never bothered to claim their goods/services and having…
The accounting term for this is "breakage".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakage
Any business that runs a coupon campaign will usually account for breakage. It's factored into the numbers of whether a campaign is executable or not.
The percentage will vary for every business / every campaign even for the same business.
Re: Why Groupon Sucks for Merchants and LivingSocial Doesn't
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
prediction on top of prediction. There'll be multiple players, in multiple niches and a few larger players in the general market. prediction on top of prediction on top of prediction: Market forces and economics will come to play. (nature abhors a vacuum, where there's money people will flock).
prediction^3: Interest in group buying wanes both from consumers and business owners. Groupon branches out to a more traditional ad network/ad services company with a local focus to try to leverage their sales staff. Living Social accepts reduced margins compared to todays market and sticks it out in some of the niches that work well like day spas.
Another prediction: Most merchants will start their own deal website like http://thesuperdeal.com/birmingham/deals/recent
Read somewhere that these guys use agriya groupon software, part of their ideas were copied by real groupon in their 2.0 release.
Re: Why Groupon Sucks for Merchants and LivingSocial Doesn't
#29Why on earth is the CEO of anything engaged in a long-running email discussion over two fraudulent coupon redemptions of $10 coupons? Mentally chalk it up to "cost of doing business" and move on.
Shrinkage should not be a new experience to the owner of a fast food restaurant. (Neither should pathological customers, although I could see a Groupon getting you more of those than usual.)
Re: Why Groupon Sucks for Merchants and LivingSocial Doesn't
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
prediction^3: Interest in group buying wanes both from consumers and business owners. Groupon branches out to a more traditional ad network/ad services company with a local focus to try to leverage their sales staff. Living Social accepts reduced margins compared to todays market and sticks it out in some of the niches that work well like day spas.
Another prediction: Most merchants will start their own deal website like http://thesuperdeal.com/birmingham/deals/recent Read somewhere that these guys use agriya groupon software, part of their ideas were copied by real groupon in their 2.0 release.
prediction^5: We're all right. All of the above will happen, and many things we didn't see coming.
Also, coupons will still be boring.