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Under the hood, Groupon is declining in Boston

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Re: Under the hood, Groupon is declining in Boston

#3
post #2

Lacking detail, but an interesting piece nonetheless. The novelty has probably worn off, and if you can't get beyond things most people never buy, like spa treatments and luxury items, then it's going to be tough to keep the momentum going.

if you are looking for more detail, definitely read the entire case study (link also in post): http://blog.yipit.com/2011/06/03/groupon-s-1-reveals-busines...

reader beware: the case study is a pain to read

Re: Under the hood, Groupon is declining in Boston

#4
Having own mailing lists in the past, I can say this is most likely true. Think about it - most deals Groupon sends are not of interest to you. Because of that, you're gonna ignore more and more of their emails, and eventually you're gonna stop opening those emails. The open rate of a Groupon email will just keep decreasing, and as such as the value of a subscriber base is gonna deteriorate.

Re: Under the hood, Groupon is declining in Boston

#5
post #3
post #2

Lacking detail, but an interesting piece nonetheless. The novelty has probably worn off, and if you can't get beyond things most people never buy, like spa treatments and luxury items, then it's going to be tough to keep the momentum going.

if you are looking for more detail, definitely read the entire case study (link also in post): http://blog.yipit.com/2011/06/03/groupon-s-1-reveals-busines... reader beware: the case study is a pain to read

[deleted]

Re: Under the hood, Groupon is declining in Boston

#8
I suspect this may be true, but if you're Groupon, you're not just sitting around waiting for the daily deals business model to become more and more saturated, you're hard at work on your "next thing" and your next "big thing."

Look already at the flash mob deals they're doing that are location based, the deal they just struck with expedia, the deals with national brands they're starting to do more of. Those are just derivatives of their core idea but also all bring in serious cash.

But then there are things they're likely working on that will go beyond the deal space and in to other services for the tens of thousands of businesses they now have relationships with. Think cross-business loyalty cards, point of sale systems, reservation systems, etc. If you think of a small business' "stack," they're just at marketing right now with the deals stuff, but there's no reason why they can't inject themselves further on down the business stack successfully. Deals will always be a part of their business I suspect, but in 2-3 years not their core business model, just an accepted concept in a much larger offering to businesses.

Re: Under the hood, Groupon is declining in Boston

#9
I cant see their costs coming down anytime soon. Their customer acquisition costs are $1.43 for every $1 spent. And now, with "Real time groupons" launched in Chicago, imagine the amount of deals they will have to line up that would require for them to keep me interested. I dont deny that they are attacking a problem that I do have - "Where should I go out to eat tonight?" and target me with real time deals based on where I am now. But in order to seed enough deals, they have an uphill task on lining up enough businesses (on top of the 50k they currently have) and enough deals. Even with the several thousand sales folks they currently have, its a gargantuan task. I want them to succeed, but I think they bit off too much.

Re: Under the hood, Groupon is declining in Boston

#10
post #3
post #2

Lacking detail, but an interesting piece nonetheless. The novelty has probably worn off, and if you can't get beyond things most people never buy, like spa treatments and luxury items, then it's going to be tough to keep the momentum going.

if you are looking for more detail, definitely read the entire case study (link also in post): http://blog.yipit.com/2011/06/03/groupon-s-1-reveals-busines... reader beware: the case study is a pain to read

Why is it a pain to read? (Always trying to improve our writing)
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