WebProNews

Tag: daily deals

  • Groupon Now Goes Live

    Groupon Now Goes Live

    Groupon is looking to expand beyond their current one-deal-per-day model by offering local deals throughout the day. Groupon Now has just launched in Chicago, and will come to more cities in time.

    Using either the website or a mobile app, customers can find up-to-the-minute deals in their current location. Most deals that pop up throughout the day will only be valid for a short period of time and have a limited quantity.

    Even though businesses can limit the amount of customers that are allowed to purchase each deal, unlike the daily deal model there is no minimum number of purchasers required to active the NOW deals. If a customer purchases a NOW deal and it expires, they can still redeem it as a gift certificate for the purchase price.

    For merchants, Groupon NOW could be an opportunity to attract customers during slow periods as well as make use of the “limited time offer” style of the deals. Businesses can set small deals that are only available for the first few buyers and expire within hours. This could create buzz through the “exclusivity factor.”

    Businesses can set deals to repeat daily, creating their own personalized happy hours of sorts. A local record store could run something like “Half off 80’s vinyl every day from 4 to 7.”

    Basically, Groupon Now looks to make deals feel even more immediate that their previous model. What do you think about it? As a customer or as a merchant, are you excited to see this come to your city?

  • Google Offers Beta Goes Live

    Google Offers Beta Goes Live

    Google has announced via Twitter that its much anticipated deals service “Google Offers” has gone live.  Google Offers Beta is kicking off with deals in Portland, Oregon.  Google Offers was first announced a few months ago and people obviously predicted that it could be a huge competitor for services like Groupon and LivingSocial.

    @GooglePDX
    Google Portland    Hey Portland! Google Offers BETA is coming. What will Google offer? http://goo.gl/8Kkt9 27 minutes ago via web · powered by @socialditto

    Upon visiting the Google Offers site, you are prompted with the question “What will Google offer?”  Below that you see “Get 50% off or more at place you’ll love.”  Users can then subscribe to email alerts in 6 areas: NYC Downtown, NYC Uptown, NYC Midtown, Oakland, Portland and San Francisco.

    There is also a link to a page that allows you to give Google your email address and zip code, so they can notify you when they make Google Offers available in your city.

    Google Offers is not quite dispensing out deals yet, but they say they will eventually begin sending subscribers “regular emails letting [them] in on amazing offers in [their] area”

    Since Offers is not currently available for my city, I subscribed to the Portland, OR Offers service and received this email:

    There is no telling yet whether Google Offers will become a direct competitor to Groupon and other daily deals sites.  Obviously, the format of subscribing to an email list and receiving offers is dead-on the Groupon M.O.  The last few months have been a little rough for the former daily deals leader as LivingSocial has made huge strides in revenues to compete with Groupon.  This might add another problem for Groupon, and possibly make them truly regret not selling to Google for $6 billion when it was offered.

  • LivingSocial, Next Jump Partner Up

    LivingSocial, Next Jump Partner Up

    LivingSocial is on the move.  Big time.

    Recently, we asked if Groupon had peaked.  The reason was that while Groupon revenues were reported down in both February and March, LivingSocial was on the rise at a comparable rate.  Daily deal aggregate site Yipit crunched some numbers and suggested that LivingSocial was running a dead heat with Groupon in the month of March.  Just last week, LivingSocial also announced that they had raised $400 million in new funding from investors like Amazon and T. Rowe Price.  Now they are about to join forces with another high profile deals service.

    Next Jump provides a platform for company rewards and loyalty programs.  It is the largest of its type and runs rewards programs for corporations like Dell, Hilton Hotels and Borders.  It is also linked up with MasterCard Marketplace and gives personalized offers, check-in offers and deals based on rewards points.  Today, they announced their new partnership with LivingSocial.

    This deal will make LivingSocial’s daily deals available to the 100 million + members of the Next Jump rewards network.  The deal certainly makes sense for both companies, and should allow LivingSocial in particular to really expand the scope of its deals.  The specific terms of the deal were not released.

    However, both companies commented in the press release:

    “We are always on the lookout for ways to enhance the products we offer to our customers. We were incredibly impressed by the LivingSocial team and their relentless pursuit of finding and delivering the highest quality offers to their users.  Our engineering teams are also well-aligned, and we look forward to a close integration with them as we focus on technological advancements in local, mobile and social product development,” said Charlie Kim, CEO and Founder of Next Jump.

    “By working together, LivingSocial and Next Jump have the opportunity to further promote local commerce throughout the US and beyond. Next Jump has an unequaled network of loyal shoppers who will now have access to our handpicked daily offers and experiences that introduce them to the best local merchants and earn them WOWPoints,” said Tim O’Shaughnessy, CEO and Co-Founder of LivingSocial.

    “A lot of people in this space right now think it’s daily deals, and we disagree. This is about local commerce,” LivingSocial CTO and co-founder Aaron Batalion said in an interview with WebProNews.

    Does LivingSocial have the model and momentum to rule the deals market?

  • Is it Daily Deals, or Local Commerce?

    “What’s the deal of the day?” is a question that is starting to become the norm in social circles. Although Groupon has been labeled the leader in the field, new data from Yipit shows that Groupon was down in both February and March. The data also shows that LivingSocial is up 59 percent in revenues for the top 20 markets.

    Is LivingSocial on its way to becoming the daily deals leader? Let us know what you think.

    While the competition has been tight between Groupon and LivingSocial, what could have given LivingSocial the extra momentum recently? According to Aaron Batalion, the company’s co-founder and CTO, LivingSocial is much more than a daily deals service.

    “A lot of people in this space right now think it’s daily deals, and we disagree. This is about local commerce,” he said.

    Batalion even said that, for LivingSocial, it wasn’t about selling the most deals. Instead, the company’s main priority is to build relationships with local businesses.

    “We want to work with these merchants for a very long time,” said Batalion.

    LivingSocial works with local businesses to ensure that the deals are sent according to their schedules. Batalion explained that the company views each deal as an opportunity for a merchant to show off his business to his town.

    For users, LivingSocial hopes to provide new and interesting things to do in their communities. To expand on this goal, the company recently introduced a mobile product called LivingSocial Instant. These instant deals can be redeemed immediately, and as Batalion pointed out, encourages the local businesses to fight for users.

    Another product that further reaches consumers is LivingSocial Escapes. This travel feature offers complete day trips, weekend getaways, and more. The “escapes” do all the planning for users by pairing activities together. These offers also last a week, as opposed to the typical 24-hour deal.

    “We want to provide new ways for you to spend money in your town and near your town, and that’s what we’re working on,” said Batalion.

    Interestingly, the company just announced that it raised an additional $400 million in funding.

    Do these latest developments indicate that LivingSocial is headed in the right direction to lead this space into its next phase?

  • Can Groupon Remain the Daily Deals Leader?

    Not too long ago, Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare each had their turns as the new hot startup. While all these platforms are very popular and are continuing to grow, the social spotlight has expanded to a new area called “daily deals.” These deals have absolutely taken the world by storm over the past several months.

    Although there are many players in the space and more rising daily, Groupon has emerged as the leader. While there are many reasons for Groupon’s popularity, Patty Huber, the company’s leader of social innovation, offered an interesting perspective on its rapid growth.

    “We really cut above the clutter of all the options that people have and give the perfect excuse to try their cities with the great deal,” she said.

    Interestingly, Groupon began as a collective buying platform called The Point. It developed from there into a service that presents consumers with daily offers. Because it only wants to give users the very best deals, Groupon reaches out to businesses that it believes would be engaging and appealing to subscribers.

    “We only want to feature the best things to do, just like we only want to feature the best causes to do,” said Huber.

    Even with the service’s vast popularity, most people don’t know that Groupon also works with local charities and non-profits to promote social good. According to Huber, the company tries to create opportunities for subscribers to take action. For example, users visit the site for the “daily deal,” and while there, Groupon promotes a complimentary social cause and encourages them to donate money, volunteer their time, participate in a local event, and more.

    Because the couponing space is still in the very early stages, there are almost as many challenges as there are opportunities for Groupon and the other players. For starters, will the craze last? Secondly, in addition to the competition, there are also websites rising up that allow users to sell their “daily deals” before they expire. Since these challenges will only continue to grow, what will come of these couponing sites?

    As the leader in the “daily deals” space, Groupon plans to further develop its platform for both businesses and users. As Huber explained, the company will launch more deals in more cities and will enhance its personalization process to better meet user needs.

    Based on a recent report from Local Offer Network, the couponing space is projected to reach $2.66 billion this year. The report also suggested that more businesses would embrace the space and that competition would increase. With this data in mind, does Groupon have what it takes to remain the leader?

  • DealOn Launches OfferEx, Calls it “Groupon’s Biggest Threat”

    DealOn, which has declared itself "Groupon’s biggest threat", has announced the launch of what it calls the web’s first ever daily deal offer exchange called OfferEx. "Think DoubleClick for daily deals. This is revolutionary and reduces the risk and increases profits for both sides of the table," a representative for the company tells WebProNews. She calls it "a technology that will level the daily deal playing field."

    OfferEx lets daily deal suppliers upload offers for distribution to third-party resellers, like daily deal sites and newspapers. Resellers can tap into OfferEx to choose the deals they think their audience will best respond to.

    "This powerful online exchange technology connects deeply discounted voucher offers with qualified resellers in the billion-dollar daily deal and group buying marketplace," the rep says. "OfferEx is disruptive technology that’s going to shake up the daily deal market by leveling the playing field."

    OfferEx - Groupon's Greatest Threat?

    "It’s the deal supplier whose doing the bidding because they are trying to encourage distribution," she explains. "The bid is essentially the commission a deal supplier is willing to pay for each voucher sold on their behalf.  Obviously the higher the bid, the more resellers are going to feature the deal and push the offer to their consumer audience."

    "Since we also own Adblade, the largest premium only ad network on the Web, we are very familiar with providing a platform for advertisers and publishers to connect," she continues. "Right now Adblade ads are on 1100 premium sites reaching just over 144 million users monthly. OfferEx Is no different in that it seamlessly connects advertisers (suppliers) and publishers (resellers). You can be a supplier and a reseller at the same time too."

    "Publishers and Deal sites can take deals from the exchange to supplement their own deals in existing markets they serve or even open new markets that they had never served before because they didn¹t have a sales staff in those markets," she adds. "Some resellers may even just use deals from the exchange and not even try to get their own deals."

    While DealOn may consider this a threat to Groupon, Groupon itself hasn’t expressed much anxiety about competitors. CEO  Andrew Mason talks a bit about it in this recent interview with TechCrunch.

    DealOn says its getting ready to announce some "major" strategic alliances in the coming weeks. We’ll keep an eye out on what that entails.