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I have no data to test the following hypothesis, but I suspect that a significant portion of Groupon revenue comes from deal hunters. These are people who love

by DevX101 16y ago

I have no data to test the following hypothesis, but I suspect that a significant portion of Groupon revenue comes from deal hunters. These are people who love to find a deal, and if they went shopping and found an item with a great price on the tag, they still wouldn't feel excited about buying it unless it were ON SALE. If this hypothesis is true, these people go from deal to deal on groupon every week. They surf the hottest local deals, but the only company loyalty they have is to Groupon themselves. Who know's, maybe I'm wrong. But if I'm not, local spas and restaurants will eventually wise up.

cfinke 16y ago
> the only company loyalty they have is to Groupon themselves. And Living Social, and Crowd Cut, and DealPulp, and ValPak, and Eversave, and Mamapedia, etc. The people who you describe don't have any exclusive loyalty to Groupon; it's just another one of the dozen emails they get every morning with a possible deal. The main advantage that Groupon has over these competitors is that "Groupon" has come to be genericized as a term for a group-buying deal. My wife never says, "Let's use that DealPulp I got last week." She says "I have a Groupon for 50% off, so let's go to Santorini for supper," even if it was a Living Social or Crowd Cut deal.
bostonpete 16y ago
I see where you're coming from, but I think there's another aspect of the value of Groupon that you're ignoring. A groupon allows local businesses to send an e-mail to many thousands of nearby residents, one which those residents have opted into and will not be regarded as junk mail. I've bought very few groupons (two total maybe) but I often browse the daily deals and have discovered quite a few interesting local businesses just by reading the groupon. That exposure alone seems like it has to be worth something to those businesses.
joezydeco 16y ago
"Groupon is like a flash mob with all of the cheap asses and none of the fun" - @hellbox

by DevX101 16y ago

cfinke 16y ago

> the only company loyalty they have is to Groupon themselves. And Living Social, and Crowd Cut, and DealPulp, and ValPak, and Eversave, and Mamapedia, etc. The people who you describe don't have any exclusive loyalty to Groupon; it's just another one of the dozen emails they get every morning with a possible deal. The main advantage that Groupon has over these competitors is that "Groupon" has come to be genericized as a term for a group-buying deal. My wife never says, "Let's use that DealPulp I got last week." She says "I have a Groupon for 50% off, so let's go to Santorini for supper," even if it was a Living Social or Crowd Cut deal.

bostonpete 16y ago

I see where you're coming from, but I think there's another aspect of the value of Groupon that you're ignoring. A groupon allows local businesses to send an e-mail to many thousands of nearby residents, one which those residents have opted into and will not be regarded as junk mail. I've bought very few groupons (two total maybe) but I often browse the daily deals and have discovered quite a few interesting local businesses just by reading the groupon. That exposure alone seems like it has to be worth something to those businesses.

joezydeco 16y ago

"Groupon is like a flash mob with all of the cheap asses and none of the fun" - @hellbox