As someone who worked for a daily deals business not long after Groupons inception, I can tell you that it’s a tough model. It trained customers to wait for de

As someone who worked for a daily deals business not long after Groupons inception, I can tell you that it’s a tough model. It trained customers to wait for deals or targeted the wrong type of customers. In some cases businesses took losses or razor thin margins in the hopes of attracting what they thought would be new recurring business. But the reality was that the customers attended/purchased once and then moved on to the next deal. Businesses were often just giving away product for free. The timing for Groupon was perfect. It was 2008 when businesses were struggling and customers were price sensitive. But ultimately I just don’t think it was a good marketing tool for businesses.