Thread: Are "Deal of the Day" Sites Dead?

Originally Posted by DealMaker

Are "Deal of the Day" Sites Dead?

I don't know the answer but you can bet the "deal of the day" sites hope everyone thinks so. Less competition. If everyone thinks you're losing money, competitive entrants will subside.

Personally, I'm subscribed to the big two: Groupon and Living Social and regularly buy offers. I love that both sites introduce me to new businesses that I would never know about. (I found two live theaters via deal sites that I had no clue existed.)

Amazon is now target marketing local deals to their data base. The deals though have been obscure and there's been nothing they have sent me that created any sense of urgency on my part. Amazon also acquired Woot (and I bet Woot was pretty happy to take the buyout as most of their business was B2B... their B2C was a front for their real operation.)

Existing retailers like Best Buy have incorporated merchandise deals into their web sites, negating the need for standalone consumer goods merchants. I think you will see very few new consumer goods deals sites now as independents... they don't have the relationships nor purchasing power of the national retailers.

I think the best deals platform is mobile marketing via. SMS and other messaging... it's already starting to move well beyond an opt in email list and/or deals web site. Targeted geographic and GPS based direct marketing is where it's at, but not sure how long that lasts.

I think digital content is not good for a "deals" site. People tend to buy digital content on a "need" or "desire" basis. Hard to market a digital product to me based solely on price alone... your timing has to be perfect to match up to a "need" or "desire" or I am not in your demographic, which literally changes day by day. You need to take a shotgun approach to marketing digital services, which is hard to do and a challenge to be cost effective.

Originally Posted by MJDeMarco

I don't know the answer but you can bet the "deal of the day" sites hope everyone thinks so. Less competition. If everyone thinks you're losing money, competitive entrants will subside.

Personally, I'm subscribed to the big two: Groupon and Living Social and regularly buy offers. I love that both sites introduce me to new businesses that I would never know about. (I found two live theaters via deal sites that I had no clue existed.)

I also like Groupon personally... I've bought some stuff I never would have bought otherwise...

But, I wonder if it's sustainable? (I honestly don't know the answer to this question)

Sadly, I've purchased plenty of Groupons for stuff I didn't really need, and I never returned to do business with them a second time. I'm certain that other people did the same.

I think some products/services make a ton of sense, but it seems like a lot of businesses are losing their shirts with Groupon.