Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Groupon and the Daily Deal - Victim of Its Own Success?

The first thing I do when I go to the email account I rank as fourth among my various accounts is to start deleting the many, many daily deals.  You know what the inbox looks like: 2 or 3 pairs of Groupon emails and the rash of Groupon imitators, so numerous and so uninteresting that I can't even name them off the top of my head.  Let's just say I recognize them when I see them and voila they are deleted without a single click to open up the mail.

By January 2011 I was merely one among over 44 million Groupon subscribers, and certainly among several million who never took advantage of any of Groupon's deals, typically offering 50% savings on purchases.  The great promise of daily dealers like Groupon - over 500 imitators by that Jan. '11 date- was that they played on the desire for a deal, and the thrill of feeling like part of an exclusive community of customers.  I get the deal part - significant monetary savings on restaurants, spas, vacations, etc - but I never could get my mind around the social aspect.  I would love to see some evidence suggesting that Groupon subscribers ever felt any connection with a community of like-minded customers, but it has not been forthcoming.  We're not exactly talking about brand communities here.

CreditScore.net has put together a nice little infographic suggesting that the daily deals may soon be going, going, gone, largely attributing the problem to the proliferation of such deals spawned by the pioneering Groupon.  And if so, who will miss them, other than the obsessive email deleter?


  Death of Daily Deals Infographic

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