Like so many others I suspect, when I log on and check my personal emails in the morning, I find it stuffed full of various offers from the hot new "thing" which are group buying offers from sites like Groupon, Living Social and KGB Offers.
And every day there seem to be more and more launching.
Even when I was on holiday recently, I found myself signing up for the offers where I was.
Other than almost never actually buying very many of the offers (as they seem stuffed with massages and dodgy looking afternoon teas), I have been amazed at the claimed huge valuations for some of these businesses. Businesses that are still to make any money.
There was a good article on this topic I read, and have put a link at the end of this posting.
But even before this I had been wondering if there are 3 ways that this whole offers thing will end up evolving to:
(1) On demand local offers. This is something when one is in the USA and using FourSquare that is getting better and better. Offers you can take advantage of right then and there in stores/ restaurants/ etc around you. I have seen some very interesting and relevant offers as they can be targeted both for where you are, and also be time specific. In a recent stay at 60 Thompson Hotel in New York, for example, I got an offer to upgrade my room and deals on competing restaurants very close by.
(2) More niche and targeted interest offers. The offers are all today a bit random and I get so much dross and stuff not interested in. They segment by town/ area and not by passion or interest (yet?). It would reduce the feeling that you are being thrown more and more random offers, and get stuff you are more likely going to want to buy. And so your return to the company is better as you will spend more. At this stage recruitment of people to the site is large, and looks like the return they making by person acquired is not great today.
(3) Linked to mainstream social networks. Facebook and other social sites that people are on and invest a lot of time are getting into this space. This means one less thing and place to visit as a consumer, and again as they learn and know so much about what their users like, they could provide more relevant offers. In fact probably better deliver on both the points above...
Read more about someone else's view on why they thing Groupon will fail: http://wallblog.co.uk/2011/08/18/why-i-think-groupon-is-set-to-fail/
Your thoughts?
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