Is frugality a successful model? For merchants, it may or may not be. For consumers, however, it definitely is. When Euromonitor’s senior official shared his viewpoint on frugality with this scribe, there hadn’t research reports bubbled up in the space putting into discussion benefits of daily deals for the retailers.
Rice University presented a very grim picture few months later, concluding in its finding measly 20 per cent out of all grabbers of best deals returned to standard buys once after having clipped coupons or bargains.
This argument was challenged by a report contending 40 per cent were found to be repeat customers.
In recent times, infuriated restaurateurs and others were up in arms for what they fretted sales at loss from daily deal websites.
Restaurant deals are more or less the top selling category among all hot deals put together. Clamors from food sector were louder therefore.
Justified or overstated? Bulk sale that businesses become able to ring up in return of giving up percentage of prices, is an uncontested fact.
In spite of that, retailers have sustained losses due to malfunctions on the part of merchants or/and daily deal sites. Many reasons could be ascribed to backfire of a deal of the day.
Jasper Malcolmson, CEO and Co-Founder Bloomspot, a platform for offering local favorites in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver, San Francisco, Washington D.C., etc., is sure of the loopholes in the daily deal industry, suggesting in an article published at Business Insider three advices rather countermeasures in this regard.
A Better Business Model:
Daily deal sites should keep retailers’ objectives on top while designing discount promotions. Anything that is non-profitable must be held back.
Transparency:
A merchant fails to acknowledge the real return because of the vagueness about actual deal profitability. Along with numbers of coupons sold, profits should also be displayed on merchant’s specific dashboard.
Good Customers:
While daily deal sites categorize deals for the convenience of discount seekers, they are least bothered in whose access their offers are. Daily deal sites should keep an eye on the subscribers’ bases of aggregators and other patrons touting the deals.
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Holiday season so far so good: Daily deals magnetizing customers
Black Friday deal websites noticed cheerful web browsing behavior for the five days ending November 25th with some of the Black Friday dedicated sites registering 100 per cent plus unique visitors over previous year, according to the latest statistics released by ComScore.
The websites put on display daily deals to help advertisers drum up businesses in one fell swoop. Have they made it out? Wait for the final counts from daily deal companies expected at the end of holiday season. But, the ecommerce figures for first 25 days are auguring well for the promoters of hot deals.
Owing to heaviest integrated promotion from across the board, ComScore, a veteran digital world analyzer, said Black Friday specials rang up historical single-day sales up to now in 2011.
Internet retailers recorded 26 per cent surge in sales at $816 million in a day as compared to $648 million a year ago.
Overall, during Nov 1 to 25, online sale has been registered at $12.73 billion, up 15 per cent from $11.09 billion.
A noticeable trend is difficult to avoid. Numbers of online shoppers are scaling up every year. For example, Nielsen estimated 627 million online shoppers in 2009. By this year end, the numbers are expected to cross 875 million indicating a significant 40 per cent rise.
Convenience, extensive price comparisons, and hassle-freeness are few of the incomparable advantages that hook customers up to internet shopping.
While online shoppers can make purchase in the comfort of office or home, hordes of choices are just a click away adding power to customers’ wisdom to compare prices.
Best deals by couponing websites also encourage customers to use debit or credit cards or digital wallets to buy products online. Bearing up to 90 per cent discount, a deal of the day means a lot to a bargain hunter.
In a holiday season that necessitates atypical shopping, customers want to save money as much as possible to spend it on other fabulous experiences.
Sales in holiday season (Nov-Dec) are expected to break the previous records in view of the initial results.
PS: The rumpus caused after cops drenched pepper sprays and shot tasers on bargain hunters at Macy’s and Walmart on Black Friday necessitates halving of excited lineups through redirecting them to online shopping portals.
The websites put on display daily deals to help advertisers drum up businesses in one fell swoop. Have they made it out? Wait for the final counts from daily deal companies expected at the end of holiday season. But, the ecommerce figures for first 25 days are auguring well for the promoters of hot deals.
Owing to heaviest integrated promotion from across the board, ComScore, a veteran digital world analyzer, said Black Friday specials rang up historical single-day sales up to now in 2011.
Internet retailers recorded 26 per cent surge in sales at $816 million in a day as compared to $648 million a year ago.
Overall, during Nov 1 to 25, online sale has been registered at $12.73 billion, up 15 per cent from $11.09 billion.
A noticeable trend is difficult to avoid. Numbers of online shoppers are scaling up every year. For example, Nielsen estimated 627 million online shoppers in 2009. By this year end, the numbers are expected to cross 875 million indicating a significant 40 per cent rise.
Convenience, extensive price comparisons, and hassle-freeness are few of the incomparable advantages that hook customers up to internet shopping.
While online shoppers can make purchase in the comfort of office or home, hordes of choices are just a click away adding power to customers’ wisdom to compare prices.
Best deals by couponing websites also encourage customers to use debit or credit cards or digital wallets to buy products online. Bearing up to 90 per cent discount, a deal of the day means a lot to a bargain hunter.
In a holiday season that necessitates atypical shopping, customers want to save money as much as possible to spend it on other fabulous experiences.
Sales in holiday season (Nov-Dec) are expected to break the previous records in view of the initial results.
PS: The rumpus caused after cops drenched pepper sprays and shot tasers on bargain hunters at Macy’s and Walmart on Black Friday necessitates halving of excited lineups through redirecting them to online shopping portals.
Monday, November 28, 2011
Going public – Groupon and others – .Coms crash still fresh in memory
Back to back, internet companies are approaching stock exchange to raise funds from public. Take a view of daily deal companies and local business reviewer sites and you will notice a considerable slide towards the capital market. WHY? A question may be asked.
Before moving on, it is essential to know the basic objective of stepping forward to a bourse. Normally, commercial organizations knock at the door of primary market to improve their liquidity conditions primarily for balancing, modernization, and replacements (BMR).
Unquestionably, when a company plans to float financial instruments to generate funds through initial public offering (IPO), it has to build credibility and repo in shareholders-to-be. Tom, Dick, and Harry cannot pick up a single penny from public out there in town.
Of late, Groupon, the trailer blazer in the couponing industry that introduced the innovative online group buying concept, succeeded in raising $700 million from Nasdaq. With a ticker symbol GRPN, the group buying website ranked just next to Google in raising funds in the fraternity of internet companies.
Google Inc., the leading internet search engine, is the uncontested internet company so far with having made a record of generating $1.7 billion back in 2004.
Groupon IPO was oversubscribed to the surprise of observers. However, analysts do not consider the developments as unusual.
“What determines whether a deal is "hot" or not is not whether the deal is oversubscribed but how oversubscribed it is,” said Henry Blodget at Business Insider.
Next in line was Yelp that recorded an average 61 million visitors and 22 million reviews during July-Aug 2011.
The San Francisco-based local business reviewer has filed S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to raise $100 million. It had rejected the buyout offers of $500 million apiece by Google and Yahoo in 2010, according to Cnet.
Earlier, Amazon sold out $54 million of its shares while two of its affiliated companies Pets.com and Drugstore.com raised $76 million and $90 million respectively by floating stocks in the capital market.
The comparison of figures can let Groupon stand out among its peers notwithstanding their being engaged in different kinds of businesses. One thing is common in all however.
All are b2c online portals dealing out specials to consumers. Google is the giant with market capitalization of nearly $200 billion. Therefore, a comparison turns out incompatible.
Marketing and advertising costs of b2c internet companies are constantly on the rise as customer acquisition and subsequent retention are not a cakewalk. The regulator has given slaps on the wrists of a number of internet companies for their skyrocketing marketing spends. Groupon spent $613 million on marketing in the nine months ending September 2011.
The public response to initial offerings by cyberspace businesses notably fledgling discount websites is surprising for many. A horrible episode of dot com bubble burst lies fresh down the memory lane.
Obviously, past can be inhibited from repeating itself. Hopefully, SEC must have devised an efficient mechanism in the light of a lesson from the history.
___________________________________________
Daily Deals | Hot Deals | Best Deals | Deal of the Day
Before moving on, it is essential to know the basic objective of stepping forward to a bourse. Normally, commercial organizations knock at the door of primary market to improve their liquidity conditions primarily for balancing, modernization, and replacements (BMR).
Unquestionably, when a company plans to float financial instruments to generate funds through initial public offering (IPO), it has to build credibility and repo in shareholders-to-be. Tom, Dick, and Harry cannot pick up a single penny from public out there in town.
Of late, Groupon, the trailer blazer in the couponing industry that introduced the innovative online group buying concept, succeeded in raising $700 million from Nasdaq. With a ticker symbol GRPN, the group buying website ranked just next to Google in raising funds in the fraternity of internet companies.
Google Inc., the leading internet search engine, is the uncontested internet company so far with having made a record of generating $1.7 billion back in 2004.
Groupon IPO was oversubscribed to the surprise of observers. However, analysts do not consider the developments as unusual.
“What determines whether a deal is "hot" or not is not whether the deal is oversubscribed but how oversubscribed it is,” said Henry Blodget at Business Insider.
Next in line was Yelp that recorded an average 61 million visitors and 22 million reviews during July-Aug 2011.
The San Francisco-based local business reviewer has filed S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to raise $100 million. It had rejected the buyout offers of $500 million apiece by Google and Yahoo in 2010, according to Cnet.
Earlier, Amazon sold out $54 million of its shares while two of its affiliated companies Pets.com and Drugstore.com raised $76 million and $90 million respectively by floating stocks in the capital market.
The comparison of figures can let Groupon stand out among its peers notwithstanding their being engaged in different kinds of businesses. One thing is common in all however.
All are b2c online portals dealing out specials to consumers. Google is the giant with market capitalization of nearly $200 billion. Therefore, a comparison turns out incompatible.
Marketing and advertising costs of b2c internet companies are constantly on the rise as customer acquisition and subsequent retention are not a cakewalk. The regulator has given slaps on the wrists of a number of internet companies for their skyrocketing marketing spends. Groupon spent $613 million on marketing in the nine months ending September 2011.
The public response to initial offerings by cyberspace businesses notably fledgling discount websites is surprising for many. A horrible episode of dot com bubble burst lies fresh down the memory lane.
Obviously, past can be inhibited from repeating itself. Hopefully, SEC must have devised an efficient mechanism in the light of a lesson from the history.
___________________________________________
Daily Deals | Hot Deals | Best Deals | Deal of the Day
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