If everyone loves Groupon so much, we must be wrong. Other businesses she heard from claim far greater losses. The Groupon experience has soured her on similar forms of marketing. Even offering deals through Facebook, which is also free. She gets calls regularly from companies trying to sell her on marketing, including LivingSocial and Google Offers.
A Groupon rep called last week. I tried to call Groupon in Chicago and of course they weren't open yet. People were buying 5 , one for them, and then 1 for each of their 4 kids.
It should have been 1 per person, per household and that they could buy 1 for a gift. Plus all the people I saw first on the list that were buying were current customers! Luckily they agreed to change the fine print, but still made it that you could buy 2 as gifts. At this time I asked them to cut it off at and they wouldn't.
By the end of the promotion we sold , the most "successful" retail Groupon in the retail market of my city; the first independent retail store to sell over Yay me :. Groupon told us to strictly enforce the 1 per household rule, unless they were one of the first to buy. A lot of people have been very kind and gracious. Redemption Redemption is a nightmare! We have a huge binder filled with over names and so many people bought multiples.
Groupon said they will refund anyone who bought multiples and tries to use more than one, but I think they just hand it to a friend and have them buy the merch anyway. I ran my numbers for July and August so far and was happy to see we were up, until I saw it was the exact amount spent on Groupons redeemed so far. There's more Groupon doesn't send you the money after the promotion; they send it to you in 3 installments over the life of your Groupon.
And even more bad news They don't expire until January I mean with all the press this site has gotten, it would be easy to look past the real costs of these promotions. Groupon sells its online coupons for half their food value and then Groupon takes an additional 50 percent of the discount sales. Yes, that is a really good business in average times.
In Mr. Far from being even. For her store's employees, it is bound to make them uncomfortable when they find "one of those people. Is that how you want your employees to feel? I don't think so. I doubt Kim gave it any thought in the beginning either. I doubt anyone else considers that while reading about the "crush of customers" businesses receive. Thanks for the article. After reading a few different opinions of Groupon I have to say I think it depends on the kind of business you are running.
I think sites like Group and Restaruant. I personally always like to use things like Group to try a new place I have never been, then if it is great I keep going back. You probably would only get new business from deal seekers and nothing else.
I have a client who I use the trail offer tactic for a lot. She does makeup for weddings, prom, etc and we post on facebook right before wedding season and prom about getting a free make up trial run for liking her page. This tends to be especially effective with brides because they get to try you once and then they love it and use you for the big day as well as for the bridal party. I have considered trying an offer like this on Groupon but need to get more details. I was glad to read more about how Groupon charges businesses for their services.
Thank you for this blog! After reading your article I agree with you that it could deteriorate the value of my product and business. Knowing that now is definitely going to make me take a closer look at the products that are offered on Groupon and question the quality of them.
Groupon is not worth the hassle. Yes they make you discount your services down to less than half and then take half of that. And yes the Grouponers bottomfeeders are loyal to Screwpon, not to your business. I am developing a mobile phone app to directly link small businesses to local consumers, no middleman! I would love to run the idea by small business owners to see what you think about it. If you are interested to know more about the app, please let me know. Geo-located, direct marketing app Free app for consumers Merchants pay a flat fee for monthly usage.
My wife did 1 Groupon and 2 Living Social deals about three years ago with her bed and breakfast. The secret with her is that she never ever bought into the claim that you have to give away your initial service at a loss because you will end up with repeat customers who will pay full price later.
In the end though, she still had to work her butt off to turn over and prepare all of those rooms for a very small amount of money per room night, compared to her regular rates.
Innkeeping is sort of like airline seats. If the room is empty for the night, you get nothing. She structured it so that deal customers could only book on weekdays, when she is often empty anyway. It makes me extremely proud to know that my wife went head to head with two different value destroyers and turned a profit. Great… It takes a well thought out plan of execution. Great story…. I guess at the end of the day it is a marketing tool to expose yourself to new customers who otherwise may not have found you in the sea of competitors.
Depending on your margin this may work out in your favour or cover your operational costs at least. Better than an empty shop. I am a rep for Lyoness and although we have an existing large customer base in North America I could see how you could use groupon in combination…. It would be my pleasure to support your business success. Free mobile app included for small biz; along with your own Rewards Program card to use throughout your community.
It has help ed us in a very big way. I have a small electronic online shop selling portable gadgets like speakers,solar charger…. I would like to sell my products at groupon, but I dunno how can I do. Wish you can reply me as soon as possible. Thank You Very Much. The people who buy Groupons are not what you should consider typical loyal customers; these are people who are just looking for a deal and they are all over the map on what businesses, products and services they will try.
The grouponers are not loyal customers, and can actually depreciate the experience for those loyal customers, by not providing good feedback to sites like yelp, everyone is disatisfied, and they merchant could find themselves starting to resent the grouponers, which may become visible to those loyal customers.
Do you think these deals would be an idea for a new business only starting out? Not for the repeat customers the area we are going into will not have repeat customers but for word of mouth and genuine reviews?
We can afford to break even on the deals provided we dont give hundreds of them away we were thinking about For small business owners just stay away from using Groupon. Also like someone said above you will not get loyal customer from Groupon. The customers you will get from Groupon is the last batch of customers who might have looked at every single web site to pinch penny.
They simply care less about your business except their pocket and it will be extremely headache experience to deal with them. I was approached by Groupon a number of times to do a deal and still get sales calls from these guys.
Also, a search of your business will link to your Groupon reviews usually on the first page of Google. I am a massage therapist and just started working at a new spa. I really like my co-workers and working environment and the owner is great to. Massage is hard work and that is not worth my time and energy so I am thinking might be time to move on. Too bad because I really like working there otherwise.
After analyzing your article I trust you that it may become worse the value of my product and business. I am a small business owner and recently tried groupon myself. After 3 months of selling no Groupons, I decided to contact them to end my campaign. I sent several emails asking to cancel and they told me to call in. I called to speak with a representative and they basically said they had spent money advertising my service and I have sold no Groupons so basically I was indebted to them.
They were incredibly rude and tried to convince me to lower the price of my deal, but I told them that their contract says that I can end my deal at anytime and I would like to end it now.
The gentleman was very rude, said he ended it and hung up on me. Moral of my story is, I would absolutely never do a Groupon again. Groupon is down right terrible for businesses in my honest opinion.
I highly suggest a business look into other forms of marketing like SEO, Social Media, and other internet marketing tactics before giving away half their profits to Groupon and other deal sites. We have a small entertainment business in a small town People who see or hear of us, seem to love our concept, however the revenue is not what we were hoping for.
How can advertising in Groupon help our business? Any suggestions are welcomed please. THank you. Interesting article. Good info though. I have been wondering about the Groupon in comparison to Val Paks, door hangers. I searched this topic because my company offers another advertising tool.
The Proxee is a blue tooth marketing tool. The device sends out a broadcast yds onto smartphones on the Google network and some Iphones. We are offering a promotion currently. If you are interested reply for more info. This technology has been used in stadiums, zoos and the big name stores.
We have made it very affordable for small brick and mortar and online businesses. Hit me up! Good luck on your business endeavors and we wish you great success.
I have another advertising tool called the Proxee. I use Groupon as both a customer and small business. As a permanent cosmetic business, I consider it advertising. Advertising is costly and takes weeks, if not months of steady exposure. Totally wrong. Besides that, it is a platform to show your store on the map too, making thousands of potential customers aware that you are there.
Let the new customer show up with the coupon, a proven effective way to lure new people and retain existing ones if you wish, by millions of businesses. Your logic is very vague and one sided, what are you trying to sell the people here??? At that price I was expecting horrible job but was intrigued by 5 star yelp reviews. Turns out the lady was a new grad from beauty school and had no customer base. And she has perfect 5 star yelp reviews from over customers which is unheard of!
Back then when I used a groupon she had 2 from fellow grouponers. When I got there, told them I had a groupon. Wait, what? That was disgusting. Only going to restaurants where you get a free entree? God, you and her are gross.
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