Is Groupon Helping or Hurting Businesses?

As one of the newest hotspots online, Groupon is growing at an exponential rate. The company even featured an ad in the Super Bowl, although it has sparked some controversy. However, there are some issues with the service that are causing businesses to ask if it is really beneficial.

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• Advertising
• Brian Combs
• Coupon Offers
• Groupon
• ionadas
• Marketing
• Marketing Message

[Kelvin90254]

you should run spell check on your vid text before producing...

[MyYardBuddy]

@BMWKRS03 Your just talking because first of all they take the money out of what you make and there is no up front cost. Secondly they dont push you into anything they let you set your own caps on customers. no it does not promote loyalty but the groupon buyer is a very knowlegable and smart buyer if you have things in place to capture cross selling or future buyers then you will win with groupon... its really up to you. I dont think google would have offered them 6bill if something wasnt good

[MyYardBuddy]

@BMWKRS03 Your just talking because first of all they take the money out of what you make and there is no up front cost. Secondly they dont push you into anything they let you set your own caps on customers. no it does not promote loyalty but the groupon buyer is a very knowlegable and smart buyer if you have things in place to capture cross selling or future buyers then you will win with groupon... its really up to you. I dont think google would have offered them 6bill if something wasnt good

[BMWKRS03]

Groupon is a very, very expensive advertising and marketing method. Most small businesses cannot afford their services, particularly when they push retailers into numbers of deals they cannot support. The insidious downside is that it does not promote loyalty to a retailer - those looking for the cheapest deal aren't necessarily the best customers - they likely will never return. They are looking for the next good deal.

[bigrndahouse]

@thejohncade and whats worse is you just degraded your product for offering it rock bottom prices such a store would offer when its going out of business...not a good model.

[bigrndahouse]

@thejohncade i agree with you 100%. The businesses are looking for another vehicle for advertising but this isnot it. I was about to do Groupon for my photography but after really thinking it through and reading some posts i decided not to...and after running some numbers. Also, you have to pay for the credit card fees which is around 3% at least. so like you said not loosing a penny would be very nice. not only that but your books will be full not allowing you to actually take in paying clients

[thejohncade]

This guy uses no evidence or real life examples to back up anything he says.

Groupon requires you to offer a 50% deal, then takes 50% of the money from the Groupons sold.

Original retail price of merchandise: $100

Groupon deal for customers: $50

Income for business after 50% split with Groupon: $25 minus cost of merchandise

Good luck making a penny... or better yet, not losing a penny. It's an awful deal for business owners.