One month ago, my best friend introduced me to my obsessions LivingSocial, Groupon, and in just one week I purchased an annual subscription of Cosmopolitan, $20 for $40 worth of food credit at Nikki Beach and a food coupon for a local place I eat by my job called Pancheros. I actually had to limit myself to only buying 1 thing per week, because if I didn't I was certain to be in debt. I then have started to think of how incredible such a simple app can bring me into wasting over $30?All you have to do is follow 3 easy steps , making it that much more difficult to resist. They even make it extremely easy to purchase, whether on the computer or phone. Was I the only individual so hypnotized by these promotions?
My latest favorite of all these so called LivingSocial. LivingSocial is a very popular sight which just last spring alone brought in $39 million, and is expected to go into three digit figures by the end of this year. These websites focus on selling to the public unexpected deals, coupons, packages at relatively low prices for a very limited time frame.
LivingSocial want to build a sense of surprise and keep people on there toes . They study the environment depending on the area, and then create deals which will best suit the targeted areas.
Groupon, which is in the same industry, sees LivingSocial as their greatest threat. In fact, LivingSocial actually had a greater amount of traffic to their page than Groupon. Yet, we also have to understand that just because people visit the website, it doesn't necessarily mean each one of those visitors purchases a deal on the site. A lot look around, go to the page through other advertisements and even for several other reasons.
In marketing, when consumers show preference for a product, it doesn't necessarily mean they are going to go to the step of purchasing , for example a new type of cookies. In the end, what the companies whether a company selling cookies, or a service on the LivingSocial site, and completing the purchase process.
Yet although I have shown preference for LivingSocial, I still use the other sites. What also was very beneficial for me is that Bing is now incorporating both sites together, where the deals come out together, making it much easier to see the promotions. What that feature does on Bing (called Deals) is that it puts together many deals from these sites as well as several others. This will enable people to easily browse through the page and pick and choose from thousands of different offers. Not only are companies helping us find deals, but other search engines like Bing are making it extremely simple for us to look through and browse through the promotions that most interest us.
What exactly are people so enticed at about these deal sites? Is it the limited time luring in people, or the low numbers? Whatever it is, these million dollar companies seem to be doing their work well and will continue doing so with new promotions on a day to day basis!
Till we meet again!
Aileen
http://www.cosmopolitan.com/
http://www.pancheros.com/
http://www.nikkibeach.com/miami/menu.php
http://livingsocial.com/deals/how_it_works
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2010/08/25/businessinsider-livingsocial-groupons-biggest-competitor-now-gets-more-web-traffic-than-groupon-2010-8.DTL
http://livingsocial.com/about
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/118616/20110303/microsoft-bing-groupon-living-social-daily-deals.htm
http://www.bing.com/
I felt the same when I was first introduced to the world of coupons! I was shopping like a crazy person and waiting for the daily email to come to see what's good was in it! :).However, after a while the excitement wears out and you get tired of manis and pedis for $35 in super expensive places and some shady laser hair removal deals!
ReplyDeleteThese types of websites create a sense of urgency and basically push you into buying all these deals that you would probably not get otherwise. They make you feel that you are missing out if you don't grab a deal. However, the saying "all is relative" applies to our price perceptions as well. As I mentioned above a $35 mani/pedi sounds like a great deal on Groupon because the original price they feature is $80, however if you look at it objectively - that is the price any regular nail salon charges for mani/pedi :). Only super high end ones (which does not mean that they are necessary better) charge $80!
I dealt with both Groupon and Livingsocial and had preference for the second one as well - I think one of the reasons they came on stronger because they were trying to compete hard with Groupon and created more value in order to do so. Livingsocial is more informative and their deals are definitively better.
It makes me laugh because I could swear we were in a recession of some sort last time I checked. However, it seems everyone has money to spend on these “deals”. Like Anna M, I was going to mention that the only real “deal” I would see myself buying is if it is for a place I already go to regularly. If a deal pops up that tells me $200 Gift certificate for the Ritz-Carlton for $100, then I would only buy it if I’m already planning on going to the Ritz-Carlton or if a room there costs $200 or less a night which is NOT the case (rooms start around $569.00/per night). Now, on the other hand, say todays Groupon/Living Social deal is $50 certificate for PacSun for $25. This is a deal to me because I know I will eventually go to PacSun and will easily spend $50 worth of merchandise.
ReplyDeleteI was in the same situation you were in. I had to start learning to slow down on buying. I am a shopaholic sometimes and when it comes to deals like groupon and livingsocial why not right? Right its because I am spending my whole paycheck on things I dont need but are good deals ha. Thank god the whole entire "I need to buy it now before the deal ends! or they might not ever have this deal every again!" insanity went away for me at least.
ReplyDeleteAnyways, reading your post informed me about bing and how they have put it even easier for us consumers to compare what we like and what we "need" and want in order to buy.
Thanks!