All Daily Deals: Cudo Threatens Legal Action Against Group Buying D...

All Daily Deals: Cudo Threatens Legal Action Against Group Buying D...: "The Australian group buying discount giant, Cudo, has reportedly contacted an aggregator site and asked it to remove it's deals from the sit..."

Create your own 'groupon' using facebook

Came across another video from Bigcommerce that's got useful information on creating 'groupons' yourself and their benefits.  There is a mention of using their proprietary coupons on their ecommerce platform, but the advice and guidance is very useful.

Thanks again BigCommerce, looking forward to having you guys open in Australia.

Brilliant Video Marketing - Indochino

This video covers the entire supply chain process of ordering a custom made suit - with quality and flair . To me, this video epitomizes the essence of e-commerce - unbounded and simple.  A must watch ....

And guess how I came across this?  Through lifesta, resellers of unused groupons!...lol...

Loving these markets created by Groupon (and clones)!

Group Buyer Flux - Groupon good or bad?

Great news item from Associated Press on the sudden inflow, more like deluge, of customers via Groupon

In the wake of Group Buyers - what's next (revised)

I came across this video on youtube and it's freaky how i've been thinking about this all along - how to WOW your customers after they get in through the door.  This is exactly how businesses should treat ALL group buyers.

Thanks to BigCommerce.com for this fantastic video .... please keep them coming...

Another Group Buying Aggregator and more groupon clones in Australia.

This is a pretty interesting development, over 16 groupon clones targeting Sydney and Melbourne alone.  I haven't looked closely, but first glance seems to confirm almost identical business models.  One exciting trend, or a precursor to a possible trend is niche-based group buying site, 'www.birdieoftheday.com.au' which targets golfers. Good to see a second aggregator.  I would like to see different sorts of products being sold though, apart from the spas, restaurant vouchers and boot camp sessions.

Aggregators:
www.dealsguide.com.au
http://www.allthedeals.com.au/

Groupon Clones:
www.spreets.com.au
www.ouffer.com.au
www.zizzle.com.au
www.zoupon.com.au
www.jumponit.com.au
www.yellowpagesoffers.com.au (WTF...! even ypages?...say it aint so!!!)
www.scoopon.com.au
www.dealsinthecity.com.au
www.crowdmass.com.au
www.dealme.com.au
www.birdieoftheday.com.au (niche industry - golfing goods and services)
www.livingsocial.com.au
www.vowcha.com.au
www.ourdeals.com.au
www.grabone.com.au
www.cudo.com.au
www.goodnews.com/ - Worldwide - part of every coupon goes to charity.

I'm sure I've missed a few, but the growth is phenomenal.  I hope to see more diversity in products and possibly even the business model.

Let's see how this unfolds....

In the wake of Group Buyers - What's next?

So you've got 200 customers through your door at 59 dollars a piece, all at cost price - you've made little or no profit, but you've got new business.  So what's next?

Regardless of what industry you're in, new business is key to growth so you have to treat these entrants with utmost love to ensure all their needs are met, and possibly exceeded.  You also need to maximize the value you get out of these customers in the form of revenue.

In my opinion, there are two main groups of 'post-group purchase' activities: (1) Superior Client Service/Experience and (2) Smart and Pro-active Selling.  And they should include the following tasks:

(1) Superior Client / Service Experience:
- Provide extra attention by using your best attendants, customer service rep or after sales warranty offer - first impressions are the most important ones.
- Use surprise add-ons like free movie tickets, gift vouchers, consultations, etc.
- If possible, ask for feedback after their experience of your product or service, e.g. what they liked, disliked, what could've been done better and if they would like to see anything else being offered by your business in the future (<-- this is the key question!)

(2) Smart and Pro-active Selling:
- do NOT hard sell complementary products / services to these guys, you want them to WANT to come back to you and buy from you because they TRUST your stuff is worth MORE than what they paid for earlier!
- smart sell, e.g. information you gather from their feedback can be used to understand their likes and dislikes, what they value most and possibly what they are WILLING TO PAY for.
- examples are Valentine's Day dinner deals with a free bottle of wine if booked one month early OR an iPad on a $29/month plan that can be purchased at $300 upfront, pretty much any offer that will allow you to maximize your revenue to what customer is willing to pay.
- get your customers' email addresses and/or business cards and tell them exactly why you're taking them, i.e. you will not sell these to anybody else and use them to keep them informed of upcoming deals - companies are spending thousands of dollars on direct response email marketing campains (EDMs), so treat each email address as gold!
- get these customers to 'like' your facebook group (or any group on social networks) - this can be through any means starting from sending a thank you email or request for review email and placing the option to login to your facebook group so they may click on 'like' or it could be someone on location walking around with an iPad for group buyers to login and 'like' on facebook....let your imagingation run wild in how you want to achieve this.
- don't be afraid to sell at retail price - at the end of the day, if your're happy with your first experience, chances are high you'll keep going there even if you end up paying a bit more in your next visit than your previous.

So ...

1. retain the client
2. influence as many circles of their friends, family or colleagues (social networks) both online and offline as possible.
3. maximize your revenue by matching what the customer is willing to pay, e.g. getting them to pay retail.


Comments welcome!!!