Daily Deal Sites Turn Shopping Social

People are always looking for the best deals in town whether it be shopping around for the best price, clipping coupons, or waking up for an early-bird sale. With the economy in the slumps, no one is settling for anything but the lowest price on the market. It should come as no surprise that daily deal sites started popping up in 2008 to give shoppers what they want: an incredible discount and people to share it with via social media.

Where can I find the hottest deals online?

LivingSocial, launched in 2009, offers a new deal a day to its email subscribers respective to their location. Consumers locate deals on products or services based on their interests, purchase the discount voucher, and encourage others to do so through social media to score an even greater discount. LivingSocial now has millions of subscribers that are receiving discounts up to 90% off.

Groupon, launched in November 2008, was one of the first daily deal e-commerce sites to hit the market. Groupon is LivingSocial’s biggest competitor, and the most popular daily deal site on the web. Valued at $1.35 billion (Forbes), Groupon is one of the fastest growing businesses ever. It too is an e-commerce site that offers subscribers daily deals, including getaways and goods, personalized to meet your interests.

If you’re looking for all of the best deals and don’t want to limit yourself to one site, you could subscribe to both, or you could be a YipIt subscriber. YipIt, started in 2011, aggregates and recommends the best daily deals in your city. The website collects daily deals from Groupon, LivingSocial, Scoop St, Tippr, and many more, keeping in mind the subscribers preferences, and ranking them by popularity.

But which one do I choose?

So how do these deal sites differ from one another?  Truthfully, there’s not really much that sets them apart. Groupon, being the most popular, generates the most revenue, doubling LivingSocial’s annual revenue (Tech Crunch), and is ahead in email subscribers.

LivingSocial, however, is creeping up on Groupon with its recent partnership with Amazon. CEO Tim O’Shaughnessy says that although LivingSocial and Groupon seem similar now, it would be foolish to think of the two as only a daily deals outlet, and hopes to expand his company strategy as a social media tool connecting local merchants (Daily Deals Media).

YipIt is distinctive in that it is an aggregator … a potential one-stop-online-shop.

How can this benefit my business?

If you are a local merchant looking to attract new customers, then daily deal sites are your new best friends! Studies have shown that 77% of daily deal consumers are buying coupons with sellers from which they have not previously purchased (Kikabink). Not to mention, 20% of those buyers became repeat customers, with over 80% recommending the business to others. Keep in mind, consumers will only continue to purchase from you if they consider your product an exceptional value at regular price.

Learn how your business can leverage daily deal sites to increase sales when you visit Groupon, LivingSocial, and YipIt or contact Project Socialize to get started today.

By Leah Addison, Community Manager