Groupon: an alternative view from the owner of the business, publishing its proposal
Hysteria about Groupon and similar services swept most major cities. Therefore, the number of people willing to try for their business is constantly growing. “Business representatives are 95% satisfied, they are ready to re-use the same percentage and 96% of them recommend it to their friends and colleagues,” - that’s what we are told on the website of Groupon . However, the picture is not so rosy as it may seem at first glance.
I apologize in advance if the article seems to someone to be one-sided and too dark. I just urge you to take a critical look at collective purchasing services if you want to apply them to your business.
Let's figure it out in order. What Groupon offers us - do I want to, as a business owner:
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1. Have a guaranteed way to get hundreds and thousands of customers?
And how many of them will then become your customers? Such data Groupon does not provide, but it is clear that the lower the% return, the less advantageous it is for business owners. It is clear that it is worth discarding:
a) Freeloaders who use only coupons, they do not care what the place and service, the main thing is cheaper. They will return to you only with the following coupon.
b) Already existing customers of the institution. This is the biggest headache. Imagine how much you will lose if a client buys a service from you for 100 rubles. And then he buys it at a 50% discount, i.e. he pays 50 rub. of which you get only 25, giving the second half to Groupon. Yes, and there can be no loyalty, the discount is associated not with you, but with Groupon. And a regular customer will still be angry with you: he walks to you, walks, you didn’t even offer him tea for free, and here he, along with everyone else, receives a mega-freebie of 50%.
As a result, for you reduction of loyalty and losses from already bought coupon for regular customers.
2. Do not lay out a large sum for marketing?
You already pay these amounts by giving a discount. Feel the difference: spend 30 thousand rubles. on the banner and get 100 full-fledged clients or sell 400 coupons (visitors) for 100 rubles, losing 75 rubles on each of them. under-received or the same 30 thousand. The figures are conditional, but their order is approximately as follows.
I do not take into account outstanding coupons, if the coupon price is 100 rubles. and above, the visitor will probably use it, as a last resort, to give or sell coupons on resale services (such ones, if they have not yet appeared, will soon be accurate).
3. To make your brand ranked with the brands of the best and favorite institutions of the city?
Whom do I love? I see about 100 coupons on the coupon aggregator per day, and the best brands among them are not very visible. Basically, there are companies that no one has ever heard of. And how many brands will I remember from this list? It is necessary to understand that sometimes visitors look only at the size of the discount and the type of service (product), the name is already paid attention later.
4. Get customers with higher solvency than you have now, or win a new type of audience?
Of course, all the guys who buy coupons have a lot more money than customers (for example) of my restaurant with an average check of a couple of thousand. New type of audience freeloaders - yes, I really need them. I agree, there arewhite and fluffy solvent, but what is their percentage, who will return to me and will be my client forever?
5. Rely on us to properly calculate the load, staff training, copywriting, and call center support?
No one knows whether the action will “shoot”. There are two factors that can affect the number of coupons sold: the frequency of use of the service and the size of the discount. It should be understood that with the growth of discounts increases the size of the target audience. You can predict the results, but I have already seen several actions where the owners were clutching their heads from the influx of visitors and had no idea when they would serve them all.
I will not judge the support of the call center, but for all my calls as a client, and there were about 10 of them exactly, I was sent to the organizers of the action and asked to clarify all the information from them.
Conclusion: it is necessary to be more careful with this fashionable thing, as long as there are no statistics, it is difficult to understand, plus it is for business or loss.
I apologize in advance if the article seems to someone to be one-sided and too dark. I just urge you to take a critical look at collective purchasing services if you want to apply them to your business.
Let's figure it out in order. What Groupon offers us - do I want to, as a business owner:
')
1. Have a guaranteed way to get hundreds and thousands of customers?
And how many of them will then become your customers? Such data Groupon does not provide, but it is clear that the lower the% return, the less advantageous it is for business owners. It is clear that it is worth discarding:
a) Freeloaders who use only coupons, they do not care what the place and service, the main thing is cheaper. They will return to you only with the following coupon.
b) Already existing customers of the institution. This is the biggest headache. Imagine how much you will lose if a client buys a service from you for 100 rubles. And then he buys it at a 50% discount, i.e. he pays 50 rub. of which you get only 25, giving the second half to Groupon. Yes, and there can be no loyalty, the discount is associated not with you, but with Groupon. And a regular customer will still be angry with you: he walks to you, walks, you didn’t even offer him tea for free, and here he, along with everyone else, receives a mega-freebie of 50%.
As a result, for you reduction of loyalty and losses from already bought coupon for regular customers.
2. Do not lay out a large sum for marketing?
You already pay these amounts by giving a discount. Feel the difference: spend 30 thousand rubles. on the banner and get 100 full-fledged clients or sell 400 coupons (visitors) for 100 rubles, losing 75 rubles on each of them. under-received or the same 30 thousand. The figures are conditional, but their order is approximately as follows.
I do not take into account outstanding coupons, if the coupon price is 100 rubles. and above, the visitor will probably use it, as a last resort, to give or sell coupons on resale services (such ones, if they have not yet appeared, will soon be accurate).
3. To make your brand ranked with the brands of the best and favorite institutions of the city?
Whom do I love? I see about 100 coupons on the coupon aggregator per day, and the best brands among them are not very visible. Basically, there are companies that no one has ever heard of. And how many brands will I remember from this list? It is necessary to understand that sometimes visitors look only at the size of the discount and the type of service (product), the name is already paid attention later.
4. Get customers with higher solvency than you have now, or win a new type of audience?
Of course, all the guys who buy coupons have a lot more money than customers (for example) of my restaurant with an average check of a couple of thousand. New type of audience freeloaders - yes, I really need them. I agree, there are
5. Rely on us to properly calculate the load, staff training, copywriting, and call center support?
No one knows whether the action will “shoot”. There are two factors that can affect the number of coupons sold: the frequency of use of the service and the size of the discount. It should be understood that with the growth of discounts increases the size of the target audience. You can predict the results, but I have already seen several actions where the owners were clutching their heads from the influx of visitors and had no idea when they would serve them all.
I will not judge the support of the call center, but for all my calls as a client, and there were about 10 of them exactly, I was sent to the organizers of the action and asked to clarify all the information from them.
Conclusion: it is necessary to be more careful with this fashionable thing, as long as there are no statistics, it is difficult to understand, plus it is for business or loss.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/121971/
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