Ukrainian group discount services: market analysis
This year for Ukraine was marked by the beginning of overcoming the crisis. Offline entertainment began to gradually raise its head and a new, but already successful, model of online distribution came to the aid of them: collective purchasing . In just a few months, 6 fairly ambitious startups were launched. We decided to study more deeply the situation in this still emerging market.
In some cases, the amount of discounts can reach 90% - for example, the users of the Pouupon service, in honor of its launch, had the opportunity to take advantage of a discount of 92%! This causes some alertness of the public, which has not yet become accustomed to the new model and continues to discuss on the Internet: are group discounts "divorced" and what, in fact, is the benefit of such services.
First of all, how to make sure that group discounts are not a divorce ? Firstly, it is enough to call the company, which is a partner of the action and whose services are advertised on the main page of the service. All these companies are public and well-known enough, ask them to confirm the fact of holding such an action with discounts. Secondly, this business scheme has a fairly successful experience in the USA (Groupon.com) , where the coupon industry, which is cut out from newspapers and magazines, has a half-century history. Thirdly, the cornerstone of the reputation of such companies are user reviews on social networks, and it is easy to find them.
')
The fact is that the sale of services at a discount is actually a kind of advertising campaigns, which is aimed at attracting a new audience. The bet here is that users who purchase coupons will like the place and they will become its regulars . Such a sale does not pursue the goal of enrichment in the short term.
This is a new format of advertising, which is focused on social recommendations and advertising capacity of the reseller, that is, the seller of coupons, and that, in turn, provides information and advertising support for the shares. Such advertising costs the seller less than traditional media, and its effectiveness and positive response is much higher.
The profit of the service lies in the difference between the maximum possible discount provided by the seller and the final discount that is declared on the site during the promotion. For example, bowling agrees for promotional purposes to provide a discount of 90% for 10 people. The counterparty puts on the site a 75% discount and puts in the pocket 15%. This is how it works.
The first startups selling discounts in Ukraine were Pupon and SuperDeal , launched in April-May. Pretty soon after them, 3 more Ukrainian projects opened: Gorod24, Cheap & Now and Mojo . One of the last to enter the Ukrainian market is the Russian Darberry service, which has existed since March of this year.
Such intense competition demonstrates the deep faith of developers in the chosen business model. But only. It is necessary to understand that in fact this type of business is much closer to offline than to online. Just creating a website and maintaining it is not enough
A simple example: the Russian experience, which has a slightly longer history than the Ukrainian one, testifies to the frequent complaints of users about the quality of the services provided. This comes from insufficiently established communication between the administration of the establishment providing the service and the management of the service selling coupons. In most cases, such incidents are safely resolved by those companies that care most about their own reputation.
So the cornerstone here is the physical presence of representatives in the regions , the ability to negotiate with partners and high-quality customer support service.
As the competition grows, very soon potential partners will orient themselves and will start choosing discount services more meticulously. On the horse will remain the one of the startups who will be able to offer them the best conditions and a large audience. And in this sense, those who started earlier have some advantage: a good start is half the distance. The audience consists of the popularity of the service, advertising and positive user experience. Those who manage to build a recognizable brand will automatically win the competition.
As you can see, Darberry service is leading in terms of the total audience size. However, we should not forget that the service is Russian, and the share of Ukraine in it is only 2 of the 14 cities covered. Therefore, adjusted for geography, this place should be reserved for Kiev Poupon.
The project City24 has a very impressive audience coverage in Ukraine, however, in terms of the frequency of the campaigns carried out with such coverage, there is an impression that the work with partners has not been well established. Definitely, it is important to have an office in the capital to conduct business throughout the country. This gives a great advantage when working with large partners.
For successful business development, it is important to follow the principle that says: “money received is money lost . ” This is especially true for online businesses, in which the factor of spontaneity of purchase is important. To increase the number of sales, it is vital to provide users with the maximum opportunity to quickly and conveniently pay a coupon. What do working group discount services offer in this sense?
From the above table it is clear that Poupon offers the most ways to pay a discount voucher to users - by the way, the only one who provides the possibility of making mobile payments. The rest of the systems use standard solution sets of the most popular payment systems and aggregators, which to some extent characterizes their attitude to the question of user convenience.
In terms of aggregate assessment parameters, today Poupon is in the lead, who took the most active start, intensively expanding the geography of users and launching outdoor advertising campaigns in each new city. By the way, this is the only service concerned with translating the interface into the Ukrainian language.
Speaking of what the market is waiting for in general, most likely this is the growing presence of leaders in most regions of Ukraine, the emergence of small local projects and their gradual ousting. Over time, the awareness of partners about the service will grow and they will begin to cooperate more readily. The main advantage of the counterparties will be the minimum discount from the seller , which will be covered by reducing their own profits, so that users do not lose interest in the shares.
Author: Andrey Maydanik, especially for Habrahabr (I just formatted and published)
What are group discounts?
The business model of collective shopping services or, as they are also called, group discount services, is that users have the opportunity to purchase a coupon for a promotional visit to a cinema, restaurant, gym or beauty salon with a significant discount: at least 50% of the cost . If the minimum number of users takes part in the action, it will take place.In some cases, the amount of discounts can reach 90% - for example, the users of the Pouupon service, in honor of its launch, had the opportunity to take advantage of a discount of 92%! This causes some alertness of the public, which has not yet become accustomed to the new model and continues to discuss on the Internet: are group discounts "divorced" and what, in fact, is the benefit of such services.
First of all, how to make sure that group discounts are not a divorce ? Firstly, it is enough to call the company, which is a partner of the action and whose services are advertised on the main page of the service. All these companies are public and well-known enough, ask them to confirm the fact of holding such an action with discounts. Secondly, this business scheme has a fairly successful experience in the USA (Groupon.com) , where the coupon industry, which is cut out from newspapers and magazines, has a half-century history. Thirdly, the cornerstone of the reputation of such companies are user reviews on social networks, and it is easy to find them.
')
The fact is that the sale of services at a discount is actually a kind of advertising campaigns, which is aimed at attracting a new audience. The bet here is that users who purchase coupons will like the place and they will become its regulars . Such a sale does not pursue the goal of enrichment in the short term.
This is a new format of advertising, which is focused on social recommendations and advertising capacity of the reseller, that is, the seller of coupons, and that, in turn, provides information and advertising support for the shares. Such advertising costs the seller less than traditional media, and its effectiveness and positive response is much higher.
The profit of the service lies in the difference between the maximum possible discount provided by the seller and the final discount that is declared on the site during the promotion. For example, bowling agrees for promotional purposes to provide a discount of 90% for 10 people. The counterparty puts on the site a 75% discount and puts in the pocket 15%. This is how it works.
The popularity of discounts is growing
Advantageous aspects of this model are gradually beginning to be understood by more and more potential partners, and this suggests that the group discount services have a future. However, it is, most likely, not all.The first startups selling discounts in Ukraine were Pupon and SuperDeal , launched in April-May. Pretty soon after them, 3 more Ukrainian projects opened: Gorod24, Cheap & Now and Mojo . One of the last to enter the Ukrainian market is the Russian Darberry service, which has existed since March of this year.
Such intense competition demonstrates the deep faith of developers in the chosen business model. But only. It is necessary to understand that in fact this type of business is much closer to offline than to online. Just creating a website and maintaining it is not enough
A simple example: the Russian experience, which has a slightly longer history than the Ukrainian one, testifies to the frequent complaints of users about the quality of the services provided. This comes from insufficiently established communication between the administration of the establishment providing the service and the management of the service selling coupons. In most cases, such incidents are safely resolved by those companies that care most about their own reputation.
So the cornerstone here is the physical presence of representatives in the regions , the ability to negotiate with partners and high-quality customer support service.
As the competition grows, very soon potential partners will orient themselves and will start choosing discount services more meticulously. On the horse will remain the one of the startups who will be able to offer them the best conditions and a large audience. And in this sense, those who started earlier have some advantage: a good start is half the distance. The audience consists of the popularity of the service, advertising and positive user experience. Those who manage to build a recognizable brand will automatically win the competition.
Audience Comparison
All collective shopping services rely on social recommendations. They open offices in the most popular social networks and attract users, which is reflected in the number of subscribers of their channel. One of the most popular social networks in Ukraine is VKontakte and Twitter . We estimated the number of subscribers of each service in order to get an idea about the reach of each of them.| Service | In contact with | |
|---|---|---|
| Darberry (darberry.ru) | 7918 | 1085 |
| Buy (pokupon.com.ua) | 6448 | 259 |
| SuperDeal (superdeal.com.ua) | 4392 | 98 |
| Gorod24 (gorod24.com.ua) | 2975 | nineteen |
| Cheap & Now (cheap-and-now.com.ua) | 640 | 187 |
| Mojo (mojo.com.ua) | eight | 45 |
Discount geography
More than a chance to gain a foothold in leadership positions has one of the startups, which will cover a large geography of the audience. This will make his offer of cooperation interesting not only for regional, but also for network companies. However, this is not so easy, because it requires intensive and controlled work of representatives in the regions. To date, the geography of distribution services group discounts as follows:| Service | Dislocation | Representative offices |
|---|---|---|
| City24 | Kharkov | Crimea, Dnepropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kiev, Nikolaev, Odessa, Simferopol, Kharkov, Kherson |
| Poupon | Kiev | Kiev, Lvov, Kharkov, Sevastopol, Odessa, Donetsk, Dnepropetrovsk |
| Superdeal | Kiev | Kiev, Dnepropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kharkov, Odessa |
| Darberry | Moscow | Kiev, Kharkov |
| Cheap & now | Kiev | Kiev |
| Mojo | Dnipropetrovsk | Dnipropetrovsk |
Convenience to users
The design and usability of most of the projects considered are executed at a sufficient level and do not cause any special complaints. But the tricks to force the user to register, are not always unambiguous. For example, Poupon and Darberry offer users bonuses for attracting users through an affiliate program. SuperDeal, on the other hand, compels registration to a bothersome pop-up window.For successful business development, it is important to follow the principle that says: “money received is money lost . ” This is especially true for online businesses, in which the factor of spontaneity of purchase is important. To increase the number of sales, it is vital to provide users with the maximum opportunity to quickly and conveniently pay a coupon. What do working group discount services offer in this sense?
| Service | Payments |
|---|---|
| Poupon | Visa / Mastercard (LiqPay), Privat24, Terminals (Interkassa), Webmoney, PS Wallet One, SMS (SMS Online) |
| City24 | Visa / Mastercard (LiqPay), NSMEP (Interkassa), Privat24, Webmoney, Terminals (Interkassa) |
| Superdeal | Interkassa, bank payment, cash, terminals (Interkassa) |
| Darberry | Visa / Mastercard (LiqPay), Terminals (Interkassa) |
| Mojo | Visa / Mastercard (LiqPay), Privat24, Terminals (Interkassa) |
| Cheap & now | Interkassa, Webmoney, cash |
Conclusion
Comparing the power and potential of the services in question, it is necessary, of course, to take into account the fact that some of them have barely started. However, almost all of these startups are quite young, and therefore, already now, the growth dynamics of their audience and the number of promotions allows us to confidently highlight the top three: Poupon, Darberry and SuperDeal . Despite Darberry’s strong position in Russia, the intensity of his work with Ukrainian partners does not allow him to confidently claim first place.In terms of aggregate assessment parameters, today Poupon is in the lead, who took the most active start, intensively expanding the geography of users and launching outdoor advertising campaigns in each new city. By the way, this is the only service concerned with translating the interface into the Ukrainian language.
Speaking of what the market is waiting for in general, most likely this is the growing presence of leaders in most regions of Ukraine, the emergence of small local projects and their gradual ousting. Over time, the awareness of partners about the service will grow and they will begin to cooperate more readily. The main advantage of the counterparties will be the minimum discount from the seller , which will be covered by reducing their own profits, so that users do not lose interest in the shares.
Author: Andrey Maydanik, especially for Habrahabr (I just formatted and published)
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/99137/
All Articles