Over the years deal industry has witnessed many changes, these changes happen as a part of how industry is learning from its mistakes and evolving itself to a more sustainable revenue model. This article is intended to provide a brief understanding of the 7 most deadly sins or mistakes committed in this industry and how to tackle them.

1. 7SINSINDEALINDUSTRY
ANDTHEIRREMEDIES
Over the years deal industry has witnessed many changes, these changes happen as a part of how industry
is learning from its mistakes and evolving itself to a more sustainable revenue model. This article is intended
to provide a brief understanding of the 7 most deadly sins or mistakes committed in this industry and
how to tackle them.
Almost every market leader in the deal industry was
indulging in getting more customers without realizing the
fact that primary intention of customers who visit the sites
are just to get the best deal, they have the habit of grab-
bing the best deals no matter who offers it.
Ideally the sites should run campaigns like loyalty pro-
grams that can generate loyal customers and serve them
better which help cultivate sustainable growth in the
long run.
01
NOT HELPING MERCHANTS
RETAIN CUSTOMERS
Traditional deal sites used merchants just for the purpose
of making money by charging them up to 50% commis-
sion. Once these merchants realised that running deals
only earns them customers interested only in discounts
and not for generating repeated sales, they started to stop
running the deal campaigns.
The deal sites have identified this issue and started to
empower merchants with various tools which will help
them retain customers. One such example is Groupon
Reward program and merchant mobile applications
which will help them have control over the customers
they earn through deals.
02
NOT BEING DIFFERENT
The biggest drawback of Deal industry is its low cost of
entry your competitors can enter directly to your market
without any difficulty.
To solve this, market players have started to focus on areas
where they can differentiate themselves from
the competitors and take advantage of it. Examples worth
mentioning are focusing on niche product deals, Travel
deals and adopting an omni-channel strategy.
04
NOT GOING MOBILE
In a report by Google, 66% of smartphone users are using
their smartphones to search for goods and services and
49% are redeeming coupons. So the trend is clear: either go
mobile or expire.
Market leaders like Groupon claims that more than 50% of
its transactions were completed on mobile devices in Q4,
2013. Groupon is now offering location based real. time
06
LACK OF FOCUS ON LOYALTY
Having a common approach is no longer possible. Research
says that consumers’value personalization across multiple
channels, with 67% of consumers saying it is important for
email to be personalized followed by social media (44%)
and SMS (40%). With 44% of consumers no longer respon-
sive to marketed messages, as a businesses you are com-
peting for relevance.
The way to survive is by understanding your target
customer’s thoughts and actions using advanced social
opportunities exploring tools, consumer analytics and so
on.
05LACK OF PERSONALISATION
In order for a business to earn sustainable growth it should
provide value to the stakeholders they are associated with.
Certain traditional deals like deals for restaurants and
hotels didn’t add much value to the stake holders since it
didn’t help them earn additional revenue by selling unused
inventory or filling up seats during off peak hours.
To add value to such deals you need to have tools like
slot booking which will help hotels and restaurants
choose which period of time they want these deals users
to avail their deals. Slot booking will help hotels and
restaurants in real-time inventory management so that
they can use deals to utilize unused inventory as and
when it arise.
03SERVICES WITHOUT VALUE
ADDITION
Push marketing messages are now things of the past with
customers now empowered with tools that will let them
see only what they want. One example worth mentioning
is Gmail’s promotion filter which lets customers to view
push mails only if they click on the promotion tab.
Companies are now overcoming this by providing mobile
apps which breaks the barriers of mail filters, and personal-
ised content which has the capability to encourage direct
engagement with your site.
07‘PUSH’ BUSINESS MODEL
RATHER THAN ‘PULL’
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