The document reviews group buying and location-based services sites, analyzing trends from their past rise with social media, to their present high user adoption. It notes that networks are starting to adopt group buying concepts, and that future sites will need niche offerings. The document also identifies gaps such as a lack of integration across walled gardens, smaller markets, inconsistent incentives, insufficient mobile integration, and weak location-based mapping features. It suggests addressing these gaps through strategies like volume discounts, small market models, rewarding user behaviors, fully-integrated mobile apps, niche community sites, enhanced mapping tools, and improved social media integration.

1. The Ideal Site
A review of the Group Buying and Location Based Services sites that exist today, creates a good premise for understanding,
what has happened in the market place, what the current trends are, where those trends will likely extend to in future, and most
importantly, where the fundamental gaps are:
Past Present Future
Rise of social media and social High user adoption of Group Buying Networks with a strong mobile
networks sites presence will start to adopt Group
Group Buying ... the idea
Economy readiness Nameplate organizations have Buying concepts (foursquare)
Advertiser readiness created group buying sites of their Group Buying sites will be forced to
Adoption of online commerce own come up with niche offerings for both
(Amazon - eBay) leading to advertiser Aggregators of deals and couponing the advertiser and the user, due to
participation in virtual commerce content have started to show how pressures from Facebook Places,
they can affect some Group Buying aggregators and to a lesser extent,
site brand awareness and pageview Google Places
strategies Heavier adoption of self-serve virtual
Location based services sites prove stores, through Group Buying sites
that they are valuable to their unique
audience and no clear strategy is in
place to surpass this level of adoption
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2. Whatʼs Missing
Although all information surrounding group buying and location bases services indicate that those with more experience and
larger networks, have been doing extremely well, there are still areas that need adoption and revenue affecting improvements:
Walled Gardens: make coupons and deals available to all, regardless of how many people buy the deal. Look into volume
discounts if more than “x” number buy into a deal. This allows all advertisers to participate, even those not keen on group
buying sites. Making coupons accessible regardless of adoption, means success in even smaller markets.
Group Buying ... the idea
Smaller Markets: create a small market strategy. Most Group Buying sites or location based services are focusing on larger
cities because their model is dependent on social crowds. Create a strategy that blends “no frills attached” coupons, with group
buying concepts.
Consistent Incentives: incent the users that exude the behaviour you want from them - sharing content, recommendations,
invites, social network klout, etc...
Mobile and Tablet Integration: a major reason aggregated sites have been able to make such an impact on hosted Group
Buying sites is that many of them do not have a mobile strategy today, and if they do have a mobile app, it is not fully integrated
with their other media. The trick is to have your mobile and tablet application usage and downloads reach unsurmountable
levels. A true testament to how good you are doing in this space is through measuring how often you are accessed via mobile to
aid users in figuring out what they will do at that vey instance of later on in the evening. If they use in when they are in a ‘pinch’
that means you gained their loyalty and mindshare. Our web population has already proved their need and demand for instant
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3. gratification and information and the Group Buying sites lacking this element, are neglecting a digital users basic need. (OCR
codes should not be forgotten)
Niche Buying Sites by Community: meaning university or college campus geared, or even by trade. These sites are already
built on a social premise, so building communities around group buying, should come easier
Location Based Services: no matter what you do or how you develop within the social commerce space, you cannot get away
from location based services, and in fact, mobile anything, is really just this. What most location based services fail at however,
is the mapping and plotting functionality. Go beyond the pushpins and displaying the number of km’s between one location to
Group Buying ... the idea
the next - although those things are quite important and should still be included in any site, you should also look to add things
like step by step directions - make these accessible in your app. instead of forcing your user to access other mapping apps or
their browser to get directions. Provide recommendations of other similar locations that are on route that I may be interested in,
because of the ratings the location has received and because it is closer to my current location. When showing
recommendations, include reviews from my peers and add professional sources, so I can see if the option is a credible and
viable one
Social Media Integration: you cannot get away from this one, because it lends it self to recommending locations to personal
networks or to the “public timeline” on social networks, very naturally. You want to build a strategy that makes it easy for users
to synch the activity on your site with their social networks - all of them! (The popular ones). Users will have different followers
and networks of friends, depending on the social platform, and because so much of social and mobile commerce is based on
user advocacy, you do not want to miss out on opportunities to syndicate your message or your clients message. Today, the
only sites that support multiple network syndication are ‘readers’ or feed providers.
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