Almost daily PR people contact me about taking a briefing from this or that deals company with an angle. (I can’t take all the briefings and I can’t even write up all the potential posts on companies I have spoken to.) It also seems like every day I’m drawn into a conversation with someone about the future of deals.
I’ve also been writing a deals report that keeps getting longer. I’m very deep into “the space” at the moment.
Daily deals have profoundly impacted the local market. However the current model must — and will — change.
It’s almost impossible to imagine the daily deal market going away but equally hard to imagine the current shape and structure of the market (putting aside the M&A question) being sustainable.
Margins will go down, merchants will either stay away or get more sophisticated, new tools and services will emerge and consumers will become more selective.
It’s easy to rattle off a list like that. But what’s really gonna happen in the next 18 months? This is the question the panel I’m on at the BIA/Kelsey event “Deals 3D“ will try to address.
I’m interested in what you think the near future holds for this market. Beyond failures and acquisitions, what concrete changes do you think we’ll see in the deals market in the next 12 – 18 months?
I intend to run the panel like an episode of the McLaughlin Group:
Here’s the SNL parody version.
July 7th, 2011 at 3:50 pm
How do you do a transcript of that?
July 7th, 2011 at 4:10 pm
Class Action Lawsuits.
July 7th, 2011 at 6:30 pm
July 7th, 2011 at 7:40 pm
Greg, you’re going to combine two of my favorite things in this world: Local Search and McLaughlin! If you added golf somewhere my head would explode from the serendipity.
Wish I could be at the conference but I’ll be at Expon Brazil at the same time.
July 7th, 2011 at 9:52 pm
Ah Brazil . . . We’ll try and work golf into the conversation.
July 9th, 2011 at 8:40 pm
“Deals” are in fact the game-changer in local; both for the industry, as well as the local business owner. Ultimately, the combination of “word of mouth” (social media) and more “directional” (or targeted) offers will be the sustainable model. If you can reach me when I’m actively buying or researching, I’m in. Better yet, if your a trusted source (friend or business relationship) I’ll listen, but unless I’m in the market for a hot-stone massage every day, keep the “daily deals” to yourself…
July 15th, 2011 at 12:59 pm
Groupon Attracts Connecticut Scrutiny – WSJ.com http://on.wsj.com/rcT8US
July 15th, 2011 at 1:02 pm
Thanks. This is a common story/theme. The laws vary by state. My guess is that the disclosures about expiration and consumer options will have to become more prominent.
September 9th, 2011 at 6:13 pm
The first class action lawsuit filed against Groupon:
http://paidcontent.org/article/419-more-bad-news-for-groupon-sales-team-files-class-action-suit/
September 9th, 2011 at 6:55 pm
It’s not the first; it’s the latest.
September 9th, 2011 at 8:08 pm
Indeed, unbelievably there appear to be at least two others dating back as far as March of 2010:
http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/the-problem-solver/2010/03/class-action-suit-against-groupon.html
San Francisco Comprehensive Tours, LLC dba San Francisco Shuttle Tours, LLC and Wine Country Tour Shuttle v. Groupon, et al., Case No. 11-cv-1300, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California.
I guess I’ll have to start searching all my assertions going forward.