@ my breaking point with tipping points
every day my inbox is flooded with a barrage of daily deals and i am getting kind of sick of it. sure, it’s my fault having signed up and opted-in to offers from jetsetter, gilt group, gilt city, lot18, mercantila, dailycandy, urban daddy, groupon, livingsocial, snique away, and others that i am probably forgetting. i spend more time deleting these daily deals from my inbox that i do actually reading them. one thing that these sites have in common, aside from occasionally offering me a decent bargain, is that their offers aren’t compelling or relevant to me the vast majority of the time. i offer some suggestions below on how these sites can improve their tipping points before consumers hit their breaking point.
- proximity based deals - i love the idea of supporting local merchants in my neighborhood and i am far more likely to purchase a deal with an offer to support my local dry cleaner, specialty grocer, or purveyor of anything local. it’s smart to provide consumers with daily deals in their neighborhoods, but also allow the user to establish some parameters to find deals within 1, 5, or 10 miles of their home.
- neighborhood based deals - living in big cities most of us are creatures of habit and tend to frequent neighborhoods that we’re already familiar with. i would never drive to orange county from los angeles to eat $50 worth of sushi for $25 at a restaurant that i’ve never heard of in some random strip mall. despite that, these types of offers usually wind up in my inbox. give users an opportunity to choose from various neighborhoods and then on a more granular level drill down to the types of category specific offers they would like to receive.
- category specific offers - one of the things that i appreciate about facebook is how contextually relevant their ads are. it’s borderline creepy how well this company seems to know me, and that’s kind of the point. sending me an offer for a day spa is about as useful as square wheels on a wheelbarrow. give users an opportunity to select categories from which they are interested in receiving offers. local restaurants, wine stores, sporting goods, and pet supplies. now we’re talking, and probably buying!
- leverage facebook - tying in to facebook’s API and figuring out how to partner with the company strategically would be smart. allowing users to post and share daily deals to their facebook walls while also leveraging some of those amazing algorithms would improve the overall experience and generate income for everyone.
- new messaging - inviting me to register so that one of my friends can receive a $25 voucher is the wrong approach, it’s obtrusive and not relevant to me. receiving an email from a friend because they saw something on sale that they thought i would love is totally different. when i register and purchase the item on click-thru, the friend who referred me should be secretly compensated on the back end like most successful affiliate programs. the same rules should apply when i post a deal to my facebook wall.
group buying platforms are amazing and they serve a purpose, especially in a recession when most of us are being more responsible with our purchase decisions. however, there’s some needed room for improvement and heading this advice may help turn useless deals into relevant and targeted offers.
