26 December 2010

A Groupon Christmas



Well I had a Groupon Christmas courtesy of my family. Many different items we received were actually Groupon deals.

I wont say we are a thrifty lot but we definitely look out for a bargain. And these were all pretty good deals.

Over the past few months I have been asking merchants and users what their experiences have been with Groupon.

The general impression I get is that for the merchant it has become a necessary evil. One common concern I hear - and this is anecdotal from non-instant purchase things such as Restaurants is that it has moved the purchase process to a later date closer to the product delivery time.

In Europe in the 1980s the purchase of travel moved from an orderly process to a last minute model. One the suppliers and intermediaries have been trying to move away from ever since. Clearly unsuccessfully.

I think that we should pay close attention to the long term impact on pricing power by the supplier and conventional buying behaviour.

Be careful what you wish for... it may come true.

Cheers

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