Virgin is exploring the launch of a “daily deals” service to rival Groupon, LivingSocial and Google, are group buying sites the latest bandwagon?
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Since the launch of social networking and the phenomenal success of Facebook and then Twitter, we’ve been looking hard and long for that ‘next big thing’.
Well guess what? It has arrived – group buying.
While these sites have actually been around for a little over a year, it’s only recently that the rest of the world – outside the US where they first took off – have started to notice.
Why?
Reason number one: Search is becoming more social and more local.
Reason number two: The recession may be ver, but people are still struggling to spend up. Just take a look at the retail sector at the moment, it’s plain to see that consumers are only spending if there is a sale on. We’ve become more cautious with our money.
Reason number three: For all those advertisers that couldn’t quite work out how to use Facebook to their advantage, group buying sites have provided an entirely new angle. Deals…for everyone.
Competitive market or crowded?
Group buying sites have reinvented social sharing as well as email marketing. And how do we know its going to work? Some of the biggest players in digital are getting on board.
Today, Virgin announced its bid to enter the group buying market place. Back in January Google attempted to buy Groupon’s and after being rejected is planning to launch Google Offers.
Amazon invested heavily in LivingSocial and even Yahoo! was rumoured to have offered over $3bn to also acquire Groupon. Facebook is also said to be launching its own offering, Buy With Friends.
Then there is MySteal.co.uk and Groupola.co.uk as well as LivingSocial, which is set to launch in the UK soon.
In Australia, Microsoft has entered the group buying market with the launch of Cudo.com.au as part of a joint venture with two of the country’s largest print and digital media companies, NineMSN and PBL Media.
Warning
As good as discounts of up to 90% sound, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has already banned some of ads on group buying sites for being misleading.
Some consumers have also reported problems redeeming their vouchers, or bad customer service from the retailers.
But as this next big thing in digital continues to grow, perhaps we can put it down to teething problems. there’s no denying that group buying is definitely where retail marketing is headed for the future.
