Getting on board with Groupon Goods
At this point in time, most people have heard of Groupon. And most people have taken advantage of one of their daily deals, purchasing everything from cases of wine to dental cleanings. In fact, some might even say that they’ve placed orders simply because the deal seemed too good to pass up – as opposed to actually needing the item or service.
Online coupon houses and deal-of-the-day sites have become the new what’s-hot trend – thrift is suddenly en vogue. And because of this growing phenomenon, it would be unfortunate for retails to miss the boat.
According to CIO.com, “the featured deal—and the business offering it—can be discovered by more than 36 million active Groupon customers through Groupon.com or the mobile Groupon app. For these deals, customers buy the discount certificate and redeem it on their next visit to the business.”
For eCommerce owners who don’t have a physical brick-and-mortar location, Groupon launched its Groupon Goods site, which works as a conduit where consumers buy the product from the merchant but through the Groupon site. To make it happen, Groupon put measures into place to ensure that etailers are prepared for a boom in sales.
“Since this is a bit different than the daily deals set-up for local merchants, Groupon will work with an online retailer to determine how many items will be made available,” reports CIO.com “A third-party vendor will retrieve the items from the merchant's warehouse and then pack and ship the items to individual customers on behalf of Groupon, who also handles all returns and customer service for the promotion.”
CIO.com went on to explain that although a merchant doesn’t gain access to buyer data, the sales (and subsequent exposure) can be worth the effort. And luckily, Groupon will audit a company to verify whether it’s ready for an influx in orders.
No matter what, however, it helps to be open-minded. Because the whole system works around discounts, ecommerce owners need to keep in mind that the website comes with a price. Luckily, Groupon has a gained a certain sensitivity to that fact and has expanded its offerings.
“Groupon does seem to be listening to its merchant partners,” CIO.com explains. “In addition to the Groupon Goods option for online retailers, the company also launched a Merchant Center to give small business partners a snapshot of their featured deals and see customers' demographics information, including age, sex and ZIP codes. There's also Groupon Now, which is designed to let merchants set the time of day for redemption during off-peak hours, andGroupon Rewards, which helps build customer loyalty with consumers who buy your Groupon deal.”
In a world constantly bombarded with startups and worthy competitors, Groupon can step in where other home-grown marketing campaigns might have fallen short. For many small business owners, a reasonable amount of research looking at margins and inventory could really pay off. It might just be a good deal.