Back in November of 2011 Forbes published an article on their website pointing out why the daily deals sites aren’t doing so hot. Personally, I haven’t given much thought to daily deals until I recently signed up for Gobza offers (more on that later). I used to have the daily deal apps on my iPhone. For a while I was interested in sites like Groupon and LivingSocial. It was exciting to get the daily deal email and see what big money savings opportunity I would have in my inbox or on my iPhone for the day! How many of these did I buy? Overall, I may have bought 1 or 2 daily deals from Groupon and none from anyone else. I guess I never found anything that appealing, or at least I didn’t feel like I had the extra money to spend on what was being offered.
So, why might daily deals be dead? Here are some of the reasons mentioned by Forbes:
Inbox overload – Do we really need another email? I’m so sick of trying to keep up with all my emails that I recently subscribed to countless email lists.
Lame offers – Yes, some of the deals are ridiculous. I don’t think I’ll be taking any flying lessons in the near future and it’s unlikely I’ll be getting my nails done, although, this would interest my wife. 
May not be good for the merchant – Do these deals really generate profit for merchants? The deals are actually more about getting buzz about a brand than generating more profit so there is definitely cost with little return for the merchants. Read this post to learn more.
Useless for the shopper – I suppose there are plenty of merchants that are questionable. I’ll guess that most of the time people shop in nearly the same places and are hesitant to try new merchants and things they don’t typically buy.
As you can tell, my thoughts are in alignment with the reasons from the article. Personally, I don’t want to be fed another email or offer. I’d rather search the web to see if there is a coupon for something I’ve planned to buy. Along that thought, these daily deal sites are dangerous for budgets. You’re getting fed the deal much like you get fed the ad on TV. So you do have to be thoughtful before you buy. Finally, I get why businesses want to advertise on them, but is it worth the cost? Is the ROI there when their coupon is here today and gone tomorrow? Perhaps it works for those with big advertising budgets.
Gobza may be a game changer
I recently wrote an article about Gobza and how you can get GobzaOffers to save money. It’s a new deal site for shoppers that’s going to be released this summer. Businesses advertise for free and customers shop offers for free. It’s free for all parties and there are no daily deals. The offers are ranked according to how good they are so there is incentive for businesses to publish quality offers. Little business advertising budgets can therefore compete with big business advertising budgets. The owners of Gobza hope that people will “Gobza” before they buy just like people “Google” when they search the web. My feeling is a service like Gobza could make Groupon and other daily deal sites a thing of the past (or are they already a thing of the past?). I recently signed up after receiving an invite to Gobza from a family member (it’s invitation only right now) and looking forward to trying it out!
Sign up or learn more about Gobza!
What do you think about the daily deal sites? Are they dead or will companies like Gobza make them a thing of the past?
Source: Why daily deals are tanking and why they’re not dead yet
About Jason Price