DAILY DEALS
This Florida chain was one of the first to embrace Groupon. Q: So Groupon didn’t want to work with
you initially? A: It actually took me more than six months to get our first Groupon approved because they don’t traditionally take businesses in our industry.
Q: That’s quite a statement. Can you de- scribe your interaction with Groupon? Is it just as easy as going to the site, clicking on a few buttons and filling something out? Or is it more complicated where you have to get on the phone and negotiate with a Groupon representative? A: Groupon is extremely selective in their pro- cess. We have an existing account so we can submit deals through our online portal, so it’s all hands-off. However, I’ve had the best results letting our Groupon sales rep handle stuff and push it through the system for us. For most mer- chants, that is going to be the process. It’s going to be actually talking to someone, understanding exactly how the process works and then making sure it not only fits the retailer’s business model but also will be mutually beneficial.
Q: What is Groupon’s criteria then, in light of the statement you made that they don’t usually do business in this industry? A: Well their customer base is female-driven.
They’ve done things over the past year or so to hone in their demographics more and get more younger and male demographics. But their core
GROUPON AS WINDOW DRESSING? With four locations in Florida, Alarms, ETC. has been one of
the first 12-volt retailers to make inroads with the Groupon jug- gernaut. Headquartered in Chicago, Groupon is now a publicly traded company with a market cap of several billion. It is a daily deals website that offers consumers more than 50 percent off goods and services when they buy as a group. The local mer- chants negotiate the sales splits with Groupon, which handles all sales, marketing and payment processing. Customers have 90 days from the time they purchased a Groupon deal to re- deem it at the store. Window tint deals have proved to work for Alarms, ETC. so effectively that the company has turned to Groupon several times despite raking in minimal profit. Initially, Alarms, ETC. ran a window tint deal for its Lakeland stores and sold 109 of them. It resulted in a “dead break even on payroll and product costs versus profit after Groupon took its percentage,” said Joe Cassity, Alarms, ETC. sales and operations manager. Once the customers walked through the door, however, Alarms, ETC. sales staff rolled out all of their offerings. Through refined sales techniques, the sales staff generated an additional $30 per ticket on top of the modest $10 per vehicle profit from Groupon deal purchases alone. When it was all said and done, Alarms, ETC’s most recent Groupon deal generated more than $4,360 in net profit, according to Cassity. When Alarms, ETC. ran a window tint deal for its Tampa, Fla., location, the results exceeded their expectations. More than 250 deals were purchased, meaning more than $25,000 in sales over 48 hours — at least $12,500 of the sum going to the retailer after Groupon’s cut. “Of course this doesn’t take into account our expenses, but it does allow us to stay steady with work and have zero down time as we space these Groupons over a 3-month period,” Cas- sity said. “Our net profit, assuming the same metrics/upsells
34 Mobile Electronics December | January 2012
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