Web of Deals
Daily deal websites like Groupon and Living Social are providing retailers new ways to push seasonal product, but it doesn’t come without risk
WORDS BY TED GOSLIN
B
uying consumer products used to be simple. You needed a new wrench, so you went to the local store, browsed the selection and spoke to a salesperson. They directed you to the tool section and introduced
you to that perfect tool, and you bought the product. Then came the Internet.
With an abundance of online options at their disposal, con- sumers are no longer reliant on brick-and-mortar stores to obtain their products. It’s a time of online order forms and the excitement of opening a product that arrived in the mail like it was Christmas. To combat this issue, businesses all over the world have taken to utilizing deal-of-the-day websites like Groupon and Living
14 Mobile Electronics May 2014
Social. This solves two problems off the bat: It informs custom- ers of a specific product or service that the retailer might have trouble selling, and (depending on the specifics of the deal) it forces them to come into the store to complete the transaction. But it can also solve a third problem that comes up during cer- tain times of year: the need to sell seasonal product.
Deals Boost Seasonal Sales In October 2013, the Tint World franchise store in Bensen- ville, Ill., created a deal for remote starters using Groupon. The deal proved to be more valuable than the shop could foresee, and that value expanded beyond the realm of the Internet, land- ing on the shop’s doorstep.
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