Member Article

Daily deals reach breaking point

Gerard Doyle is the CEO of DiscountVouchers.co.uk, and has been responsible for repositioning the company as both a traditional couponing and daily deal website since joining in 2011.

With daily deal providers filling column inches for all the wrong reasons, it’s a good time to take a step back and see where this fast-moving industry is heading. The next six months should see some interesting developments in the daily deal and voucher space, which will help separate the major players from the rest.

Breaking Point

We’ve seen a swell of discontent building so far this year, as more and more consumers voice their disappointment at deals that have not delivered. With OFT rulings and an ASA clampdown, something’s got to give. When it does, the role of an organisation such as the Global Daily Deal Association is going to be vital.

As one of the founding signatories of the GDDA’s Code of Conduct, I’m looking forward to working with the trade body to improve the industry’s accountability, reputation and sustainability. I see GDDA membership as a way to show consumers our dependability as a daily deal provider and provide them with extra reassurance when they make purchases through DiscountVouchers.co.uk.

Industry Convergence

As the discount economy has grown, we’ve seen segmentation of the industry with businesses focusing on daily deals, online voucher codes or printable vouchers. In this crowded space, the only way to survive on a long term basis will be by diversifying your business offering, so we’ll see more businesses providing more than one service.

Second Wave Consolidation

Whilst diversifying is key to surviving in this fast-growing industry, businesses also need to create more strategic partnerships. Until recently, the focus has been on building databases and acquiring email addresses, with acquisitions and partnerships underlining this. Stronger relationships must be forged between the different parts of the discount economy including technology providers and merchants. This will hopefully weed out those deal providers that have given the sector a poor reputation.

Personalisation

The industry’s reputation has also been hit hard by the fact that consumers are fed up with the sheer volume of irrelevant offers filling up their inboxes every day. Unfortunately, daily deal fatigue has become a reality and to prevent consumers from clicking on ‘unsubscribe’, providers need to be savvier. To avoid a diminishing database, businesses will have to invest heavily in their targeting and improve the data they already have to offer a more personalised service.

This has been my main priority since joining DiscountVouchers.co.uk, and we’ve successfully used our database of over six million users to provide merchants with incremental sales. By personalising our newsletters, we’ve brought in additional revenue for our merchants and provided our customers with deals that they are actually interested in receiving.

Tracking in the Real World

Finally, everyone knows that tracking online purchases is easy. The current challenge is to track offline purchases, so consumers’ credit or debit cards can be linked from the point of sale back to vouchers and offers they have seen online. This technology is common in the US and there are a few companies rolling this out in the UK now, like birdback.com. Any voucher or daily deals company not looking into this area will be left behind.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Gerard Doyle .