Personalized Deals is the biggest thing we’ve done since we launched Groupon. While Groupon won’t look much different, sending different deals to different users transforms Groupon in four big ways.
1. Customers Get Relevance
Over the next several months as we bring more and more merchants into the Groupon family, you’ll start receiving deals tailored to your location, preferences and buying patterns. Unfortunately, “try it before you knock it” wasn’t a convincing response to our male customers complaining about mani-pedi deals.
2. Merchants Get Access
Groupon has become so popular with merchants that we can’t keep up with demand. Over 35,000 merchants are queued to be featured on Groupon, and with 97% of our merchants wanting to be featured again, that list is only going to get longer. As a response to unmet demand, Groupon has become one of the most prolifically copied websites in the history of the Internet, with over 500 worldwide Groupon knockoffs appearing in the last 12 months.
Now, by intelligently matching businesses to their most coveted users , we won’t have to turn merchants away – Personalized Deals lets us grant access to any business that meets our quality standards.
3. Merchants Can Throttle Volume
Groupon has forced some merchants to contend with an entirely new problem: what happens when you have too many customers? We’ve created otherworldly events like sushi places running out of rice, or twenty-somethings lining up around the block to see the ballet. We’ve actually had to develop formulas that help merchants plan capacity and limit their Groupons.
With Personalized Deals a merchant can run a deal to different segments of customers over several months, giving them the Groupon goodness without the risk of being overwhelmed by a horde of new customers.
4. We Can Move Away From City Centers
In a city like Chicago, 90% of our deals are in the 10 miles or so surrounding downtown – but millions of people live in the surrounding cities. Now we’re targeting deals by location, creating better deals for customers outside the city center and delivering a more relevant audience to suburban businesses.
We couldn’t be more excited about Personalized Deals. We think you’ll look back six months from now and wonder how you ever got by without it.
Dana @ Mrs. Moneysaver
onJuly 28, 2010 8:26 pm
I’m excited about this new feature! It seems like a better way to get the deals I want each day.
I do have a question about referrals though. If I am sent a personalized deal and I want to share it, will it be possible to share that specific deal (or tell people how to find it) since the deals are all personalized? Right now, it’s really easy to send someone my referral link and tell them to look under so-and-so city for the deal.
Thanks!
jan
onJuly 29, 2010 12:18 am
i love the idea of the personalized deals and my concern is not getting to see deals i might be interested in.
accessing deals to things that are outside of what i would normally do is part of my groupon fun!
jan
onJuly 29, 2010 12:19 am
and…..i don’t like my age being flashed around. that is just between us, right?
Elizabeth Auman
onJuly 29, 2010 5:04 am
Surely there must be Groupon-goody opportunities available to those of us who live in PG/Anne Arundel/Charles counties?!
Michelle Bergan
onJuly 29, 2010 6:47 am
I, too, would be sorry if I missed out on an deal that might be of interest, even though it might not fit my “profile.” Life is about trying the new stuff!!…and getting mani-pedi’s!!
Maybe it could be magazine formatted or drop-down boxes by category could be provided or a la Amazon provide customers with a wish list or “customers who bought this product were also interested in…looked at” or maybe you could hire me as a member of your marketing team and we could work together…LOL…no, for real…I’m looking for part-time work with a company/concept I am passionate about…Groupon is FANTASTIC and there are so many possibilities. Thanks!
Eleanor
onJuly 29, 2010 6:52 am
I agree with many other writers. I like a mix of things.
David J
onJuly 29, 2010 8:18 am
Thanks everyone for the feedback. Some more info related to this:
Personalized Deals will allow us to offer more deals than we did before while still preserving the simplicity of having a single deal featured for you each day. For example, if we highlight a deal for you that is different from the city’s general feature, you’ll get to see both. In some cases there might even be a few others available that we have chosen to highlight from different parts of your city. In other words, if you want variety it’s worth opening up your email to see what else we have going on that day!
@Dana, you can still share deals with your friends. We’re choosing one to promote to you but still want to support people using Groupon together.
@Jan, all of this information is kept strictly confidential. We use it to help inform deals we send you, but it’s just between us.
We’ve also posted an FAQ with more detail on these and some other questions we’ve heard elsewhere. Thanks!
Jackie
onJuly 29, 2010 8:44 am
LOVE it! I love how you guys are always ahead of the game and working on getting more and more availability on there for other merchants. More advertising availability for them…more deals for us and more money for you ;p Keep up the great work!!
KP
onJuly 29, 2010 9:00 am
I have a question. I always find out about the deals through the RSS feed rather than email (my signy-up for stuff email is so backlogged I don’t have time to sign into it more than once a week or so). But I check my google reader every day. Will the new system be available as an RSS feed?
Olga A
onJuly 29, 2010 9:17 am
I also don’t want to miss out, and I really wouldn’t mind if you add a little questionnaire asking for our interests. . . Lets say I’ve never bought a skydiving deal before, So how can u tell that I would like to do that?. . . If I add some more info on my profile somehow you can target better what I like by taking that info into account as well besides the deals I’ve bought. Overall, I love the idea! so keep it up!
Olga A
onJuly 29, 2010 9:25 am
Ahh there is something else I would like to add. . . I’m also interested in deals that are offered in cities close to mine (I’m currently subscribed to the RSS feed of 3 or 4 cities and that’s how I see their deals), because I can plan a get away for a weekend, or something like that. . . How will this work with the personalized deals? Thanks!
David J
onJuly 29, 2010 9:30 am
@Olga, we’re going to offer a lot of different types of deals to give you the chance to buy stuff you haven’t before. Just because you eat every day doesn’t mean that you only want to see restaurant Groupons. Even as we get to know you better, we’ll keep the variety to offer stuff that maybe you’ve wanted to try given the right opportunity.
We do have a basic profile right now (when you’re signed in, look under My Stuff) where we’ll start to gather some preferences. These are intentionally kept pretty broad both to make it simple but also so we don’t get over-specific about targeting.
David J
onJuly 29, 2010 9:37 am
Regarding the RSS feeds, for now that will include the city’s featured deal plus potentially a few others that we choose to highlight.
It should still be great for tracking what we’re offering though the list/order is not yet personalized. Good suggestion though!
Jean
onJuly 29, 2010 11:16 am
after entering my zip code it sent me to New Jersey even further than the original New York City deals. I am in upstate N.Y.
Mike
onJuly 29, 2010 1:11 pm
Please allow for multiple zip code inputs. I like groupon deals around my office and around my home. By only allowing one input, you’re really narrowing me to commit to groupon for home or office. this makes me sad.
Adam
onJuly 29, 2010 1:21 pm
If we personalize our zip code, will we still get to see the deals for the city centers? I live in a city center, but some of my friends do not.
David J
onJuly 30, 2010 10:18 am
@Jean, not sure what you mean about it sending you to New Jersey. Entering your ZIP should not change your subscriptions, just help us provide better deals where you are subscribed. If you think there’s an error, probably the best thing to do is to contact support@groupon.com.
@Mike and Adam, we’ll support multiple addresses formally in the future. For now, you can see some other deals we’ve chosen to feature both in the city center and other places nearby.
Charlene B
onJuly 30, 2010 9:22 pm
I also have a broad usage area–I moved away ( 150 mile round trip) but still frequent often everything inbetween. Have also found that by the time I get responses from the mix the offer has expired–any future options for extended confirmations/holds? Some of the offers do not fit my interests, but have made great gifts!