Hi
2 sides of the coin:
After three months of Groupons coming through the door, I started to see the results really hurting us financially. There came a time when we literally couldn’t not make payroll because at that point in time we had lost nearly $8,000 with our Groupon campaign. We literally had to take $8,000 out of our personal savings to cover payroll and rent that month. It was sickening, especially after our sales had been rising.
We are also a coffeeshop that used Groupon. Unlike others we studied and decided that the best way to use Groupon was to make it for a very specific buyer - fresh roasted coffee bean buyers. This way we only attracted those customers that knew a good deal when they saw one and eliminated those who just wanted a "freebie". We only sold 165 but have found 80% of those that bought were new customers who had never been in the store and out of those, 20% have been back in to buy more beans! I think it is important to study your market and tie in your promotion with what is truly important to you - your specialty!
So one hurting by offering something that was pricey and another that made a profit, and maybe this is the thing with this type of thing, if you use it make sure you do reseach.
Martin
