Is Groupon a Good Idea for Your Business?

Lately, you may have been hearing a lot about something called “Groupon,” from its controversial Super Bowl ads to its rejection of a billion offer from Google, Groupon has been in the
news a lot. But when it comes to using Groupon as a marketing strategy for your small business, is it a good idea?

How It Works

Groupon (as in “Group Coupon”) is a deal-of-the-day website that offers coupons to subscribers living mostly in major cities. For each daily deal, a certain number of people must pre-purchase a coupon online, and when the minimum number of coupons (set by the merchant) has been sold, the coupon is considered “activated” and the purchasers are then free to redeem their coupons. The ideas is that everybody wins – customers get a great deal, Groupon gets a pre-set fee (which happens to be 50% – read more on that below), and the business owner, in theory, generates new sales and gets a bunch of new customers walking through the door. Sounds great, right?

Well, like many things in life (and small business marketing), the devil is in the details. Here are some upsides and some (big) downsides of jumping in on the Groupon craze:

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Upside #1: Huge online exposure – Groupon (at the time of this writing) has tens of thousands of subscribers in most major cities around the world. Using Groupon exposes you to countless consumers that may not otherwise ever know about you.

Downside: Groupon is not available in all cities, so you may not be able to use the service in your local area.

Upside #2: Visibility and Buzz – because Groupon is currently so popular, the deal-of-the-day coupons can create tons of online “buzz” and are widely shared among users and their friends, families, and contacts. The more creative your coupon offer, the more buzz it can create, and the more your offer will be spread all over the web.

Downside: Your business could potentially get swamped if you don’t set a limit on the number of coupons you will allow to be sold. If you don’t have enough staff and/or product on hand, a successful Groupon could overwhelm your small business with too many customers all at once.

Upside #3: Quick Sales – With a successful Groupon offer, you could potentially get hundreds (or thousands) of new sales very quickly.

Big Downside: Groupon takes 50% of the value of your offer, plus 2.5% interest per transaction. Plus, you must offer at least a 50% off deal-of-the-day to participate in Groupon. So if you offer a item for , Groupon will take , you will get , and the customer gets your item for .

Think It Through Carefully

Before you consider using Groupon, you must make sure that your margins and pricing work out so that you can balance the increase in new sales with the hefty cut in your profit margins. To help you determine if Groupon would work for your business, you can use this Groupon ROI calculator.

What Do You Think?

Of course, Groupon is not going to be right for every type of business. But given the enormous popularity and growth of Groupon, there is clearly something exciting going on with the “group coupon” buying model. Whether it turns out to be a lasting hit or just a passing trend, however, remains to be seen. So what do you think? Is Groupon a good idea for your business?

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Unless you have been living under a rock recently you can’t fail to have noticed the craze that is sweeping the Internet (and the news channels) about group buying. While
this is certainly not a new concept (Sam’s Club is effectively a nationwide group buying scheme where you can get wholesale prices because so many people are buying the
same products), many commentators are acting like Groupon and Living Social have invented something brand new.

So how do it work exactly? Essentially Groupon is one big mailing list, their company value is in the number of emails they can send out. You tell the Groupon website where you

are located – but note that only limited locations are available at present, and
then every day they will email you unbeatable deals from businesses in your area.

However (and there is always a catch), to actually take advantage of these offers a ‘tipping point’ must be reached – that is to say a certain number of people must also
buy in to the offer in order for it to become active.

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Here’s an example: Say a restaurant is offering 3 meals for the price of 1, which is a great deal, but in order for it to become active at least 150 people need to buy it.

Now here’s where Groupon have come up with a really fantastic piece of viral marketing. If you love the deal so much it’s in your hands to try and get more people
to buy, so you can email the offer to your friends and family, promote it on your social networks like Facebook and Twitter etc. Essentially the Groupon members promote
Groupon – the ultimate dream of any business.

So getting back to our example, say 145 people have bought in to the offer, it’s still 5 people short before the offer expires and because it didn’t reach the tipping point
all the customers get a refund. However, if it does reach the 150 buyers required, then Groupon will automatically email a coupon code to the buyers.

The types of offers you can get when you sign up to a group buying website can be very varied, from restaurants, spas, extreme sports, beauty treatments, flying lessons,
cinema tickets, entertainment and more, infact you could have an entire weekend of fun  for a fraction of the full price when you are a member of a group buying site.
The group buying sites make their money by splitting the discounted price with the business promoting the offer. A site like Groupon is estimated to take between 30% and
40% per deal and with its current membership levels that means it makes an estimated ,000 for every deal that it sends out – not a bad return for building an email list!

Since group buying works on a location basis, the growth potential remains strong and a lot of businesses are creating their own group buying websites to serve the local
area. Infact there have been Groupon clones springing up around the world, in Europe, Latin America and China, many of which are receiving high levels of funding due to the
low start up cost and high profit margins.

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This article is  from Amex Open Forum, Author John Janstsch

The title of this post may sound a bit bold, but I’ve personally witnessed three separate businesses dramatically impacted by their participation with Chicago based collective buying phenomenon Groupon. My favorite coffee shop, massage therapist and eco-friendly cleaner can all attest to the success of their Groupon campaigns.

What You Don’t Know About Groupon

Groupon is a collective buying discount service. Actually, that idea has been around in variations for years, both on and offline, but Groupon seems to have figured out how to make it simple and social.

Every day subscribers get one great deal offer for their community by way of email. Offers are from local businesses and are come with a price tag in order to earn a discount – something like for an massage. Groupon is working in about 30 cities currently, with near term plans to go to 80.

The offer doesn’t become good until some prescribed number of people elect to buy it. If a subscriber decides to buy the offer they often pass it along to friends to make sure the deal happens.

You can learn how Groupon works for subscribers here

Consumers Love It

Everywhere I go now, I hear people gushing about the addictive nature of the daily deal. As of this writing, over four million Groupons have been purchased in the fifteen months the company has been offering them.

On top of the deals the buyers receive, Groupon users are getting hooked on the hyper-local discoveries of new businesses in their community. Groupon founder and CEO Andew Mason claims that one of the driving forces behind Groupon is this notion of exploring your own back yard.

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Guaranteed Advertising

From the business owners standpoint, Groupon has a very practical and tried and true advertising offering – put a discounted offer out there and only pay when you attract new business.

The way Groupon works for the business is that people buy the daily deal, Groupon collects the money, takes a percentage, and then pays the business for all the Groupons sold. The business then simply honors the Groupons (an official document printed out by the buyer) as they come into the business.

Groupon business users experience an immediate rush of new customers as their daily deal goes live. Because of Groupon’s growing popularity, It’s really the closest thing to guaranteed advertising available. According to Groupon, 97 percent of businesses featured want to be featured again.

Learn how to get your business on Groupon here.

It’s a hyper local social platform

The typical Groupon user is one of the most desirable demographic profiles going – young, active, employed, college educated and female. They are active online and typically heavy users of social media, so businesses are seeing a viral and social impact over and above the actual Groupon purchase. This demographic has money to spend and is in it for the daily game as much as getting a deal. They love to talk about winning the game with friends and colleagues.

The local businesses I’ve interviewed tell me that the Groupon users they’ve attracted are spending far more than the value of the original Groupon purchase and turning into regular and repeat customers as well.

In addition to the actual Groupons sold participating businesses also benefits from the daily email blast that goes to the thousands of subscribers in their city, whether they choose to buy that day or not. I think that kind of exposure, at no cost to the advertiser would be reason enough to try this tool.

They Aren’t Triers, They’re Buyers

One of the most compelling ideas behind the business use of the Groupon tool is that consumers have to put some skin in the game in order to try your business out. This isn’t simply a free offer. When a Groupon user walks in your door, they are already a customer; they’ve spent money with your business in order to take you up on the deal.

I think this is a pretty important reason why Groupon has been so successful with the businesses that use it. As for numbers, the average number of Groupons sold on the day their deal went live for the three local businesses I spoke with was 438. That’s 438 customers, in some cases all new, lining up to spend money and talk about your business.

I know this article is starting to sound like a sales pitch for Groupon, but I’m not sure there is a more effective play out there right now for the small business looking for ROI on marketing dollars invested.

Don’t Limit Your Thinking

Groupon is a natural for retail, consumer services and entertainment type businesses, but when I visited with Groupon founder Andrew Mason for an episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast he shared some pretty creative uses for Groupon offers, including a parking garage in downtown Chicago.

If you want a little peak into the fun loving nature of this company look no further than their recently kicked-off Live Off Groupawn contest. The site challenged people to show how they could live off nothing but Groupons for a complete year in order to score a 0,000 prize. One applicant was chosen and will start sharing video of his adventure coming in May. (It’s an exciting idea I haven’t totally thought through – Andrew Mason, CEO )

Of course rumors are swirling about the future of the site as it recently acquired 5 million in new funding from investment group Digital Sky Technologies and Battery Ventures. Are Google or Facebook lining up to get this hot property?

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If you want to be considered one of the big search sites these days, you’ve got to yourself a daily deals feature. Bing is the latest to launch a coupon aggregator to take on the likes of Groupon and LivingSocial (not to mention AOL’s Wow.com, Yahoo Local Offers, and Google Offers) and announced Bing Deals this morning.

The tool is the creation of Microsoft and The Dealmap, which works to find the best discounts in your area from a host of different websites. The final product will be available on PC and smartphone, and of course you can expect to be seeing it pop up in Bing search results as well. Which has the possibility to be both annoying and helpful: Hastily trying to look up a restaurant address could be buried beneath coupons, but maybe one of those will actually be of service to you. It’s the trade off we’ll all begin to pay more and more as local deal aggregators’ popularity continues to surge.

One feature of Bing Deals that does seem to simplify the process is its integration with Open Table, so users can buy the coupon and book their table (given it’s a restaurant discount) simultaneously. It’s a competitive daily deals tool, and one that is immediately available. Google is still working to get Offers rolling by partnering with local businesses in various cities (we even got our hands on a recruitment letter for on-site representatives to reach out to local vendors) and doing the leg work itself. Bing Deals may be letting the middle man do that work for it, but at least it’s up and running. On the other hand, that may mean in the long run Google is able to create a better and more established product.

Bing recently solidified its spot as second only to Google when it comes to worldwide search. Pushing Yahoo out of the number two spot has been a long time coming, and it looks like the Microsoft search engine has no plans of slowing down. It recently expanded its Facebook integration, something it can lord over Google from here to eternity it seems (or at least until the Google-Facebook data wars come to a close).

However, there is one immediate issue: As one disgruntled user points out, Bing mobile is currently only available for the iPhone and Android. “Seriously, do you guys keep up with your own company? This should not have launched without Windows Phone 7 support,” commenter John Bailey writes. Another user points out the Bing needs to unify its mobile platform, seeing as some features are available on its app while others are on its mobile-optimized site, m.bing.com.

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According ro China wholesale epathchina news, Facebook officially on Tuesday launched the network groupbuy services in 5 cities of the United States, which includes a wine tasting, concert tickets and coupons. Then Facebook has reached the groupbuy market with increasingly intense competition.

Facebook users can visit the Facebook website to directly purchase groupbuy coupons in Facebook Deals. By using these coupons, you can buy a discount sale. Facebook will obtain a certain percentage fees from the transaction, but at the moment the company did not disclose the exact percentage.

With the launch of groupbuy services, Facebook as a new heavyweight player, would reach the groupbuy market ruled by Groupon for several years.Google had been planning to spend $ 6 billion for acquiring Groupon, but the latter refused.Last week Google announced that it will test firstly groupbuy services- Google Offers in Portland in the U.S., and plan to further extend it to San Francisco and New York. In December last year, Amazon also announced it would invest 175 million dollars to the second-largest U.S. groupbuy site – LivingSocial.

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Facebook is currently the world’s largest social networking platform, with over 500 million users, the company hopes to promote their groupbuy services to  be different from other companies’ traditional groupbuy services with social interaction experience.

Now Facebook groupbuy services are mostly related to the collective activities – such as collective rafting trips, etc., rather than individual activities ,such as the purchase of a discount jeans. Facebook users can easily forward the interesting  groupbuy news to its Facebook friends through the website itself.

most of the current revenue of Facebook comes from online advertising business. But some bulk wholesale electronics epathchina analysts believe that local businesses can also attract new customers by taking advantages of mobile technology and the social networking to provide consumers with coupons.

Epathchina analysts also said that in addition to Facebook inherent characteristics of social networks, Facebook’s independent online payment system Facebook Credits will also enable the company to gain important advantages when selling the groupbuy coupons. At the same time, Google will also be benefit from the mobile technology and the advantages of mobile payments by virtue of Android products.

In Chinese culture,many people love poetry quite much,so do I.I like Tang poetry quite much.When I read them quietly,I will think a lot of things.It seems that they make me be in a relaxed artistic conception.Experiencing every detail of Tang poetry with our hearts,just like we stay with the authors together.I see what they saw,I get ideas what they had.But as to me,as a modern people,I stand on the head of history,so I can see the history happened before.Here,I would like to share the wonderful Tang poetry with more people.

Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907) is the most flourishing time for the development of Chinese classical poetry.Tang poetry is one of excellent Chinese culture heritages,also it is a resplendent pearl in the world.Though it has a history of more than 1000 years now,most of them are still popular with us.

Tang Dynasty has many poets.Libai,Dufu,Baijuyi are quite famous.Besides them,there are lots of poets in that period.There are over 2300 poets whose names we know.The works which kept in The Whole Tang Poetry are about 48900 pieces.Tang poetry has quite wide subjects.Some show social class-situation and contradiction,revealing the darkness of feudal society;Some praise rigthful wars,expressing their love for country;And some describe the beauty of our mountains and rivers.In addtion,some poets wrote their personal ambitions and experiences.In sum,no matter natural phenomena,political movements,work lives,social customs or personel feelings,they all became the material in poets’ wirting.

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In the early of AD 8 century,Tang Dynasty had Kaiyuanshengshi period,the development in economy and culture reached a prosperous time.A great number of excellent poets in poetry field appeared.They wrote poetry which had quite rich contents.Among them,poetry about village life and frontier-wars had large percent.

In the village-poetry,the most famous poet is Wang Wei.He was influenced by the idea of Buddhism and hated to be a bureaucrat.So he lived in village for a long time.Loving the nature,Wang Wei was familiar with village.The poetry he wrote are so peaceful and leisurely.Through them,we can feel the peace and harmony of village.People are so friendly,hearts are so peacuful,and unhappiness reduce much.

And here,we should not forget the frontier-wars in Tang Dynasty.Many poets joined those wars.They had true feelings and experiences during that period.So they used their pens to describ desolate frontier life,praising the heroes’ brave spirits in the wars.It seems that we can see the beacon fire and heroes in the fights,we can hear drumbeat.

In a word,we see the background of that period with the help of Tang poetry.And at the same time,we know more about Tang Dynasty.

Read this review before you move forward with The Customer Advantage. If you are reading this article about the company, The Customer Advantage, then, it may be safe to say that you are thinking of considering the business opportunity that The Customer Advantage wishes to offer to anyone who is interested to join them. Nowadays, people all over the world are trying to earn extra money to pay the bills or to buy the things that they want. Thus, competitive and highly-marketable companies like The Customer Advantage are home-based business ventures that people can take advantage of in order to earn extra money.

However, as with any undertaking, it is wise to be knowledgeable about the ins and outs of a network marketing company like The Customer Advantage before actually joining it and putting your name and reputation on the line. Anything that deals with money is no joke. Some of the important things that you should take note of are the company’s profile, the system on how the business works, the marketability of the products, and the compensation plans that it offers to its members.

The Customer Advantage is an MLM company that is founded by John Milanoski. Milanoski is a prominent figure in the network marketing industry. He is an Internet marketer and entrepreneur who became well-known by virtue of his Marketing Millionaire training system. He founded The Customer Advantage because he saw the potential of maximizing the influence of social media to be beneficial to the local market. Thus, simply put, The Customer Advantage is a promising combination of a network marketing company and local shopping discounts that consumers truly want and need.

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The Customer Advantage is being tagged as a good alternative to companies that offer local shopping discounts like Groupon and Living Social because it starts at the grassroots level. It offers a win-win situation for the consumers and the company owners. How? Consumers get to buy products and services for a discounted price while the companies benefit by getting new customers and by being advertised well daily.

How does it work? Technically, anyone can be a member of The Customer Advantage for free. However, everyone must go through the referral system. Everyday, all the members will receive an offer from a local business to sell a product or a service at a discounted rate which is usually pegged at 50% off the original price. If a member wants to take the offer, all that is needed is to purchase the coupon online.

The Customer Advantage is a grassroots level company. It is a business venture that is firmly grounded on the personal referral and personal guarantee system of new members. When someone becomes a member, he or she will be provided with a replicated website in order to get and refer new members. When a member’s referral buys an offer, the member will receive 5% of the amount of the purchased coupon. Also, the member will be given a 5% override commission from members within five levels of the network he or she has created. Furthermore, when a member is able to encourage a local business to become part of The Customer Advantage experience, the The Customer Advantage representative who referred it will be given a 2% commission on all the sales that the local business will make through the The Customer Advantage coupons that will be offered.

As of today, there are no The Customer Advantage discount coupons available yet since the company is still in a prelaunch period. However, when everything has been set, The Customer Advantage products will usually be discounted restaurant meals, fitness class membership fees, floral arrangements, and spa and salon treatments. These products will be marketable since everyone is looking for deals that can help them enjoy life despite being on a tight budget.

As its name suggests, joining The Customer Advantage can truly be advantageous for anyone who wishes to join it. It is a good way for consumers to enjoy and save money. Furthermore, it can be a good and home-based way of earning additional income through its referral system. Also, it is also a good marketing strategy for business owners. Companies that offer a win-win situation is what is truly needed in times like this when life is becoming a little more difficult to live.

Moolala takes on Groupon & Living Social share.moolala.com Like Groupon only get PAID! Move over Groupon & Living Social Moolala pays you to share!
Video Rating: 5 / 5

The following might help you as a checklist to narrow down and find the best groupon clone script available today in market with all the latest versions and features for different platforms. Today after so many innovations in the web and mobile applications development, it is difficult to achieve business amidst the growing competition, with just an efficient group buying website.

The latest additives that provided by competitors who are striving to provide the best clone script are:

Facebook App For Group Buying: Facebook is the best tool for viral marketing of your business today. The foremost advantage is that it helps to market every single deal pretty faster than we could do with a separate website. Hardly one or two providers have released a dedicated script to launch your group buying business as a complete, end-end Facebook app which possesses all the essential features to facilitate the viewing and buying of deals without the necessity to log into the actual website.

The tremendous rise in the users’ population of smartphones has
led the new steppers to demand for the best groupon clone script

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for smartphones too.

Iphone app: The most reputed Apple iPhone has attracted a very significant population in the smart phone sector and hence it is an inevitable idea to launch your deal site as a iPhone app.

Android app: This successful OS is one of the top competitors today which threatens the other   smart phone OS in scoring. A few quality group business scripts have been released for the Android OS such as this one: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.contussupport.grouponclone

Extension for internet browser (chrome)

This is a very cool additive that almost any good quality group buying clone script would have, which can be easily installed in the chrome browser and with which users could easily view the latest deals, in just a drop down box. In fact this comes as a free download from this link: https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/loommhmdhlhiingcfmjelikbondjdiom?hl=en

Barcode scanning This traditional retail method is currently the much spoken about special feature in the  apps. For the customers who buy deals from your website, you can give a unique QR code which they can show to the merchant and by scanning it the merchant can access the status of the coupon.

Refer A Friend – In all business models this ‘Refer A Friend’ option has been a very successful strategy since it almost doubles the probability of gaining a new customer (through an already existing customer).

Merchant Login – This lets the merchants who use your group buy website to post deals and achieve business, to have a separate login for themselves through which they could modify vital settings, add photos or video to each deal, history of deals, etc.

And most of the new steppers are turning towards Contus Support: http://www.contussupport.com/  since they are considered to be one of the providers for best group buy site script with the advantages of: flexibility, big list of essential features, different packages, post sales support and their pioneering into mobile apps for group buying .

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There are an abundance of worthy charities and good causes in the world today and this makes it increasingly difficult to consider which ones to donate to. Many people often make a decision as a result of something which has happened to a friend or loved one. Another consideration is whether the organisation they choose is using the donations in the most effective way possible.

There is no doubt that the earthquake which hit the coast of Japan on Friday 11th March 2011 has created huge chaos and destruction to thousands of lives. The aftermath of an earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis has, according to Japan’s Prime Minister Naoto Kan, caused Japan to experience its greatest hardships since World War II.

So in what ways can people who have witnessed this catastrophe from around the world do to provide aid and relief to this crisis?

Groupon through UK City Deals

Recently, if you made a donation to Red Cross for the Japan disaster relief through Groupon, they matched and donated that same amount. Although this offer no longer exists, UK City Deals have now pledged to donate all commissions to Japan Red Cross when customers purchase Groupon or KGB Deals through their website or newsletter. This may not sound like much but if enough people  were to purchase their deals through UK City Deals, it could very possibly raise enough to significantly help a handful of those lives affected by the disaster.

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You can visit or join UK City Deals at:

http://www.ukcitydeals.com

Donate

Thus far, generous donations have been made allowing the Red Cross to treat the injured, provide psychological support and distribute relief items to where they are needed most. Search and rescue is still a priority as thousands of people remain missing. Sir Nick Young, British Red Cross chief executive, said: “Our supporters have responded to this situation with huge generosity and solidarity in their donations to the Japan Tsunami Appeal. We are extremely grateful for and humbled by their support. Thank you to everyone who has given.

“The costs of the relief effort, and of rebuilding the homes and lives of those affected, will be immense.  Donations to the British Red Cross will be used towards helping the Japanese people recover from this devastating natural disaster over the coming months and years.”

You can donate at:

http://www.redcross.org.uk/Donate-Now?single=1

Volunteer

Red Cross are looking for volunteers. There are an endless number of possibilities for how one might serve this organisation. Disaster volunteers work with other agencies to provide help to disaster victims – and other disaster responders. They help find temporary shelter and necessities for those displaced by all sorts of natural and man-made disasters. Although volunteers may not necessarily be dispatched to Japan to directly help in cleaning up and rebuilding, volunteering in other areas will indirectly help. The act of volunteering in any other area will mean that area will be dependent on a little less money. This money will therefore go to where it is needed most urgently and this for the foreseeable future is Japan.

You can volunteer at:

http://www.redcross.org.uk/Get-involved/Volunteer

MerchantCircle is the largest online network of local business owners, combining social networking features with customizable web listings that allow local merchants to attract new customers. We are a small, growing company dedicated to connecting neighbors and merchants online to help build real relationships between local business owners and their customers. To date, well over 1,600,000 local businesses have joined MerchantCircle to get their business more exposure on the Internet, simply and inexpensively.

New marketing trends data from MerchantCircle’s 6th quarterly survey of small business owners across the U.S. reveals that Facebook Ads are gaining popularity among small businesses and provides new insights into the group deals market, including increased pressure on Groupon and LivingSocial from Facebook Deals and Google Offers.

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Click here to download the full report and relevant charts.

Key insights from MerchantCircle’s research include:

1. Facebook Ads are gaining popularity among local businesses.

• 66% of local merchants are using Facebook for marketing.

• 22% of local merchants have used Facebook Ads, and 65% would use Facebook Ads again.

• Top reasons to use again include ease of use (67%) and the ability to start and stop campaigns (65%).

2. Merchants are warming to group buying, but adoption is still slow.

• Just 9% of local merchants having offered a daily deal using a service like Groupon or LivingSocial.

• While three months ago, only 50% of merchants who had tried offering a group deal said they would do so again, 77% now say they would be willing to offer another daily deal.

• Top reasons for offering another deal include effectiveness in customer acquisition (58%), favorable deal structure (30%) and profitability of the deal (24%).

• Among those who wouldn’t offer another daily deal, 42% said that it was not effective in customer acquisition, 25% said it was too costly and 24% said they lost money.

3. Small business familiarity with Facebook and Google may help them win market share from Groupon in daily deals market.

• 52% cited familiarity with Facebook and Google as a reason they might choose Facebook Deals or Google Offers over competitive daily deal offerings.

• Other reasons for choosing Facebook Deals include bigger audience size (26%) and better local targeting (21%).

• Those more likely to use Google Offers cited Google’s bigger audience size (42%) and Google’s brand reputation (34%) as top reasons for preferring Google.