Over the last few years sites like Living Social and Groupon have become undeniably popular. Merchants launch daily deal campaigns believing that it will help them attract new customers and grow their business. They hope that people who visit their store due to these deals will return to make the purchase again on full price. Unfortunately, many of these merchants have had the opposite experience. These sites usually attract “bargain” shoppers. They are always expecting to purchase your product or service for a cheaper price.
In our discussions with the local merchants, we found that daily deals sites only bring temporary illusion of success. Customers visit their shop, show the voucher, but these businesses never see or hear from most of these customers ever again. So when it comes time to re-coupe their investment, they don’t have any retention strategy.
Loyalty programs are designed to appreciate your customers. Build a relationship that goes beyond just “bargain hunting”. Most daily deal users never return after their first, discounted visit mainly because of its indiscriminate offering of coupons. By contrast, with a sophisticated loyalty program, like AirLoop, you can target your marketing toward people who have made a purchase in the store at least once.
So what if you are already running a daily deal? Or you are thinking of trying it out? Well, we recommend that you put in place a proper capture mechanism before launching your daily deal. Firstly, don’t discount heavily on your product or service. Once you get the customer to come into your business with a daily deal voucher, establish a way to reach out to them outside of the daily deal site. Help them discover your products and service offerings. Establish a relationship with them that goes beyond ticket price. Put together a strong marketing campaign that is designed to generate repeat business form those who have taken advantage of a daily deal.