Image courtesy of ViralBlog<\/p><\/div>\n

There was also significant debate about whether these deal sites were salvation or suicide for small business, who for years had battled large retailers with deeper pockets. \u00a0Many felt daily deals could be the playing field leveller, that allowed the little guy to achieve marketing reach on a budget.<\/p>\n

However, while consumers appeared to be prepared to jump on deals, many wondered what the actual redemption rates on deals were at retail.\u00a0 More importantly, statistics began to show that deals as a long-term customer acquisition tool were weak, with many consumers admitting to cherry picking deals and never returning to the store again.\u00a0 There were even a few horror stories of merchants being driven out of business by deals that went viral and exceeded all capacity to fulfill demand.<\/p>\n

My take at the time was regarded as somewhat contrarian. \u00a0\u00a0I felt that \u201cdeals\u201d were<\/em> not and never would become, a self-sustaining business but rather that, deals, discounts and promotions were and always had been mere marketing tactics. I felt that players like Groupon and Living Social, to name just a couple, had not invented a new business model but simply digitized an old tactic \u2013 the price cut – \u00a0that had existed since the beginning of time.<\/p>\n

If there was anything impressive about deal sites, it was perhaps the massive uptake they could achieve with their offers. \u00a0When Gap ran a $50.00 gift card offer for $25.00, \u00a0they sold half a million of them. \u00a0\u00a0It was like the difference between putting coupons on car windshield and dropping them from an airplane. \u00a0But the degree to which an offer like this actually paid off for the GAP is still unknown. \u00a0Groupons were notoriously difficult to measure at point of sale. \u00a0 Some argue that the offer did further damage to the already waning GAP brand.<\/p>\n

As consumers, we tend to be wowed by digitization.\u00a0 Digitizing things tends to make\u00a0old things look new and cool again but the shine wears off fast. \u00a0If there\u2019s nothing fundamentally new or game-changing about the concept, we lose interest quickly and move on.\u00a0And it would appear that many of us have gotten over daily deals. \u00a0Because underneath the shiny exterior, these were just coupons and does the world really need another coupon?<\/p>\n