November 30, 2010
By the ZippyCart Shopping Cart Reviews Content Team

Okay, please raise your hand if you recently bought Groupon. Ahem, no Amazon? And not eBay? Wait a minute, not so fast Yahoo, it looks like Google may have just taken their giant hand and raised it high above everyone else. Talk of whether or not Google has bought Groupon has been swirling around the tech press rumor mill the last few days. With no sources confirming any details yet, tech mongers are still waiting to get a simple ‘yes’, head nod, or even a wink from a Google rep; however, Google’s ‘no comment’ response is almost as good as saying that there is something amiss. The details of the speculation lead to Google had acquired Groupon, the deal-of-the-day website, for just about $2.5 billion over the weekend.

However, just a few weeks ago there were talks of a bidding war among the major players Amazon, eBay, and Yahoo with figures nearing $5 Billion. We know Yahoo could not afford to play at that price and eBay was apparently not involved, so the process of elimination leaves Amazon versus Google. Amazon’s market cap is $75 billion to Google’s $190 billion, it is suspect enough that if it came down to a bidding war, Google would win.

Google stands to gain a rather profitable company if the Groupon deal goes through. The acquisition of Groupon can help Google enter into the popular daily deal segment which poses beneficial as Google looks to maintain its relevance in new emerging segments. In addition, Google can leverage Groupon’s clout in local markets and position itself to build relationships small and medium sized businesses. After reportedly failing to acquire Yelp in 2009, Google continues to show their extreme interest to get into local search and directory listings with their (not as popular) Google Places.

Groupon may be their next chance to really get into this game. Groupon is the leader in the group discount and deal space, it takes in about $50 million in revenue a month and with a rumored $2.5 billion price tag, people may not fully buy into the idea that Google has acquired them just yet. Groupon is possibly worth more than just $2.5 billion.

Seriously though, what does Google not own, touch, or have some affiliation with? Hey readers, if you are a G1, Picasa, or YouTube user then chances are Google owns you too. The rumor, true or not, will be interesting to watch play out, if Google did buy Groupon, then fact: their celebrity couple name would be Groogle.

November 23, 2010
By the ZippyCart Shopping Cart Reviews Content Team

In many ways, group buying is the next PayPal as it has revolutionized the way people spend and buy online. As such, it’s only right for a company like PayPal to hop on board and reinvent the wheel, or at least put a new spin on it. Shoptimist, PayPal’s answer to social shopping and group buying, lets users invite their friends to purchase group deals much like Groupon, Tippr, and LivingSocial, but with a few key differences:

1. The price of the deal decreases as the number of people buying it increase and
2. The group deals are for physical goods, rather than discounts to local fare
3. Users can vote on future deals and make suggestions to ensure they get offers they want

PayPal calls this service of Shoptimist, Shoptimist Unite.

PayPal announced their launch of Shoptimist via an email yesterday, which went out to regular customers and long-time users. Beyond Unite, Shoptimist will also offer sweepstakes for large prizes, which is driving more and more Facebook fans by the hour, as Facebook users have to “like” Shoptimist to be entered into the sweepstakes.

Shoptimist is not currently fully enabled on PayPal, but people can visit the Facebook fanpage to learn more about this new group buying service.  PayPal is preparing to offer a full featured version of Shoptimist in time for post-Thanksgiving shopping, so we should expect more hype to build up over the next few days.

November 22, 2010
By the ZippyCart Shopping Cart Reviews Content Team

The holiday season is just around the corner and Group buying startup Groupon is leaping into the spirit, not just by offering special deals, but by creating its own holiday, Grouponicus.

Described as a “brand-new, centuries-old wintertime holiday that lets you skip the stale gift cards and give your loved ones fun and exciting experiences in their city—at 50% off,” Grouponicus is another zany promotional tactic that prides itself on smart, tongue and cheek writing.

How does Grouponicus set itself apart from Groupon? For one, it’s a completely separate site and email news letter. The site points out special holiday deals that Groupon patrons can purchase for that special someone.

The Grouponicus site also differs in structure. Instead of offering one deal per day that lasts only 24 hours, Grouponicus offers three to four deals at a time that will be available for three to five days.

No holiday would be complete without some form of symbology. Christmas has Santa, Thanksgiving moderates the turkey population, Hanukkah has a dradle made out of clay, and Grouponicus has Groupo The Bargain Bird. He is “the dapper, snake-tailed Grouponicus holiday mascot that kids love! On each night of Grouponicus, Groupo uses his nimble snake-tail to unlock your attic windows so that he may leave neatly stacked Groupons inside the ovens of his true believers –those who live by his Doctrine of Completion.”

One may ask what the Doctrine of Completion is.  Well it’s the belief system by which all Grouponicus followers adhere to and swear to uphold.  The Doctrine is said to be found  ”in the heart of every singing child, the faces of every elderly couple baking snow pies, and in the concrete-filled vault 26 miles beneath the Library of Congress, where the original copy is still faintly glowing.”

Grouponicus will offer a total of 650 deals throughout the holiday season, which begins during the Autumn Solstice on Nov. 22 and wraps up during on Dec. 26.

The people have spoken and Yipit is answering. On Wednesday, the group-deal site unveiled its newest feature: Yipit Nation.  The feature is responding to the countless nationwide deal sites by pulling a range of different categories into one location. Now, instead of signing up for sites like Groupon and LivingSocial for local deals, Lot18 for discounted wine, and Gilt Groupe for clothing, people will be able to log onto Yipit and browse through a user customized selection of deals in one sitting.

Subscribers simply sign up and customize their profile through a selection of categories that best describe their interests. Categories include men’s and women’s fashion, electronics, home décor, wine, coffee and teas, items for kids and babies, holiday items, travel, pets, and more.

Yipit Nation launched soon after Yahoo released their plans of jumping on the local deal band wagon by launching Yahoo Local Deals. It’s not entirely clear how Yahoo will structure their deal site, but some think it may be CTRL + C (ing) and CTRL + V(ing) some of the aspects of  Yipit, who say anything Yahoo can do, they can do better. “I was surprised they are only working with 16 partners,” Yipit co-founder Vinicius Vacanti told CNET when asked for his take on Yahoo Local Deals. “Yipit currently aggregates over 130 daily deal services creating a much more comprehensive experience. If users rely on Yahoo for their daily deals, they will be missing out on 80 percent of the deals.”

Yahoo is not the only force that Yipit needs to be wary of. There are at least 30 daily deal services focussed on national or brand deals, including tanks like Amazon’s Woot!, UrbanDaddy, Lot18, and Cinderella Wine. In August, Groupon attempted its first ever nationwide deal, offering $25 off of any $50 purchase at the Gap. The deal was so hot that Groupon’s servers crashed due to excessive activity. There were around 400,000 coupons sold, which turned out $11 million in one day.

Earlier this year Yipit raised a $1.3 million A round from SV Angel, RRE Ventures, IA Ventures, Michael Yavonditte, and Peter Hershberg.

November 12, 2010
By the ZippyCart Shopping Cart Reviews Content Team

Everybody needs to shop and everybody likes to save some money. So how do you find the best deals? Well, if you’re an American Express customer, then they have a program that can help you out with that. American Express’ inSite system automatically directs users to various deals, giving them access to discounts, rewards points, free shipping and more.

The inSite program is different from other savings opportunities offered online for the simple reason that it is a third-party (in this case, the credit card company) collecting the deals and special offers in one place for the user. For the majority of the existence of online shopping, shoppers have had to look around for the deals on their own. Different sites pride themselves on being one-stop-shopping locations with the greatest savings available in one place. Amazon.com has been and continues to be an industry leader, even spearheading technology designed to steer users towards different gifts when making a selection for someone else, to avoid bad gifts. It’s easy to see a search system like inSite steering customers towards the best savings as well.

Group buying programs like Groupon, Living Social, and Ethical Deal broke ground for programs like American Express’ inSite by targeting members with specific deals. They then leverage the buying power of the many to ensure a better deal for all, instead of forcing those members to rummage around through the Internet to find deals on their own. Ebay and Groupon have even teamed up to offer targeted Groupon deals to users as they navigate the eBay site.

The group/social element of ecommerce has also manifested itself in social shopping sites like ShopSocially and JoeShopping. Users can weigh in on products that they’ve purchased, recommend different brands, and clue-in other users on special offers and deals. Friends telling other friends about opportunities to save money is as old as shopping itself, but a credit card company trying to save its customers money? That’s a new one. It’s possible that the creators of inSite anticipate that the discounts, rewards, and free shipping will encourage shoppers to buy more products when they see what a good deal it all is, and those purchases will be charged on the credit card.

The inSite system works through a browser toll that users download from the American Express website. Members already enrolled in the American Express rewards program can log in with their existing account information. Once it’s in use, all shopping search results with applicable deals will display with a blue American Express icon, which the user can hover with the mouse in order to get more information. With over 250 brand partners, the inSite program may represent a bold new direction in financial organizations teaming with consumers for greater savings, driving increased spending in the process, which could be an aid to the still-ailing economy and help boost holiday shopping numbers.

November 11, 2010
By the ZippyCart Shopping Cart Reviews Content Team

There’s no group option for this deal – only one buyer can come out the winner as Yahoo (and others) bid for collective savings provider Groupon. Apparently Yahoo has made Groupon an offer — somewhere between three and four billion dollars — in an attempt to stay relevant in a constantly changing marketplace.

Yahoo’s stock has been stagnant for a while, and with more competition in search engines, e-mail, and shopping, it’s easy to see why Yahoo would be eager to grab up Groupon before the social shopping giant gets any bigger. Social shopping sites like LivingSocial have garnered a lot of media attention lately as consumers and retailers alike realize the power of group buying, opinion, and relationships when it comes to consumer habits. Sites like Amazon and eBay have long given buyers a way to weigh in on their past purchases and rate ecommerce retailers and specific interactions, but lately a new crop of social shopping sites like ShopSocially and JoeShop have sprung up with interfaces specifically designed to allow users to discuss their purchases, favorite brands, and retailers. Interaction between consumers within the network drives future sales.

So why is Groupon so hot? Well, their business model is uniquely positioned for both businesses wishing to drive traffic and consumers wishing to save money. Consumers get a great deal on a product or service – but only if enough people decide to take advantage of the deal. This drives users to spread the word to other people within their network to make sure that the minimum number is reached. This all counts as free advertising for the businesses in question, as the e-mails that get circulated about the deal offer a unique opportunity to target a buying group with detailed information about their specific business. Add to this the fact that 60% of Groupon participants spend more than the value of the coupon that they bought through Groupon, and that’s a recipe for success. Groupon’s model is so successful that it has even spawned a green counterpart.

Reported here, a source at Business Insider says that Groupon is holding steady for right now, conducting a semi-annual review of its long-term options, which include buyouts, investors, an IPO, and more. Right now, though, it seems like Groupon is the prettiest girl at the dance, with Amazon, eBay (they have kind of a thing going on right now), and even that hunky Google all making eyes from across the dance floor.

November 10, 2010
By the ZippyCart Shopping Cart Reviews Content Team

2010 has been a big year for the daily deal group buying industry, with sites like Groupon, LivingSocial, and Tippr taking this new ecommerce niche by storm.  Group buying sites offer a unique opportunity for members to get their hands on the best local deals.  This is done by displaying a daily deal with a purchase threshold.  Once enough sales of the deal have been made, the deal becomes active and working.  If you buy into a daily deal, but not enough people jump on board to buy the deal as well, you won’t be charged.  This system creates that win-win-win scenario that Michael Scott once worked so hard to achieve.  Companies win because they get hundreds of new customers, consumers win because they get great deals, and the group buying site wins because it takes a cut off the top for all the sales.

As competition has heated up among the top group buying sites out there, the major companies have rushed to provide their own unique innovations to make them stand out in the crowd.  Groupon, for instance, launched personalized deals and teamed with eBay to keep their brand growing. Specialty daily deal sites like Ethical Deal have also popped up, which take the group buying idea and spin it in a new direction.  Now, LivingSocial is taking group buying to a whole new level with their launch of weekly travel deals, called LivingSocial Escapes.

Once a week, members of LivingSocial will receive an email with the latest and greatest travel deal, featuring weekend getaways at discounts up to 90% off.  This is somewhat similar to Travelocity’s last-minute packages, but with a group buying spin.  The LivingSocial travel packages include both local getaways and destinations around the world.  This keeps with the theme of daily deals for local establishments, but lets users find a nice weekend getaway that’s right around the corner.  Unlike group buying though, these deals do not require a minimum number of purchases before the package is “active,” which makes some wonder if these are really the best possible travel deals out there.

LivingSocial has always had one perk that makes them unique in the space, which is the option to get the deal for free.  If you buy the deal, and then suggest it to your friends and 3 of them also buy the deal, you get yours for free.  This works great for local fair, but LivingSocial is carrying the same theme over to their travel section, giving you a chance to hit up your rich friends and get a free vacation out of your hard work.

Overall, this is a nice new twist to the world of group buying and daily deals, but one wonders how likely it is to succeed.  Consumers frequent group buying sites for the incredible deals that require little planning and allow for a quick, no-guilt purchase.  The no guilt comes from the prices resting around two digits.  LivingSocial is about to test whether people are willing to dig deeper into their pocket books, which requires more commitment and some possible regret when monthly bills come due.  The timing is also questionable, as not many consumers plan on spending beyond their holiday shopping budgets this time of year, so that extra self splurge may not come as readily as it will in 2011.  Time will tell whether this new system will work or not, but if Groupon jumps on the bandwagon, then we’ll all know that there’s even more money to be made in the space.

October 27, 2010
By the ZippyCart Shopping Cart Reviews Content Team

At first glance, the union of Groupon and eBay might not make too much sense. On the one hand you have Groupon, a new-on-the-scene social buying service that provides money saving offers to subscribers, but only after a minimum number of members have agreed to take advantage of the offer (in other words, total strangers forming a group to work together for a shared deal). Opposite that is eBay, the established powerhouse of online buying and selling, where savvy shoppers can beat out their deal-coveting foes by bidding a few more dollars on that rare Boba Fett collectible bust at the last second (in other words, total strangers working against each other so that one of them can spend the most money and take home a single item).

So where’s the connection?

Right now, the collaboration is two-fold: cross-platform deal promotion, and rewards.

The promotion angle allows Groupon to leverage eBay’s massive consumer traffic. Groupon deals will pop up all over the site, encouraging users to branch out and try Groupon. Want extra incentive to take advantage of a good deal? Users enrolled in eBay’s rewards program will receive 5% of their Groupon purchase in “eBay bucks.” It’s a pretty good match, considering that if consumers are on eBay, they are probably comfortable with online buying. Julie Mossler, consumer marketing manager at Groupon is betting that this demographic will be ripe for Groupon’s new brand of savings: “Leveraging eBay allows us to reach consumers who enjoy online shopping but may not have tried us yet.”

But what about Groupon’s whole gimmick of offering location-specific deals to people living in the different market-areas served by Groupon (over 100 of them at last count)? They’ve got a solution for that too. EBay will use geolocation to determine the nearest deals for different users sifting through the site. Of course users who register for Groupon will automatically receive offers for the geographic location that they select during the sign up process.