Oct. 11, 2012 – A report conducted by Utpal M. Dholakia, an associate professor of
management at the Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University,
has revealed interesting statistics about the success of online daily
deals from the perspective of participating businesses.
Oct. 11, 2012 – Daily deals have grown in popularity among customers in
the last few years, but what do restaurants really gain from them? A
report conducted by Utpal M. Dholakia, an associate professor of
management at the Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University,
has revealed interesting statistics about the success of online daily
deals from the perspective of participating businesses.
The study examined performance of daily deals from five major websites
in 23 different American markets. A survey revealed that of the 324
businesses surveyed that conducted a daily deal promotion between August
2009 and March 2011, just more than half (55.5 per cent) reported
making money. More than a quarter (26.6 per cent) lost money on their
promotions, and 17.9 per cent broke even. Nearly 80 per cent of deal
users were new customers, but significantly fewer users spent beyond the
deal’s value or returned to purchase at full price.
Findings lead the researchers to conclude that it is hard for one site
to stand out from the rest, and pointed out red flags regarding daily
deal promotions as a whole, with two notable ones for the restaurant
industry:
- A fairly low percentage (35.9 per cent) of deal users spend beyond
the deal value. Even lower, only 19.9 per cent of users are returning
for a full-price purchase. “Guests take advantage of the deal by buying
low cost ticket items and stop buying once they meet the dollar value,”
one respondent commented. - Only 35.9 per cent of restaurants and bars that had run a daily
deal asserted they would run another such promotion in the future.
“Since restaurants/bars . . . represent the bread-and-butter for many
daily deal sites, these findings raise questions regarding the continued
availability of a sufficient pool of viable revenue-generating
merchants,” the paper states.
The study also found that 47 per cent of “dollar promotions” (where
customers get a certain amount of money to spend on anything they wish,
for example, $20 worth of food for $10) were profitable, but not as much
as item promotions (those that promote a particular product or service)
at 59 per cent. Overall, only 35.9 per cent of restaurants/bars that
had run a daily deal indicated they would run another such promotion in
the future.
“Over the next few years, it is likely that daily deal sites will have
to settle for lower shares of revenues from businesses compared to their
current levels, and it will be harder and more expensive for them to
keep finding viable candidates to fill their pipelines of daily deals,”
the report concluded.
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