Anyone use Groupon?

#1. Do any of you purchase Groupons for yourself?

#2. Have you ever offered a Groupon for your business?

I'm planning to try offering one for an upcoming festival if I can get it all set up in time. Just wondering if anyone has tried it. I'll be sure to let everyone know how it goes.

I don't even know what a groupon is!

me neither...never heard of it

I was called by a Groupon representative about offering party packages with them a week or so ago. I checked into it and talked to her for a while, but decided that it wouldn't work for what she was suggesting. She said that the discount would have to be at least 50% off my normal rates, and that I couldn't put restrictions on the redemption, such as weeknights only, or 50% off the first hour of a 2 hour party, etc. She said they really wanted their customers to be treated the same as a full paying customer would be.

So, I ended up just telling her that I couldn't afford to work for half price, not even one party much less 100+ of them, preventing me from being available for any full-time work.

For a festival, this might work though? If your festival is slow and you'd be happy to get even half-price customers this might be a good deal. If you can keep a steady line for full price, it would stink to spend your day accepting 50% off coupons from tons of customers. If you do it, offer a very limited amount of coupons. That's my .02!

Yes! I've just recently found it and purchased two things - one thing was $50 worth of business materials for $25 (like business cards etc..I thought it was for Vista print, but it's actually for Vespa print - disappointed, but it's still a good deal.)

The other was bowling, shoes, unlimited popcorn etc for 2 hours for up to six people (handy as I have four kids) for $29 (usually around $55) - happy activity for Summer - I got that today.

For those actually posting a proposition for a Groupon, I like the idea that it only starts being 'valid' once a certain number of people have bid on it - it could be a really good idea for getting a number of face painting parties if there is a dearth of bookings at some point, or just to rally more interest

Good luck! I'm interested to see how it turns out

I'm not planning on doing it for parties, unless it were only for the most expensive package and only during the dead season.... Right now, i was planning on doing full faces for the price of half faces at a busy festival where there are several painters.... I'd love to have people looking for ME actively and the timing between some of my half and full faces aren't all that different anyway. My other possible option was for the farmers's market... It might bring new people down there.

I love Groupon! And eversave, and mom.com and Living Social and Family Finds They are all the same kind of site. I have bought from them, but never offered, although I want to when I redo my website. I would love to know your experience if you go through with it

Love groupon. I've bought a few things from them.

As for not being able to add restrictions, I wonder how they determine who can and can't. I almost bought one yesterday but didn't because I couldn't use it on the weekends and some other fine print things that made it not worth the money. Hmmmm

Hmmm, that is interesting. I specifically asked the representative about offering with restrictions and she said they didn't allow it since all coupon customers need to be treated the same as full-price customers.

Maybe each local Groupon makes it's own rules? The one who contacted me was running the Shreveport Groupon.

I've tried setting up a shop on it, but they still haven't approved it yet... don't know if it's going to be active in time to offer for the festival.

Just be careful b/c if you offer a full face ($10) for $5. Groupon keeps half of that. So, you are actually doing a full face for $2.50.
To me, it's just not worth it. I mean, they only way to really make money from it is if people by the coupon and don;t show up to the festival.
I would hate the thoughts of doing all these coupon kids, while full paying parents walk by b/c the line looks too busy. KWIM?????

they haven't told me what the percentage is that they are taking, they haven't even approved my groupon shop yet and it's been a long time already. I'm about ready to write it off as not happening.

I looked into it, but Groupons seemed like it could be a huge shot in the foot. I also canceled my account w/ them after their horrible Superbowl commercial poking fun at starving kids in India. It was very poor marketing on their part...

Perry, it sounds like you've figured out the key to using for a FPer, limiting it to a single festival. I'd be incredibly wary of anything else. Groupon typically takes 50% off of a sale, so Glitterfly is correct in saying that you'll make $2.50 on a regular $10 face. At a festival, not everyone coming to you will have a groupon, so that will help.

Something else to consider, although you have a time crunch here, does Groupon allow you access to the email addresses of those buying your groupon? If so, you have an instant marketing database available. I purchased a Groupon/Living Social (can't remember which one) for a sailing trip. I had to schedule the trip through the sailing club, so they captured my email address that way. Now, I get periodic emails with additional great discounts. Good for me, good business for them.

not a big deal that it hasn't panned out... I was waiting to here the official percentage that they took before doing it for sure as it is not posted anywhere on the site, even in the business sections.

Ive used Groupon, Living Social and DailyDealCleveland.. Again they're all the same. I actually just read an article on a blog about a small businesses experience with Groupon. It was super informative and hashed out the negatives and positives, but it was for a small shop. After reading the article I decided it's not something that would work for a small independent "party" business like mine. First of all you can't limit the number of coupons they sell. And they keep 50% of the money collected, so say you offer $20 off a booking for $10, you only get $5 for each transaction. I will try to find the link to the article and post it here for you.

I'm not sure if this is the article Amanda is referring to but it's very informative. It's a small cafe's experience with Groupon.

http://posiescafe.com/wp/?p=316

Wow that article is very enlightening. I would probably pass on doing groupon, and now I am considering not purchasing from them either.

There are lots of reasons for why I might not be marketing on Groupon myself, but I don't see a problem with purchasing from them. Personally, I feel that it's up to the business owner to be careful in determining whether or not their business can handle the kind of exposure they'll get if they choose to advertise with Groupon (or any of these other big coupon sites). Groupon isn't evil, it just doesn't fit every type of business.

There's a local rock climbing gym here that has used Groupon and they're doing very well. I've even seen them appear on Living Social and similar sites sometime after that, so this particular marketing method isn't hurting them at all.

I'm all for supporting local business but the responsibility really does fall on the owner.

The one I've enjoyed the most was one for an all inclusive summer pass for local amusement centers. I think the only way it helps them is they have things to up-sell like food, video games, tubes, parking, etc. Even with that, they've started 'renting' helmets and bats at the batting cages...they weren't before. Maybe they weren't prepared for the crush of people?

D.

so, this probably isn't the best idea, but I'm never all that busy at the farmers' market anyway... they finally approved my request for a groupon store that I put in forever ago. I wasn't even going to try it, but just to see how it works... in order to put out a daily deal, I need 25 people "following" my store. If you are on groupon, would you mind just so I can see how this works? I don't want to ask all my customer followers really because the goal was to market to NEW people. It may not hit enough buys, people might not redeem it... or I might be super busy at the market with some people who I can consider walking advertisements when I often can't get many to do the face painting and just get balloons all the time.

http://www.groupon.com/merchants/perry-noia-the-scaredy-clown

Perry Noia wrote:so, this probably isn't the best idea, but I'm never all that busy at the farmers' market anyway... they finally approved my request for a groupon store that I put in forever ago. I wasn't even going to try it, but just to see how it works... in order to put out a daily deal, I need 25 people "following" my store. If you are on groupon, would you mind just so I can see how this works? I don't want to ask all my customer followers really because the goal was to market to NEW people. It may not hit enough buys, people might not redeem it... or I might be super busy at the market with some people who I can consider walking advertisements when I often can't get many to do the face painting and just get balloons all the time.

http://www.groupon.com/merchants/perry-noia-the-scaredy-clown

I'm "following" you now! Good luck, I hope Groupon works out for you.

thanks, I'm pretty sure that it's not such a great idea actually, but everything happens for a reason and this is sitting in front of me to give it a go. I will NOT be discounting any parties, probably just do discounted faces only applicable at the market.

I'm now "following" you too!