Get Your GroupOn

One trend that is growing like wildfire recently is the daily deal. An offer made online to a group who subscribes via email or social media feeds, available for only 24 hours. Woot.com was the first of these sites that I became familiar with, offering a random item, often electronics, for a deep discount for one day and only for a limited number of items. Once they’re all sold, the deal’s over.

Groupon took the idea of a limited time, daily offer at a deep discount and brought it to your back door. Instead of toasters or computer monitors, Groupon is local and tailored to a specific area. The deals are often for restaurants, spas, entertainment, or other services, at usually 50% off! Who doesn’t love saving money like that?

The way it works is simple. Basically, each offer, based on the idea of a group discount, is only made available if it reaches it’s “tipping point.” If a predetermined number of people decide, for example, they are interested in paying $15 to get $30 worth of food at a restaurant, then they get the “group discount” and get the deal. If not enough people go for the deal, nobody gets it (and nobody’s out any money, either).

The idea that started with a blog, has grown to a huge, multi-billion dollar company, has a ever-increasing number of copy cats (LivingSocial, YouSwoop, etc), and is complete with rumored offers from Google to buy it. By the way, Groupon was created by Chicago YP Andrew Mason, who is 29 and was a music major at Northwestern. The story of Groupon is pretty interesting, and I recommend the Forbes article about Mason that appeared in the August edition.

That aside, the great news for us in Ignite is that Groupon will be launching very soon in Rockford! So, the opportunity to get out and try new places to eat, new entertainment, and new local businesses, minus much of the risk of spending as many of those tight ‘fun’ dollars, will soon be ours! Visit http://www.groupon.com/rockford and sign up. Saving money and trying new (to me) local businesses….I can’t wait!

~ by Anthea on December 2, 2010.