What I would like is the anti-Groupon.

Right now, every time I see a place that I currently frequent show up on Groupon I cringe. It means that my favorite restaurant or coffeeshop is going to be mobbed by cheapskates looking to save a few bucks. It means that the staff is going to be harried and tired. It means that I won't be able to get a reservation for a few months.

I want a way for these places to say "Hey -- regulars! We love you! Come back and spend time here so that we can avoid daily deals. We'll be happier and so will you!"

I think deal sites absolutely cater to "bottom feeders" who may be just looking for deals. I think it is the wrong way to attract a loyal following. A major point of this article made was with the 99£ oven cleaning for 19£. Who would pay 19 and then repeat and pay 99?! That's nuts, and the only way to get most of those customers to not feel ripped off is do another groupon or offer some similar huge discount.

I signed up to GroupOn (UK) earlier this year

I unsubscribed from their emails after a month as all the offers just seemed to be either

a) Cosmetic treatments b) Health checks from private clinics

I'm a 24 year old male, why do I give a shit about any of those things? GroupOn needs to target their offers more

I think a lot of people misunderstand what Groupon offers a business. Basically it's advertising, but in a way that makes it affordable for small businesses. The company offering their deal, is putting their name out there, and only has to pay for it when someone walks through the door an makes a purchase.

Tradition advertising means paying for your brand to be seen. Magazines, newspapers, ect can target markets, but not to a very large extent. Google, Facebook, ect can target their market better, and businesses only pay when someone clicks (ie shows a bit of interest in the company). This is why they are stealing traditional advertising revenue. Groupon took this one step further, and made it so that businesses only pay when a customer walks through the door. This opened up advertising to much smaller businesses, Mom and Pop shops, since there is no upfront cost.

You'd think that Groupon would be trying to target their deals better. Have a "select your interests" when you sign up. Yipit is doing this, and it's a pretty cool take on it. That type of service adds a lot more value then a generic daily deal.

From TFA: 'a [GroupOn] spokesperson said it was "difficult to give an accurate figure" for how many businesses are repeat users of the site.'

Really? I would have thought it would be pretty easy to run a query on their accounts and find out a nearly exact number.

It would have been advertising if it had a longlasting effect.

Consider that once you do a groupon for a 20% < discount, it is going to be very hard to get that customer again for the full price of the product. So what do you get from the supposed advertisement? A single customer that may or may not give you his business again.

That's not advertising. That's what's crassly known as 'opening your legs'.

Treating GroupOn (and similar costs) as advertising/marketing is indeed the correct approach and certainly one the company pitches.

However, something worth considering: is the GroupOn audience worth buying? Anecdotally the answer seems to be "no" as repeat business is well below expectations, regular customers use the coupons, customers will use coupons at times when you'd otherwise be busy and the typical profile of the GroupOn customer suggests they tend to spend the absolute minimum for the coupon.

Honestly I'm shocked the GroupOn IPO is oversubscribed. Still, probably not bad for an opening day sell.

I'd love to see solid numbers on what percentage of their sale price companies are spending on different forms of advertising.

Considering the general bargain hunting nature of Groupon-derived customers I wouldn't be surprised if they're possibly the most expensive and the least converted advertising business out there.