Groupon Deals Often Succeed

If you believe that daily deals from Groupon, Living Social and others only profit the companies peddling them, think again. A recent study found that these online coupons attract new or infrequent customers, and often build a buzz.

A new report from Technomic suggests that not only do first-time or casual guests use online daily deals to try out a restaurant, those trials often result in repeat visits and word-of-mouth recommendations. And many coupon users write about their specific experience on social media sites such as Yelp and Facebook.
Several key findings from Technomic’s recently completed Online Daily Deals Report on restaurant goers’ attitudes and usage of couponing sites:

• 48 percent of deal buyers used the coupon at a restaurant they have not yet visited, and 25 percent used it at a restaurant they have only visited once before.
• 67 percent later returned to the restaurant without a daily deal.
• 83 percent recommended the restaurant to family and/or friends.
• 34 percent posted a review of the restaurant on a site such as Yelp or Zagat, and 25 percent wrote about the restaurant on their Facebook page.

“Consumers at all income levels appear to be very engaged in and satisfied with online daily restaurant deals,” notes Bob Goldin, Technomic’s executive v.p. “They are subscribing to multiple services and purchasing multiple deals. The fact that 85 percent of consumers plan to continue to purchase online restaurant deals and 79 percent look forward to receiving them is a strong indication of the impact the online daily deal business is having and of its potential within the restaurant space.”

Technomic will share more findings from the daily deals report during a free 30-minute webinar on Thursday, June 23. For more information on the report or related research, please contact Bob Goldin at 312-506-3936 or [email protected].