The numbers tell a powerful story. Online daily deals website LivingSocial had an 80% increase in traffic two weeks ago, while Groupon.com took a 20% hit in the same department. That begs the question: Is there a new kid on the block to be reckoned with?
No one really knows just yet. The harsh reality is that anyone can come in, get viral, and dominate the online deal market in less than a day or two. That’s just how open the market is to penetration through marketing and rock-bottom prices. Groupon turned down an offer of $5 to $6 billion dollars from Google after sprouting up at lightning speed. Will they begin to re-think the decision they made? It will be interesting to see what transpires in the days and weeks to come. Facebook is also rumoured to be in the market of deal offerings, and you know what that means.
LivingSocial went viral with their offer of $20 Amazon gift certificates for $10, since they got the word out, and people bought in from across the globe. All it takes is one high-profile deal to do wonders for an online business, and here’s a stellar example. LivingSocial claims to be on track to overtake Groupon in 2011, and by all accounts they mean business.
Perhaps LivingSocial will get an acquisition offer as Google tries to build up Google Offers. That may prove to be a deal that will be too good to pass up, especially if the timing is right. That said, Google just might decide to go it alone, based upon the search engine giant’s nearly $200 billion market cap. They could surely dominate the scene if they chose to.
LivingSocial looks to increase the number of people purchasing online from local merchants in their area. After all, user confidence with online payment is at an all-time high, and social media channels have unlocked a global door for reaching huge audiences very rapidly. When you add in the fact that customers have become increasingly disconnected with brick and mortar attempts to offer deals, a powerful storm of online dominance is becoming the norm in today’s real-time society. It just makes sense to evolve and conquer in the world of online deals.
To further bolster their claim, LivingSocial has an in-house team that has already worked with tens of thousands of merchants to find win-win strategies for each of them. The ball is rolling, and in fact, it’s crushing the competition. 2011 will unveil the strategies put in place by those who want to compete in the online arena, and we’ll be there each step of the way.
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