So who are the competitors and what do they do?
Let's start with the most well known ones.
- Groupon
Groupon is an American company that, due to it's success has now expanded globally. Rapidly overtaking America, Groupon soon interested the capitals of Europe and Asia also.
To reiterate the above video, Groupon (the combined words of Coupon and Group) distributes large savings and offers by encouraging users to book activities with friends. For example, if a Spa was offering 70% but required 10 individuals to sign up, these 10 individuals would have to all pay in order for the deal to "activate". If they don't reach the quote needed by the time the offer expires, all customers get their money back.
The unique selling point of Groupon is that it works in numbers, by urging consumers to bring their friends to events, companies are guaranteed a large numbers of customers. This helps with company footfall, free marketing via word of mouth, a great deal and gains customer loyalty.
These numbers are correct as of 2012 and can be assumed to only have grown:
- The company has now sold 170 million Groupons to date and counts 33 million active customers and 250,000 merchants in 48 countries.
- In 2011, $2 billion in business sent to “Main Street” small merchants.
- Also in 2011, 11 new products launched, including a several that take the company away from the daily deals format Groupon Goods, Getaways, Rewards, Now!, and Scheduler.
- 11 acquisitions, including several in the mobile space in the year.
[Source]
However it's not always been smooth sailing for Groupon as it fell victim to it's own success with consumers placing more orders than expected for some companies.
- Vouchercloud
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Vouchercloud is the virtual take on the good old days of cutting coupons out of magazines and newspapers. Before internet discounts for your local restaurants and boutiques were invented, if an individual wanted to use a discount or coupon, they'd have to cut it out of cereal boxes and other packaging, but ever since the rise of Voucher cloud, that novelty has much been neglected as apps began taking over.
Compared to cut out and carry, Vouchercloud is:
- Always accessible as it's in app form inside your Smart Phone.
- Always up to date as updates are electronic and therefore instant.
- Location relevant and can be filtered via tabs in interests of
- Does not require a group interest like Groupon does.
- Living Social
[Source]
Extremely similar to Groupon, Living Social encourages individuals to urge their friends to partake in deals, which earns the individual money off their original discount or purchase. Living Social states that "We help local and national businesses grow by introducing them to high-quality new customers. We deliver compelling and cost-effective marketing solutions for businesses large and small and provide our partners with the tools to make our members their regulars."
Living social offers discounts from local activities, to small getaways and coupons for shopping.
Covering all platforms of smartphone, Living social is also available on the App Store, Google Play and Windows Phone - demonstrated above.
However Living Social seems to be quite hit and miss from the reviews read on this site. Another site gives the same idea of disappointments by Social Living.
Those are what I believe to be the top three competitors for Store pass.
I've also looked at other discount apps/websites and comparison sites for a richer understanding of how they work. An extremely comprehensive blog has put together a lost of the Top 20 Mobile Shopping Apps can be viewed here.
