New Social Commerce Niche: Marketplaces for Unused Group-Buy Coupons
4Just as Yipit, DealRadar, and DailyFlock have emerged as clearing houses for group-buy deals from Groupon, LivingSocial et al, the group-buy phenomenon has given rise to another new business opportunity – marketplaces for buying and selling purchased-but-unused group-buy vouchers.
New marketplace sites such as CoupRecoup, Lifesta, and DealsGoRound allow people to post their hastily purchased gym sessions, beauty and spa treatments, VIP club passes, restaurant reservations etc, name their price, and sell them on (recent TechCrunch and WiseBread commentary).
It’ll be interesting to see if and how these new social commerce sites, pitched as Craigslists for Group-Buy deals, manage fraud (why not use the e-mail voucher AND sell it, by simply printing it off twice?) or the professional eBayers’ trick of snapping up popular concert tickets in bulk and selling them on at a profit (UPDATE – see how lifesta are managing these issues in comments below).
But we think this addition to the flourishing group-buy ecology is smart – aggregation is the future – but we also think it’d be better if Yipit picked up the phone to CoupRecoup, Lifesta or DealsGoRound and combined forces to offer a one-stop shop for buying and selling new and previously purchased group-buy vouchers.
And for brands still on the sidelines of the group-buy social commerce phenomenon, deciding whether it makes sense to use it as a product seeding and word of mouth vehicle for launching new products, we think this emerging ecology of group-buy related sites is testimony to a popular and healthy trend.
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Hi from the Lifesta team, and thanks for bringing this up! We agree with you there's a potential trust issue here, which is why we built Lifesta in the StubHub, and not Craigslist, model: We facilitate the entire transaction through the site, including payment and voucher transfer. We guarantee the transaction, so if the buyer finds out the voucher they bought is invalid we give them their money back. Another way we reduce the risk for buyers and sellers is by transferring the voucher automatically and immediately after payment was processed. As in any other marketplace, we will deal with sellers who post bad deals. We also show the number of deals each seller already sold, so people who are concerned can buy only from experienced sellers. Finally, selling is hassle free and requires no communication between the buyer and the seller (as we've seen on Craigslist – "Can only meet downtown. cash only.").
Hi Yael, thanks for the update – I've updated the post, pointing people to your comment. Thanks!
You may want to checkout http://www.skeedka.com and add them to your article/review. It’s similar to Lifesta/Stubhub, where the entire transaction is facilitated by Skeedka, but they offer additional value-add features, such as auctioning off your deals, and accepting best offers. It’s more of an eBay for daily deals.