In response to Andrew Young’s blog: Groupon: Are Heavy Online Email Coupons a Fad ?
What I think about the reasons why Groupon’s share price is fraction of what it once was is quite similiar to Andrew. For the reason that I tried one of their “admertisement” once, I got more thinking about it.
As Andrew said, it is a very easy way to gather many coupons and open up a website about all of them. More and more competitors will appear definitely. If one website can focus on one or two categories, it might be much more competitive than Groupon that is trying to cover as many categories as they can, because it will easier for consumers to find what they are exactly looking for, rather than get confused by tons of flaring advertisements.
Recallingt the only one purchase on Groupon, I felt disappointed, rather than got any discount. I brought a coupon of an optical shop, which gave me $200 off when I got a new pair of glasses. But the fact is that the shop rise all their products’ price, and I paid for my glasses just at a regular price in other store. So I felt the coupon was not worthy at all. Many costumers may never go back to Groupon again. Therefore, I think another important reason is that the quality of the coupons in Groupon cannot be guaranteed, which destroies their reputation in general.