Put two developers @ Mahalo on this domain name I bought after interviewing Andrew Mason of Groupon. Concept is simple: socially shame/inspire companies into giving you a deal.<p>Please give brutal honest feedback.
Interesting idea. Great name. Okay logo. Decent site design (I'd strip all the unnecessary stuff though.)
The first thing I asked myself when visiting the site was: do these companies notice? My gut reaction is: probably not.
You will want to positively answer that question with some testimonials, or an overview of "granted deals", etc. Currently it just feels like a site with a bunch of people asking for free stuff.
Also, you could go even more Groupon-like by having people join in on an "Ask For A Deal" so it's not just one person asking, but a group of people. This will be a lot more interesting for companies as well and incentivizes users to spread the word about the deal they are asking for.
A company could respond: if you get 100 people to enter the deal I'll make it happen. Essentially you would be creating a self-service version of Groupon where the users are in control of what deals will be up there. Groupon meets Digg?
Agree this makes the most sense. However, I would argue there is some social value for each company each time a person says they are interesting in spending XX at a certain company.
Ultimately, they should place some value on that (perhaps, not a 25% discount though)
I say steal the Priceline model-- you can get your deal but only if it's reasonable enough for the retailer. I could go back and change one element of my ask if it gets rejected.
Possible game changer: Instead of guessing at the cross hairs of price to volume, vendors can actually hear the consumer's opinion real time (not after a month of testing). Instead of running a/b testing, they can begin to see outliers and future trends. They can learn consumer behavior by responding to back channel offers from consumers and then roll out appropriately with sales according to offers received. The nice thing is the control instead of turning over your inventory to a third party liquidation specialist that is going to make a margin on all the down channel overstock. It allows all vendors to have a certain outlet/flash possibility and increases engagement and page views. This isn't a site though, it's a button or meebo like bar that you can send data back when you're on the product page to the vendor letting them know you'll buy at $x price. The key would be the right amount of engagement and feedback from the vendor. If nothing happens after the offer is made (ie counter offers, other similar offers, something) then I think users don't engage.
I think this concept could work best if you created a list of companies (Best Buy, Starbucks, Barnes & Noble) who are willing to look at submitted deals. Put up 5-10 companies who agree to be listed and say the following companies are accepting "pitches" for deals and will select the best suggested deal as they see fit. (could have voting of some sort as well).
User chooses "Best Buy" and submits the following deal suggestion: "$5 dollar gift card with $20 purchase." If Best Buy accepts the Suggested Deal it will occur the following week. (a week of hype could help spread the word that a deal is coming) If Best Buy reject the Suggested Deal then they keep receiving new ones. The good thing is that most big companies have a dept thinking up promo deals for the weekly circulars.
Ironic... I am suggesting a biz model for a suggest a deal concept site. I'd like 5% of the company if you go with this "suggestion." ;) Accept my idea. Best of luck.
Design could definitely use some work before I'd use it. But I really dig the concept. Might be more effective with a more focused selection to help get traction... such as - this (week/day/month) most users wanted a deal from X - and that's all the site focuses on. Where the same company can't be chosen more than once every few months.
I doubt it'll work very successfully. Who knows, maybe the response from retailers will work...
1. Stores will have to be proactive and look and monitor these deals on a daily basis. This is your biggest risk factor. The reason why Groupon/Social Buy works is the ability to create deals for users instead of the other way around.
2. Quality of the deal is dependent on the user and their desire to get the highest percentage off. Most users are going to optimize for their own best outcome and thus be disappointed when their 80% off coupon does not get through.
3. Once a retailer does a deal at 50% off or higher, it's going to set the bar at that level for other consumers expecting the same or better deal the next time it comes around.
Thanks for the great feedback. You make some good points. We have some tricks up our sleeves to deal with some of what you bring up. Current version is what we consider a minimum viable product. Thanks for the response. We are listening carefully.
I think that while the concept is interesting, and there are a few competitors that exist already such as groupon that give discounts through large purchase, I wonder if the companies will notice. To me, it feels like many people sending a lot of noise to the seller asking for really unrealistic demands, and sets an expectation with the user that the site will be able to somehow ' get that deal '. While there is value with a name up on a social platform spurring others to get interested, really, I doubt until I see some actual results, that companies will take much notice and provide discounts. Good idea though!
Like the idea but strikes me it will be hard for a lot of companies to give custom deals without rewriting their backend. And even if you do give custom deals - how do you align the deal asker's twitter account to their account on your site (assuming not everyone has super zeitgeisty social logins)?
I don't think its a good idea. If you have enough people asking for a deal, it probably means the offering from that merchant is already in demand, thus no incentive for them to offer a significant discount on their services or product.
I disagree--and think that merchants can actually make themselves more in demand by couponing. Look at Bed, Bath and Beyond. Hugely popular, in-demand merchant that coupons the hell out of their customer base, which has only had the effect of earning them serious loyalty. Solid discounts on top of great customer service helped them stay afloat even as Linens n' Things (their one-time major competitor) was folding during the height of the recession. They've also established themselves as the go-to store for registries (61% of couples who created wedding registries in 2010 signed up at BB&B). I think they'll keep couponing, keep growing and start to take more of the market share from coupon-shy Target in the kitchen and bedding categories.
good concept, agree the logos at the bottom cheapen the site. Perhaps have them in greyscale as well, most would recognise those logos without the colours
The first thing I asked myself when visiting the site was: do these companies notice? My gut reaction is: probably not.
You will want to positively answer that question with some testimonials, or an overview of "granted deals", etc. Currently it just feels like a site with a bunch of people asking for free stuff.
Also, you could go even more Groupon-like by having people join in on an "Ask For A Deal" so it's not just one person asking, but a group of people. This will be a lot more interesting for companies as well and incentivizes users to spread the word about the deal they are asking for.
A company could respond: if you get 100 people to enter the deal I'll make it happen. Essentially you would be creating a self-service version of Groupon where the users are in control of what deals will be up there. Groupon meets Digg?
Marc Köhlbrugge