In the past few years numerous websites have popped up offering discount vouchers, sites specialising in information on sales and special offers, price comparison sites and cash-back sites where you get cash back for purchasing online. Tina gives us her step by step guide to ensure you get the most for your money.
How we shop has changed. The internet, whether on your PC or Smartphone, has become a tool to facilitate our very real need to get the best discounts and deals and to save money.
But the most popular are ‘daily deal sites, with dozens appearing in the marketplace in Ireland in the last year alone.
What is a ‘daily deal’ site?
Basically they offer you the thrill of buying (mainly) lifestyle treats at significant discounts.
They work on the basis that there is power, bargaining power that is, in mass or collective purchasing. So if enough people want to buy a particular product or service, the retailer or service provider can provide a discount to everyone in that group who purchases.
How do they work?
You sign up as a member to a deal site (for free), and then every day you receive an email telling you what that day’s deal is. (Some sites have several deals each day.)
If you choose to buy a deal you then wait until the deal ends (usually the end of that day), and assuming enough other members have also purchased, the deal is ‘on’. You’ll receive an email with your voucher for your purchase the following day and can redeem within the specified timeframe, which is usually about six months.
Are these sites popular?
A big yes is the answer to that!
- In 2011 we spent a total of €46million of daily deals in Ireland (that’s €126,000 each day)!
- In 2011 €83mill was saved in terms of the discount received.
- In 2011 1.5 million vouchers were sold.
- In December alone 137,000 vouchers were sold – that’s 4,419 each day.
- November was the busiest month of the year with sales totaling €5.6mill. This shows people were doing their Christmas shopping in Nov as sales were less in December.
How do I find the ‘daily deal’ sites?
There are upwards of thirty daily deal sites in Ireland but top 6 in terms of market share are:
1. Groupon (33%)
2. LivingSocial (20%)
3. Pigsback (14%).
4. GrabOne (11%).
5. BoardsDeals (7%).
6. DealRush (4%).
In 2011 these Top 6 together received 91.7% of the total revenue while advertising just 59% of the deals.
Top Tip:
You can register for each individually rather than receive so many emails to your in box each day a handy solution is just to sign up to one aggregate site: www.mydealpage.ie.
The email you will get from this site each day provides an overview of all the deals available in Ireland. Given there is an average of 170 deals each day, you can also personalise the email you receive by choosing area, category, price and so on.
What sort of deals can I get?
The majority of deals are health and beauty related, followed by retail and services and then food and drinks. You can buy everything from hotels and restaurants to home maintenance and dance or language lessons.
The savings on the full price can be anything from 50% – 90%.
Recent examples:
- Photography course €79 rather than €250 (70% off) Dublin (Groupon/City Deal)
- Chiropractic consultation and 2 treatments for €39 instead of €140 (74% off) in Limerick (Groupon/City Deal)
- €150 to spend on prescription glasses or sunglasses for €39 (74% saving) in Opticks. (Living Social)
- Haircut, blowdry and Keratase treatment for €29 instead of €72 (60% off) in Dublin. (Living Social)
- Night for two in the Headfort Arms Hotel in Kells with breakfast and dinner for €79 instead of €180 (56% off) (Grab One)
Tips
1. With average discounts of 60pc (and often more), the word ‘thrill’ when presented with these deals, is not to be taken lightly. The psychological response to seeing the words ‘discount’, 60% off etc. and the time limits imposed (one day only to buy), can make these purchases seem very attractive.
2. Remember these sites are not providing a social service, this is a marketplace and as with any marketplace you should always try and think before you buy.
So you have to be a bit savvy to really get the best from these sites.
- Try not to buy just because it is discounted. Buy it because you want or need it, or it’s something you were planning on buying / doing anyway.
- It’s a good idea to check with the business for available dates before you buy an offer where a lot has already been sold.
- Make a note of the vouchers you’ve bought and put an expiry reminder on your phone so it doesn’t get wasted.
- Use the voucher as soon as possible. This is because with heavily booked deals the day or time you want may not be available as businesses try and spread the custom. I.e. only a certain number of ‘deal customers’ for a certain night in a hotel.
- A discounted deal is not good value if you don’t use it. In addition, in some instances your money is only passed on to the business when you redeem the voucher, so if you don’t use it the business loses out.
- Check the terms and conditions of the websites to see within how many days you can pull out and get a refund if you decide you shouldn’t have bought something. Remember you can exercise your legal entitlement to a ‘cooling off’ period of seven days when you can change your mind and pull out.
