With the popularity of daily deals and coupons gaining, why wouldn't Google jump on this fast moving train? Living Social and Groupon have become immensely popular tools in the savvy shopper's tool belt by offering discounts and deals to services, events and popular locations in your area, and now Google is trying their hand at it with their Google Offers (beta version). Currently they are testing only in Portland, but have plans to soon expand to New York City, Oakland/East Bay, and San Francisco.
While Google certainly isn't original in this recent venture, their dedication to it and efforts certainly make up for the lacking originality. So far, they have featured discount offers for coffee, pool halls, restaurants, tanning, and a brewery tour. They offer a set amount of deals that can be purchased for their offer, and so far have been pretty successful with the exception of the tanning and pool hall deals. The generously discounted deals offered on needed services prove to do the best with consumers, which is perhaps why the tanning salon discount failed. With the tanning salon discount a 75% price cut was offered, but it was offered on a fake price. The tanning salon actually offered better deals in-store!
Google is certainly aggressively marketing its local services in Portland. They have reportedly spent an estimated $1 million dollars in promoting their Google Places service, and street teams have been seen in the area promoting businesses to join Google Places and providing NFC stickers for store window placement. They have also hosted a number of events recently in Portland like several concerts in which they gave out tickets at local businesses and have been giving away large amounts of Google branded gear. Google is definitely proving that they aren't scared of a little face to face and interactive marketing.
When Google Offers comes to your area, though, should you use it and will it offer any benefits over Groupon or Living Social? Let's take a look at some of the differences that Google Offers features:
- Google is doing a little better about providing information on the company and services by featuring a 360 degree interior view of the business. Groupon and Living Social do not offer this, but they do offer written (and often witty) detail about the business and services. Google recently bought Groupon so this could be integrated into the Google Offers portion of their business.
- Google does not offer very easily accessible customer service. You have to enter your number in and request a call back. Whereas with Groupon, there is a toll free number you can call anytime you require assistance.
- Google pays their merchants quicker, about 80% of the merchant's share within four days of the deal. Groupon, for instance, pays one-third within the first five days, the next third within the first thirty days, and the final third within the first sixty days.
In the end, Google Offers is definitely an up and coming service to be watched closely, but they have a ways to go in perfecting their system and truly bringing something valuable to the consumer and merchant table. Don't count them out yet.
Jeremy Miller is the owner of Bugon Website Services, an ever growing website marketing company. We are actively keeping up with online trends and one trend that is increasing at a tremendous rate is the demand for online coupons. They are everywhere and everyone needs to save money right now! If your website is not listed with some of the top free online coupon sites, then it needs to be. Check out our online coupon distribution service today and we will take care of marketing your business to the top online coupon sites!
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