The reality is that offering a Deal of the Day is often not a very good deal at all for the merchants. Let’s look at the economics for a second: if a spa offers a one hour massage for $50 (retail price $100), and sells 200 of these packages, then $10,000 in revenue is generated. Groupon doesn’t publish their rates, but it’s commonly reported that they keep 50% of the revenue. This means that the spa is giving away $20,000 worth of service in exchange for $5000 — the other $5000 goes to Groupon, essentially for sending an email. That’s a pretty steep advertising bill, particularly considering it’s for the right to offer a service at a 50% discount.

In exchange for their $5000, the spa is now obligated to provide 200 hours of service, plus bear all the other costs associated with servicing customers. If they are just starting up and need exposure, perhaps this is a worthwhile investment — assuming that people will have a good experience, come back again, and pay full price. But for many merchants trying to grow their business, fulfilling on these deals loses money and crowds out good business. And unfortunately, many of the articles suggest that the bargain-shoppers who buy these deals do not often become repeat customers.

So what does all this mean? There will always be a place of “deals of the day” — but the price will come down over time as competition pushes it there, and perhaps the deals will moderate. (One way or another, merchants will have to get more for what they are offering.) But merchants will also need more “everyday” tools that will allow them to advertise through social media in a way that they control. Digital media creates the possibility create a deal in the moment, based on today’s circumstances – without waiting to get on someone else’s schedule (be it Groupon, Valpak, or the local paper). Offeretti provides that capability — a single place where participating merchants can log in, create a deal, and publish it instantly to their email list, Facebook page, website, and Offeretti’s website and mobile app, where consumers can find a comprehensive listing of deals anytime. And that $5000 a merchant will spend with Groupon — that will pay for over 8 years of service with Offeretti!

Consumers are interested as well. A mention of Offeretti’s website on the Kim Komando radio show website last fall resulted in more than 25,000 hits in two days — a real demonstration of the thirst consumers have for good resources to help them get good deals.

There is still a lot to play out. Consumers and merchants alike are learning how to use the real-time capabilities of electronic media to manage their lives and businesses more effectively. Offeretti has built a phenomenal platform with the aim of becoming THE premier resource for merchants and consumers to connect. We make it easy for merchants to get their message out, and easy for consumers to find what they’re looking for – and it’s fun to help people save money!

Offeretti provides a web based sign-up and administration application for real time creation and management of offers. The Offeretti sign-up process will walk you through a wizard collecting your business and location information.

Once you sign-up with your business information, your account will be reviewed and activated. You can start setting up your offers immediately upon approval. If you have multiple locations, you can enter them after your account is approved. Our web based application allows you to setup/manage offers, view analytics (views/clicks), manage locations and manage your account information.

Adding offers to the Offeretti site is done through a very simple screen where the business owner can setup highly targeted offers and change them on a real time basis.

Once your offer is active you can view the views and clicks for that offer on the Analytics screen.

Creating deals for your business has never been easier than this!