The Attack of the Groupon Clones I and II and The Return of The Private Sale are creating a new niche in social commerce market – sites that aggregate local and private sale club events respectively into personalized deal feeds/alerts (email, SMS or RSS), that can be customized by varying degrees to personal tastes.
Yipit, LocalOfferLounge, DailyFlock, 8Coupons and DealRomeo all aggregate deals from the ever-expanding number of local Group-Buy (Tuangou) deal sites, whilst recently launched MyNines does the same for private sale sites (TechCrunch coverage). The appeal for users is obvious – stop ’sale spam’ from clogging up your inbox, but still get the deal you want from the brand you want.
Social Commerce aggregators many not only be an opportunity for start-ups, but also for brands looking to offer a useful social media service to their fans and followers. HSBC has gone someway towards this end – not by aggregating Group-Buy or Private Sale Club deals, but by simply aggregating ratings, reviews and comments on it’s public facing social media dashboard.
Warren Knight thanks Paul Marsden http://socialcommercetoday.com