TheLevelUp > Groupon
Can’t say enough good things about TheLevelUp from the fine people at SCVNGR. Their take on the daily deal concept has evolved to the point of allowing users to pay with their phones via their app at merchants who use TheLevelUp, and all you have to do to redeem your coupon is go to that merchant and pay as you would normally, and you get your discount.
So, from the perspective of a small business owner, if I am choosing to either run a promotion with Groupon or use TheLevelUp, I’m debating over whether I’d like to sell a bunch of coupons to a community of people who basically peruse Groupon and other daily deal sites, and in turn get a chunk of revenue up front from Groupon, or, with TheLevelUp, I’m only offering coupons to people that want to come in and pay and who will in turn get additional levels of savings to come back.
We all know that small businesses make money off of repeat customers. The Groupons of the world will hit a tipping point for businesses like this, and serve the Whole Foods of the world better in the future, as living social recently showed when they sold 1 million $10 for $20 coupons to Whole Foods.
