Daily Deal Websites Around the Globe

I am traveling in Paris and Amsterdam for a Workation (part work / part vacation) and one of my objectives is to closely monitor and take note of the workings of daily deals and coupon sites in Europe.  We have noticed over the past couple of years that the demand to start a daily deal site in countries outside of the US has been rising.  Although I get a very close look at the overseas deal sites, I live in the USA and get most of my first hand experience from the local deal sites around me.

For the most part, all daily deal sites, regardless of location, have the same primary functions…

Get a merchant to offer a discount on their product or service and proceed to market that discount to their audience for a set period of time or until the offer sells out.  The primary sales and persuasion triggers that daily deal and coupon websites typically use is urgency, scarcity, and convenience.

Although the daily deal model that is used around the world is similar, businesses and customs are very different in many and most locations around the world.

Take tipping for example…  When redeeming a daily deal from a restaurant in the US, you are supposed to tip on the actual amount – not including the deal.  Standard tipping in the United States can be complicated. The general rule is to tip 15%-20% if your service was good but there are dozens of exceptions. The most common place to tip is in restaurants, where servers make a very small base wage, often times as low as $2.13 per hour in some states, and they depend on tips for a living. Tipping is very different in other countries, however. Many countries simply don’t tip.  Many countries leave a standard 10%.  The whole general goal of tipping is to encourage good service.

Restaurants running daily deals in the USA greatly depend on their servers being tipped out for the original prices.  If they are not, the appeal to run a daily deal would diminish almost instantly as service would be poor and servers even angrier.  Likewise, restaurants in many other countries have higher employee costs because they pay their servers a much higher wage.

Another component to take into account is the fact that in many places in France and well beyond, the restaurant and dining experience IS the social event for the night and it is not unlikely for a group of guests to take up a table for nearly the whole evening.  In America, there is usually an event that follows dinner.  Dinner and a movie, dinner and a hot air balloon ride, lunch and a hike, etc.  My personal experience is that restaurants move guests in and out much quicker here in the states which helps them compensate for deals that they run.

The things that I do know is that folks abroad STILL Want daily deals, and that merchants are STILL on the hunt for more business, but deal sites must take customs and traditions into account.

I will be following up this article after my travels with a Part 2, but in the meantime, feel free to leave me a comment about your experience using, redeeming, or offering daily deals in your country?

Marc Horne

I originally posted this article on Daily Deal Media.