A new Drupal module that allows you to run your own Groupon style campaign. This type of marketing is getting evermore popular as newspapers and magazines have started to roll out their own versions. So if you run a community site the http://www.opendealsapp.com/ will allow you to offer your visitors  one off deals easily.

What is Groupon?

Groupon is a localised daily deal site, that is to say you choose your city and each day a new deal appears on the site, maybe a hotel break offered at a very low rate or a great discount at a particular restaurant. You buy the deal at the price offered, but the deal is only “on” and your card only debited when enough people go for the deal, a number specified by the business seller. The deal is cancelled if at the end of the time frame not enough people have gone for it.

What’s in it for My Business?

The power of voucher sites like Groupon lie in their reach. Groupon itself is a slickly run and marketed operation, with a huge number of users and access via the web and phone apps. As a business, you are getting exposure to a huge audience. In addition Groupon claims that not only do they send new customers business’s way fast, but these usually turn into repeat customers.

But be warned! While Groupon may draw you in with their promise of “you don’t have to send us a penny” -they will take a sizeable chunk out of whatever you take on your deal, sometimes as much as 60% of the money you make. So you’ll need to check and recheck your figures before diving in with your monster offer.

The Guardian recently wrote a pretty unfavourable article -no change there – concerning users’ experiences of Groupon. A lot of their feedback concerned customers having bad experiences with the retailers themselves rather than the site, but some businesses were also none to pleased with the response:

A company that runs boat tours described what it was like to partner with Groupon. The firm said it had received just £6 per person from a two-person voucher for £30. With a boat full of Groupon customers, the firm soon realised it was costing them money to put on the trip. “Groupon would work much better for everyone concerned if they lowered the commission that they take – 50% plus VAT is just pure greed,” the boat company claimed. “Additionally, Groupon holds on to all the funds until the voucher has been used and redeemed. Thousands of vouchers do not get redeemed, and if the use-by date has passed we understand Groupon retains the funds.”

Why use Open Deals?

So we’ve discussed why businesses and customers use voucher sites like Groupon, but why would you build your own site? Isn’t this just reinventing the wheel?

Well, not exactly. Clearly there’s a market for daily deal sites, but the Open Deal module for Drupal seems to be making some pretty big claims. Number one being, as is the norm with the open source platform, the module is free! But perhaps the quick and easy set-up is what’ll prove the biggest draw for developers and entrepreneurs alike.

Have a gander at some of these points and see if you fancy starting your own Groupon style empire! And if you have any feedback on using the module, or indeed Groupon, we’d love to hear from you.

• Easy and Quick Start of a full featured Deals site.
• Based on Drupal 7 and Drupal Commerce
• SEO Friendly
• Loading speed optimized
• Google Analytics E-Commerce integrated
• Free and Open-Source