Last week, Facebook announced it was gracefully bowing out of the daily deal game and killing off Facebook Deals. Deals was the brand’s bid to lure in Groupon loving types who also happen to be on Facebook. It seemed like a natural fit to us since, as we’ve discussed here, the love of getting things on the cheap appears to be only getting stronger. Facebook tested its deals program in 5 markets and released the following “thanks, but we’ll pass” type of statement:
“We think there is a lot of power in a social approach to driving people into local businesses,” the release said. “We remain committed to building products to help local businesses connect with people, like Ads, Pages, Sponsored Stories, and Check-in Deals. We’ve learned a lot from our test and we’ll continue to evaluate how to best serve local businesses.” Translation? Facebook sees that the deal trend is evolving and wants to get out of an already-too-crowded arena.
Facebook is leaning heavily toward check-in deals which basically would marry Groupon with Foursquare. This drives consumers inside of businesses and rewards their loyalty. This announcement comes on the heels of a prediction from Forrester Consultancy last week which boldly stated that Groupon-type of daily deals will cease to exist in the next 5 years. Forrester predicts that marketers and buyers alike will burn out on the impulse-buying genre all together.
Uh. Yeah. We here at Brandsplat don’t see our age-old love of getting a good deal disappearing in five years — not even in ten years. As long as there are shoppers, there will be the proverbial (or physical) pack of gum by the register waiting for you to buy it. But let’s hear from you, readers. Are daily deals on the way out, simply evolving to appeal to more Internet users or here to stay as is? Let us know in the comments section below!
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