A recent report from the independent analyst house, Telsyte, suggests the Australian owned group buying site, Scoopon, dominated the local group buying market in 2011. This was the second year Scoopon clinched the top spot, outperforming multinational companies like LivingSocial and Groupon. The news is hailed as a windfall for Scoopon, competing in a sector of over 80 similar group buying websites.
Co-founder Gabby Liebovich attributes the brand’s success to the site’s focus on deal quality, rather than quantity, an organic and loyal membership base, as well as an industry leading commission structure.
“The international entrants have come in and exerted their weight with massive spends on marketing campaigns and recruited an army of hundreds to try and buy their way into the Australian market,” Leibovich says.
“We, on the other hand, have always let our deals do the talking, and despite little marketing effort, have built the country’s strongest and most loyal membership base of over 1.8 million members who have signed up simply because they are genuinely interested in what we have to offer.”
In the past, Scoopon has demonstrated it isn’t afraid to take the larger internationals on head-to-head. A legal battle with the US site, Groupon, over the control of the Groupon Australia trademark and URL address resulted in an out-of-court settlement in July 2011.
“We keep a close eye on the Americans who are throwing some pretty hefty dollars at marketing,” says Leibovich. “I question whether they are in fact making a profit.”
The data released in the Telsyte report shows that the group buying market has grown seven times from 2010. Australians spent just under $500 million in this fashion in 2011 alone, and the market is projected to reach $1 billion by 2015.
Leibovich believes that Scoopon’s leadership in the sector all comes down to providing a quality experience for customers every day.
“Through our centralised product sourcing capabilities through CatchOfTheDay group, as well as Scoopon’s market-leading commissions structure, we have and will continue to lead in the quality of deals we have on offer,” explains Leibovich.
Telsyte has measured this sector since the beginning of the group buying market in February 2010. Sam Yip, Analyst for Telsyte, worked on the latest report.
“We have a database of over 55,000 deals across all Australian locations and deal categories,” Yip says. “Scoopon was market leader for the year, however we saw strong growth from multinationals Groupon and LivingSocial, who grew very quickly in 2011.”
“However,” Yip says, “Australians continue to be loyal to the best deals and the best price, not the sites.”
