To Groupon or not to Groupon
Subtitle: the profitability of deep discounts
By: Benjamin Edelman, Sonia Jaffe, Scott Duke Kominers
Contributors: Jaffe, Sonia, author; Kominers, Scott Duke, author; Harvard Business School
Edition: Revised edition
Series: Working paper / Harvard Business School -- 11-063; Working paper (Harvard Business School) -- 11-063
Publisher: Harvard Business School
Published: 2014
Place of publication: Boston
Language: eng
Number of pages: 23
Description: We examine the profitability and implications of online discount vouchers, a relatively new marketing tool that offers consumers large discounts when they prepay for participating firms' goods and services. Within a model of repeat experience good purchase, we examine two mechanisms by which a discount voucher service can benefit affiliated firms: price discrimination and advertising. For vouchers to provide successful price discrimination, the valuations of consumers who have access to vouchers must generally be lower than those of consumers who do not have access to vouchers. Offering vouchers tends to be more profitable for firms which are patient or relatively unknown, and for firms with low marginal costs. Extensions to our model accommodate the possibilities of multiple voucher purchases and firm price re-optimization. Despite the potential benefits of online discount vouchers to certain firms in certain circumstances, our analysis reveals the narrow conditions in which vouchers are likely to increase firm profits.
Notes: "December 2010. (Revised June 2011, October 2011, January 2014)."--Publisher's Web site.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 18-21).