I gave polite notes to Northern Ireland daily deals sites in 2011 basically with the message, “Pivot or die”. The Groupon model was always going to be a quick win for the DD owner and a big loss for the retailer. All power belongs to the customer, no it doesn’t.  There are days when the retailer will wake up and realise that they are losing an awful lot of money over it.

Last week saw the tanking of Groupon stock, the jittery shareholders wondering if that $1.14Bn investment will ever come back and the eventual ejecting of Andrew “Cat on my head” Mason…. this is where the corner turns. Show’s over, nothing to see.

To anyone with a daily deals site, no matter how you dress it up the perception is this, “It’s like Groupon” and what happens to Groupon will stick with you.  You copied it so you’re all tarred with the same brush in effect.

There’s been enough retailer revolt over the last couple of years to ensure the model was waning at the edges. Deep discounting isn’t an issue to consider, how to stop or at least harness showrooming is.

Showrooming is the new battle ground.