New group buying sites are launching nearly everyday to quench the ferocious appetite of local group coupon crazed consumers that can’t resist the huge discounts offered by daily deal websites. Social buying is particularly attractive to online businesses and publishers because it helps them tap into local markets and expand their customer base. Despite the incredible growth rates of large collective buying sites like Groupon and LivingSocial, the majority of cities throughout the U.S. remain unclaimed. As more competitors enter the group buying coupon market, the need for daily deal marketplaces where consumers can buy and sell discount vouchers increases as well. Below we have compiled a review list of group coupon marketplaces that have already sprouted up to address the growing demand for buying and selling Groupons.
Groupon Reseller Sites
DealsGoRound – A sort of classified ads site where people can buy and sell group coupons. Users can create deal listings for vouchers they want to sell or they may place wanted ads for deals they’re interested in. DealsGoRound doesn’t interfere with the transaction or exchange of goods between the buyer and seller nor do they charge a fee for placing ads on their group buying marketplace. Listings expire after 30 days and all deals sold on DGR must not exceed the original purchase price. If your deal listing expires without a successful sale, you can repost your group coupon.
CoupRecoup – A free online deals marketplace that connects buyers with sellers of local coupons from popular group buying sites like Groupon. Sellers are able to create free listing for their voucher and buyers can contact them directly to inquire about the deal. Deal listings do not expire until the expiration date of the deal itself is reached. Just like DealsGoRound, CoupRecoup does not assist with the transaction or the exchange of the deal vouchers. It is up to both parties involved to take the necessary precautions to minimize their risk of becoming a victim of fraud.
Craigslist – Groupon vouchers and coupons for other group buying sites can easily be found on Craigslist as well. A quick search for “groupon” will return between 10 and 30 listings for supposedly unused vouchers in large U.S. cities like New York and Chicago. Unfortunately, you’ll have to sift through an awful lot of spammy postings that are there too. The potential for fraud on Craigslist feels a bit higher because of this and you may just be better off using a dedicated group coupon reseller site instead.
Lifesta – This group coupon reselling site takes a more hands-on approach to the deal coupon marketplace in an attempt to offer an easier and more secure option for group coupon sellers and buyers. Sellers must fill out a form on Lifesta that includes relevant information about the deal they want to sell (i.e. original URL of deal, merchant’s location, deal category, price, value, expiration date, and terms/limitations of the deal) and upload a scanned image of the voucher(s). Coupon sellers may set the price of the second hand deal voucher to whatever they want and the listing does not expire until the voucher’s expiration date is reached. Buyers pay Lifesta directly in order to download the voucher and Lifesta passes the funds to the seller immediately after the purchase minus their cut ($0.99 + 8% of the voucher’s sale price).
Lifesta utilizes Amazon Payments exclusively to process all transactions so you don’t have to worry about sharing your credit card credentials or bank account information. They also offer a money back guarantee for all vouchers such that if you purchase a deal and find out within 60 days that it’s a fake or it’s already been redeemed, they’ll send you a refund. According to Lifesta’s current policy, you may be required to request a refund from the seller prior to contacting Lifesta however. Their refund policy doesn’t clearly state whether or not it’s a full refund or if the buyer is only reimbursed for the price of the voucher minus Lifesta’s service fee ($0.99 + 8% of the voucher’s sale price). If indeed Lifesta doesn’t refund you the service fee amount, and an average voucher costs $20, you’d only be out approximately $2.60. That’s actually not too bad considering the alternative of no such guarantee and losing the full $22.60. Hence, it would seem that Lifesta has a considerable advantage over the other group coupon marketplace competitors listed here.
Update: As indicated by Eran Davidov’s comments below, the buyer receives the full amount of the refund and Lifesta will be revising their policy to reflect that.
Dealigee – Another daily deal reseller to enter the group buying market. Dealigee takes a slightly different approach by integrating Facebook into their website via their own Facebook application. User don’t have to fill out any registration forms either, they simply login using their Facebook account. In order to create a deal listing, the user must validate their PayPal account to verify they are indeed who they say they are. This provides an extra layer of protection for deal coupon buyers. Dealigee allows sellers to list their deal coupon for free (no listing fees assessed) with a “buy now” price or they may permit potential buyers to submit eBay-like bids through a “make an offer” purchase option. All deal listings expire after 30 days but sellers can easily re-list them again if the voucher doesn’t sell. Payment for the voucher is completed through PayPal and it is delivered directly to the seller. Dealigee doesn’t interfere with the exchange of funds or the delivery of the voucher.
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Hi Kevin,
Great writeup! I’m one of the founders of Lifesta and I wanted to clarify our refund policy:
1. The refund is for the full amount that the buyer paid.
2. We do not require that the buyer contact the seller (in fact we do not provide any contact information for the two). The legal language refers to the fact that the refunded money will come from the seller, but if that’s not possible, we will refund the money. In either case we will facilitate this.
We’ll work on clarifying the policy. Thanks for the feedback!
Eran
Kevin Eklund reply on August 2nd, 2010 12:45 pm:
Great, thanks for clarifying that Eran. How do you verify the authenticity of a voucher and whether or not it has been used? Despite the guarantee, that seems be the pivotal sticking point as to whether or not someone is willing to use your service.
Eran Davidov reply on August 2nd, 2010 4:46 pm:
That’s a good question. We review the vouchers uploaded to the site. Just like many other online marketplaces (e.g. StubHub, eBay) we have established an arbitration process that will ensure that if the buyer has indeed purchased an invalid voucher they will get their money back
Further, each seller has a reputation that grows with each sold deal, making buyers more comfortable with the validity of a purchased deal.