Is Mobile Really The Next Frontier for Daily Deals?
JAY WEINTRAUB – Mobile doesn’t work like the web. Today, I spoke with KimaLabs, ex-Amazon guys and makers of some cool mobile commerce apps. They’ve been thinking about and operating in mobile a lot longer than I have and explained that mobile is a much more ADD user experience.
It’s all about short bursts of attention. You’re competing with life much more when on a mobile device…or at least Angry Birds or its equivalent. It’s also a very browsing oriented medium not search oriented. More scrolling, swiping, and pinching, less typing.
The same things that make mobile different from the web in theory make it quite well suited for the deal space. Deals are impulse decisions. They aren’t the product of searches, and they are very local. The issue is the psychology. Deals work so well on email because it’s a captive audience. It’s why branding works so well on TV.
It’s about how it is received. (Email also means easy access to a deal you might want but don’t want that second.) Flash sales like Gilt can work on mobile because the threat of losing an item means people will buy from any connected device. Deals are time-based but not scarcity- or quantity-based. Nor are they on the whole so overwhelmingly compelling to stop what you from what you might be doing to buy just because you saw the deal on your phone.
Search has been the been first iteration of mobile deals. Groupon helped conceptualize the process with their interface that makes sense — Eat Something, Go Out, Get Pampered. The problem? The deals and the behavior.
1. The Deals – Evergreen vs. Perishable
The mobile deal landscape on the major players still kind of sucks. The holy grail are temporary deals that help attract users when merchants need them. That problem either requires great integration (OpenTable knowing availability) or lots of effort on the merchant to upload and activate.
Deal sites don’t have the first and merchants don’t have a lot of the latter. What we see instead are evergreen deals that merchants don’t mind showing at any time, but they don’t bolster the “now” vision. Examples are those that Mobile Spinach offers – easy to consumer deals that don’t ever expire, e.g, $3 for $6.
2. The Behavior
I’m no expert on mobile, but I like to watch people. When do they use their phone a lot? I’m hooked on Google Maps, but that doesn’t seem to be the majority. When looking at Twitter, Foursquare, Instagram, Facebook and even email we see the problem.
- Deals on mobile are not social — the space is called group buying, not social shopping; you don’t need friends or feel compelled to share with friends. They don’t make you want to broadcast. They apps don’t compel you to open them as part of your behavior.
- Deals on mobile are not games – browsing feeds is fun and passes the time well; scrolling for deals, not so much. As is the case with not being social, you just have limited reason to open up a deal app; you don’t check-in on it; you don’t get rewarded for using them; you don’t get hooked on the crack.
You don’t need both, but you do need at least one.
Is All Hope Lost?
No, but as a direct response business (local discounting), they still need a reason to message their consumers. That’s not there yet in mobile. We could see a world with great push messages based on location, interests, and other social/geo data. Not now, though.
My advice from the cheap seats, help those apps with touchpoints to monetizing consumers better as you, the big deal sites, have the merchants. For now, though, don’t try to be the vertically integrated play in mobile. Treat mobile like the international space. Watch others, learn from the data you see, then, buy the better ones.
Cross-published at jayweintraub.com. LeadsCon East will take place at the Hilton New York from August 24-25 — register here. Daily Deal Summit West will be held September 22-23 in San Francisco — register here.
Reader Comments.
No comments yet
Leave a Comment
Article Sponsor
More Features
- Video from the Westchester Digital Summit
- Automating Core Processes Can Reduce ‘Little Big Problems’ That Ruin Customer Relationships
- Unleash the Power of Mobile: 6 Steps to Lead Generation the ‘Iron Man’ Way
- Who’s Sharing My Brand Images? Why Text-Based Social Media Monitoring Falls Short
- Ads That Look at You: How Eye-Tracking Technologies Will Change the Advertising Game
Spotlight
Take the Display Advertising Survey for the Chance to Win a Jawbone Jambox!ADOTAS – Industry discussions about cookies, privacy and the impact on display advertising have been frequent — and, in some [...] more...
Latest News
- It’s Not Digital – It’s Mobile May 17th 2013 ADOTAS — One of the biggest mistakes advertisers can [...] more »
- Video from the Westchester Digital Summit May 17th 2013 ADOTAS – The first-ever Westchester Digital Summit was held on May [...] more »
- Automating Core Processes Can Reduce ‘Little Big Problems’ That Ruin Customer Relationships May 17th 2013 ADOTAS — Strong marketing strategies attract attention and build the [...] more »
- Adotas Poll: Tremor Video IPO Would Be A Success May 17th 2013 ADOTAS – In this week’s poll, we asked our readers: [...] more »
- Today’s Burning Question: Impact of Google I/O Announcements? May 16th 2013 ADOTAS – We’ve asked our esteemed panel of industry thought [...] more »
- Unleash the Power of Mobile: 6 Steps to Lead Generation the ‘Iron Man’ Way May 16th 2013 ADOTAS – Tony Stark aka Iron Man is restless. The [...] more »
- Pandora is First Digital Publisher to Offer e-Business Advertising Integration into Media Buying Platforms May 16th 2013 OAKLAND, CALIF., May 15, 2013 (ADOTAS) — Pandora (NYSE: P), [...] more »
Features
- Video from the Westchester Digital Summit May 17th 2013
- Automating Core Processes Can Reduce ‘Little Big Problems’ That Ruin Customer Relationships May 17th 2013
- Unleash the Power of Mobile: 6 Steps to Lead Generation the ‘Iron Man’ Way May 16th 2013
- Who’s Sharing My Brand Images? Why Text-Based Social Media Monitoring Falls Short May 16th 2013
- Ads That Look at You: How Eye-Tracking Technologies Will Change the Advertising Game May 15th 2013
-
Loading ...
Reader Favorites
Classifieds
- Print and Web Manager
- SEO Marketing PPC Specialist
- Marketing Summer Internship at Clean-Tech Educatio
- Service Line Manager - Digital Media
- SEO / SEM Specialist
Recent Comments
- Backlinks uk: Within search engine optimisation (SEO), one way links reference hyper-links aiming to a distinct Website
- energy-physics: Media.net is a fantastic ad program. But now a days I cant customize their ads.
- Today’s Burning Question: Impact of Google I/O Announcements? – Adotas | Social Media Strategy Plan: [...] Permalink [...]
- Today’s Burning Question: Impact of Google I/O Announcements?: [...] “What will be the impact of the big announcements coming out of this week’s
