The Most Successful Groupon Deal Ever

Ever wonder what Groupon’s all-time, best-selling promotion was?

Research conducted by data scientist Paul Butler reveals just that in a fascinating infographic that was published in this month’s Harvard Business Review.

According to Butler, the most successful Groupon ever was a voucher offering “$25 for $50 worth of shoes, apparel, and more at Nordstrom Rack”. The deal was offered on November 24, 2010 and was redeemable nation-wide. Roughly 623,000 people purchased the coupon, generating a total of $15.6 million (or 2.6% of Groupon’s cumulative revenue in 2010, notes Butler).

Groupon filed for its initial public offering earlier this month, and with it came criticism from Wall Street and potential investors who are suspicious of the long-term sustainability of the daily deals industry. In a letter to potential investors, Groupon’s CEO Andrew Mason said, “As with any business in a 30-month-old industry, the path to success will have twists and turns, moments of brilliance and other moments of sheer stupidity”.

Some merchants have been dissatisfied with Groupon, one calling it the "worst decision [she] ever made" as a business owner. Despite criticisms, if Groupon can formulate more deals emulating the “brilliance” of the Nordstrom Rack deal, then this is a company that needs to be taken seriously.

Check out Butler's impressive infographic here.

Comments

[Dealin Dave]

11:48 PM on 06/30/2011

I've seen mixed reviews on whether the daily deal sites generate one-time deal seekers or long term customers... I have too assume more of the former, but I've used many Groupons and none of the merchants have attempted to retain me as a customer by collecting email, mobile number, offering another coupon, etc. That seems par for the course with most businesses even outside of Groupon, but if businesses are using Groupon as a means for new customer acquisition, then they should be even MORE focused on doing something to bring those customers back in. Very few business have a product/service that is so great that deal-seeking customers are anxious to come back at full price. Businesses need to make more of an effort to reap the benefits of their investment in Groupon advertising.

I started LocalDealSites.com as a directory of daily deal sites. I have over 159 local deal sites and you can filter the list by city. http://www.localdealsites.com/

[saisai wu]

11:31 PM on 06/30/2011

No best, just better in the future. I will not declare my Group buying website wll be the best one, but I dare say my website has all the functions that Groupon has and even more features. It's built with a New Group Buying Plugin bought from Joomabc. The support is reliable and helpful.
http://joomabc.com

[Lawrence Del Santo]

08:06 PM on 06/30/2011

Way to go Nordstrom Rack!

[sakredkow]

04:29 PM on 06/30/2011

HuffPo seems to do a lot of Groupon stories.

[Nor Cal Mom]

03:47 PM on 06/30/2011

I have bought about 6 groupons and they have not dissapointed!

[tice]

03:24 PM on 06/30/2011

If it's a local place, just call them up and ask them to get the deal without going through groupon. That way the business gets the money instead of the middle man who's only real service is a mailing list.

[Nor Cal Mom]

03:48 PM on 06/30/2011

Good advice. I will def try next time. Thx!

[Myshkin57]

01:59 PM on 06/30/2011

Why was the Nordstrom Rack deal "brilliant"? It's only brilliant if it either immediately made a large profit for Nordstrom Rack or the people who purchased the certificates became repeat customers. Without that information, why should we think it's anything great? They sold a lot of them but that's probably because: (a) they didn't set a limit on the number that could be bought; and (b) Nordstrom Rack is a popular national store. So, there's no reason that the Nordstrom Rack deal has anything to do with their normal deals even if Nordstrom Rack made a big profit from it (though I doubt they did).

[samuel liu]

09:26 AM on 07/01/2011

Nordstrom Rack is not inexpensive.

[peter 9922]

12:49 PM on 06/30/2011

getting the groupon email offers daily (in SF Bay area), I have the feeling the deals are already deteriorating..