The title here seems a bit sensationalist. I was expecting to read a story about how Groupon is bleeding a million per day. Instead, this is an article about how one company's analysis has concluded that they could be making $1,117,808 <i>more</i> per day.<p>A missed profit is not a loss. It's a missed opportunity, sure, but I don't think calling it a loss is appropriate.
This seems like a spammy advertorial to me. There is nothing in the article to back up any of their sensationalist claims.<p>As far as I can tell, they ask customers how much they would pay, and draw a pretty graph of that. What evidence do they have that people's responses to price questions are an accurate indicator of what they would actually spend? What have they done to address selection bias?
Surely a fairly core issue is the type of customer who buys from Groupon.<p>If Groupon deals are primarily purchased by a fairly small core of regulars (in my very limited experience a few people I know use groupon a lot, most never do), then increasing the price one day might just put them off buying tomorrows item. Every person has a finite amount of disposable income.
Apart from the other issues people have listed here, I'd take issue with their 50/50 assumption. We've been offered 70/30 right off the bat without any negotiations by Groupon and its competitors and that was as far back as late 2011.
Interesting article, when I read the headline my thoughts were: What about Living Social the company that Amazon has written off as a dead investment that cant IPO and will be gone well before Groupon?<p>There is a lot Groupon can do to perform and the huge war chest they built from the IPO has given them a great runway to do so.
are you sure people would have actually bought at the higher prices? The Groupon revenue is from actual sales, your data is from asking people.
People often say they pay a lot more than they actually will press the "buy" button for.
Interesting analysis; However, how does one factor in sensitivity in this analysis? Wouldn't one want to know how the demand will be affected if the price is increased?