What do you need to consider before selling your products on Groupon, Ensogo, etc

I have been buying a lot of these coupons for years because they are so darn cheap, like 40%-90% cheaper than the average price.

For the merchants, this kind of coupons sites can be fantastic because it can bring hundreds or even thousands customers to their doors.

These group discount sites is like a marriage of coupons and social networking.

However, they are many considerations that a merchant has to take before blindly joining the bandwagons, such as:

Set a limit if it is necessary

For one, consider if you need to set a limit of the numbers of coupons to be sold. Selling too much coupons that you can handle is going to be disastrous.

First, you are offering coupons at a very low price. Second, these discount sites take between 30% to 50% of revenue share from the selling price of the coupons. Hence, many merchants are actually selling at a lost - not only monetary wise but on the time spent in fulfilling the service or order. You will need to know how much expenses that you can afford.

Too many customers coming as the same time can also make your service level to drop.

Wrong type of customers

Because this type of deal is so darn cheap, a lot of these customers are actually addicts to coupons and they will keep buying on discount deal. This mean that they are not going to come to you when you are offering your normal price.

Customer comments can be harmful

I have seen some really good discount but only gaining on a few buyers. The reason is simple. Somebody left bad comments on the discount page. Instead of gaining new customers, your deal might amplify your weaknesses to a few thousand consumers who will be avoiding your service/product when they see those comments.

How to keep the customers loyal

Many times when I use the coupons, the merchants never try to upsell, or even ask for my contacts details. What are the chances that I will go back to them again? Very slim.
Remember, customers from group discount sites love discount. Sign them up with your packages or give them more coupons so that they will come back again.

Last but not least....

AVOID Ensogo / IBuy

I have recently joined Ensogo (previously known as Living Social) to sell my products and their sales person service was horrendous. The deal page that they did for my product is a joke and they refused to change it until I had to beg them to take it down. I was getting zero customers from their deal as expected. It was okay not to get sale, but the work, correspondence and our annoyance are all wasted. Best of all, they have been owing merchant money for up to a year.

Please avoid at all cost

If you are a customer, please don't buy through their sites too. Just imagine what kind of customer support that they would have if there is an issue with your purchase.

Can you forgive me?

Can you forgive me? Forgive what you may say?

In movies/dramas, there will always be the emperor’s women asking the emperor, if I did something that is very wrong, would you forgive me? Of course, every single time, without fail,  the wife or mother will be forgiven, but at a price. The smarter ones will even get a forgiveness passport so that no one can sentence them to death or to prison.

If you were to look at the person next to you, your boss, your friend, your colleague and ask the same. What is the answer going to be?

"You siao ah? Don’t you dare, I will keel you!!!"

The only person who can possibly forgive you without plotting a revenge, has to be your parent or your other half. Right? (To my only mom & hubby, I lup you long long and deep deep for loving who I was, who I am now and and for forgiving all my madness)

Why is this so different? Why can your loved ones forgive you and other couldn’t? The answer is very simple. It’s because they are not YOUR MOTHER. Period.

Or are there anyone here who has a bff and you know that she would not leave you no matter how an arse hole that you have been?

I used to have a good friend. Good enough that we would share our exam answer sheets as he sits just behind me everytime, because we had the same alphabet in our surname. Now you know why we both have good & similar grades. If we are both awful at the same subject, then it will be you die, I die (too).

The things that we done together was so fun and unforgettable.

We have been to the scariest haunted house in KL,

We have skipped tuition classes and got robbed before

(Fun is an understatement)

We have waited 2 hours for a bus that never came, and he almost throws me in the big drain for suggesting that we took the bus.

We would blow water at the mamak stall till 2am with no specific topic. I can’t even remember what we have talked about but we would have mamak session once a week for a few years. He was like my big brother.

Man, I don't know about you, but I miss the 10 years when you are part in the picture. (It's not that we have a lot of 10 years in our life right?)

It was 4 years ago then when I did something really stupid that that broke our friendship of 10 years. We have never spoken since.

I couldn’t even invite him to my wedding though I would love to.

I couldn’t attend this father funeral even though I wanted to.  A part of me die inside.

Let’s us ask ourselves, are we so great and noble that cannot forgive others for their mistakes because we never did any ourselves?

Do they deserve your forgiveness if they have said sorry?

Would you like things to be what it used to be? Was our friendship so superficial that we cannot stand the test?

I am sorry for what I did. I was wrong.

But I do not have an answer or explanation to what I did that will lessen your anger. What is done is done and I couldn't reverse it.

I guess that I will just bring this regret to my coffin. But I hope that we can see each other eye to eye again soon. I would also like to thank you for being who you are. I've learnt hard and well and when life gives you lemon, you make a lemonade. When 1 good friend is lost, you make 10 more. We just have to learn how to say bye bye, like Mariah.

#veryemopost. #Iusedtohaveabrotherandfriend #byebye

Do you have similar experience like this? Please leave a comment if you feel the same.

The lyric version:-

Most frustrating experience with CIMB bank

Dear Mr. J,

I have submitted my request letter for home loan interest reduction more than 1 year ago. 

Ms. JJ said that I needed to submit the letter personally to your branch and that I can't send by email/fax.

So, I took leave and went to your branch and submitted the letter. A few months later, I called to check since I have not heard from her.

She said that she has LOST my letter!

Fine, so I made a trip to your branch and submitted the letter for the 2nd time.

A few months later, there was still no reply from her and I called again. She said that she needed two signatories for my request letter and I only had one in my letter. Apparently, she has FORGOTTEN to inform me.

Now, the FUNNY thing is that she said that I could submit by fax/email instead of coming personally to the branch. So I did that, and this is my 3rd submission, and you can see from my emails below that she has yet to reply me. Maybe she has FORGOTTEN again. 

Dear Mr. J, my interest reduction might have been approved 1 year ago if the officer is more competent. Do I have to bear 1 YEAR of interest differences due to your staff's negligence? Please advise.

Secondly, I asked Ms. JJ if my fire insurance charges has been waived and her reply is very inconsistent as you can see from the emails below. I wonder why she has to take so LONG for such as simple enquiry. I have also called her a many times on this.

I hope that you can help me on this. 

Thank you so much.

Regards,

Elle

*names have been changed