Emergence of the Daily Deal

The emergence of the online daily deal space has been rapid and fun to watch. I remember looking up Groupon on Compete.com last year and was amazed month after month at how quickly their traffic, as well as Living Social's traffic, seems to have no ceiling. Personally I enjoy the art of saving a dollar here and there, so I jumped at the chance to register with both services in my home market and those to which I frequently travel. From getting the chance to ride in a race car at close to 200 miles per hour, saving at local restaurants or jumping in on the nation-wide Gap deal, I have really enjoyed the opportunity to save while having fun.

There have been many "deal" sites jumping into the space. The emergence of competitors will lead to a healthier market for both the merchants offering their services and the consumers looking to save. While the larger "deal" sites have gained a trusted position, it has yet to be seen if other emerging competitors can reach similar status on either a national, regional or local level. In my opinion, local newspapers are in a great position to capture this market giving their long-standing relationships with local merchants. Given the number of software companies offering "deal" software, I would think that local newspapers could enter this space fairly easily and be competitive.

I believe that there is still a significant upside to this emerging industry. We at Dominion Enterprises will soon be launching a new business in the "deal" space called Sold.com. We hope that you will afford us the chance to earn your business and provide you with another fun opportunity to save. We are having a blast putting this business together and promise to do our best to improve upon what we have learned via our own experiences thus far by being on both the consumer and merchant side of this industry. A special thanks to the talented folks on the Sold.com team who are working diligently on constructing this exciting new venture!

Obviously the aforementioned race car experience was my "outside of the box" daily deal experience. What has been yours? Also, I am curious about what kind of "deals" you are most likely to buy?