30+ Groupon-Like Deal Sites for Online Media Planning

The massive success of Groupon, the original group buying site that crowdsources local savings, has spawned an entire group buying industry with many players racing to copy its success. The “Groupon model” has spread like wildfire and Groupon-like deal sites have been cropping up everywhere, both at the national and local levels.

In her recent article for ClickZ, Advertising Through Deal Sites: Groupon and Beyond, Hollis Thomases explored this phenomenon from an online media planner’s perspective and offered her predictions for the the future. Today’s media planner has an entire arsenal of group buying sites at his or her disposal, many with the power to target niche audiences like digital moms and hyper-local geographic regions.

Here’s a look at 30+ “Groupon-like” deal sites and what they have to offer (and this is just the tip of the iceberg!). We’ve organized our list into categories, and ordered the sites by their Alexa traffic rank.

Groupon-Like Sites

All of the sites in this list use relatively the same group-buying model as Groupon and, like Groupon, are geo-targeted to local cities. Most of them spotlight the daily deals on their website as well as in daily emails it sends to its subscribers. Some of the sites in this list are only available in certain cities so far but have plans to expand, while others cater to specific cities or geographical regions.

Deal Site	Alexa Rank	What They’re Pitching:
	1,507	Connects consumers to cool stuff. Daily deals to the best places in your city. Up to 90% off at local restaurants, bars, spas, theaters and more.
	2,243	Rock-bottom deals on the things you love to do and buy in your area. We find the best deals and deliver them to you in the form of a “Save.”
	18,362	Limited-time offers on the hottest things to do, see and get in your city. Exclusive deals on places you love at prices you’ll really love.
	27,707	Helps you get the best deals in your city, guaranteed.
	31,474	Imaginative offers saving you 50-90% on all the things you love to do, eat, wear and enjoy in your city.
	50,033	Group-buying deals with an emphasis on generating long-term relationships with customers and creating advocates for your business.
	77,039	Access to unique offers from the most reputable local merchants and vendors.
	87,666	Connects fantastic deals to people and their friends.
	92,189	Collective buying site that helps you and your friends try new experiences at extraordinary places. 50-90% savings on the most exclusive places.
	132,325	Best deals at the best prices in 352+ communities across New England.
	134,054	Great deals at the best places to eat, drink, and have fun-right in your neighborhood. A service from WhitePages.
	148,807	Save up to 80% at your favorite local spots: restaurants, spas, entertainment, and more.
	174,699	Offers consumers a one-stop source for targeted savings. Save money on the things you want and love to do in your neighborhood.
	179,731	Your daily dealmaker in Chicago offering one incredible deal a day for Chicago area businesses. Has no minimum group purchase, so deals go fast.
	232,546	Helps you find amazing deals in New York City. Experience the best the city has to offer through group buying.
	244,192	Gives you the perfect opportunity to experience cool, fun, and exciting things in your city every day at 50% - 90% off.
	306,757	Shopping segment of MyDailyThread offering limited time promotions from the best stores, restaurants, spas and venues in your city.
	413,140	Social shopping platform that empowers businesses to create their own Group Buys via a self-service white label system. Further rewards customers with discounts when deal is shared via social media.
	547,820	Connects with the best places in Austin to bring users incredible local discounts and deals.
	569,434	Something great to do. One awesome deal every day for New Yorkers.
	719,632	Bringing you fun things to do and saving you a ton of money along the way in Chicago and Milwaukee.
	772,878	The coolest things to do in the UK at irresistible prices.
	776,750	Bringing Chicagoans and Chicago businesses together through great deals.
	909,811	Offers a fabulous deal everyday in the Boston area. It’s a great way to save money and to try out new things.
	995,157	We’re here to help people in Phoenix enjoy life and save money in the process, all while supporting local businesses.

Groupon-Like Sites with a Niche or Unique Twist

These are niche Groupon-like sites that cater to a specific audience, or offer uniquely targeted deals.

Deal Site	Alexa Rank	Why It’s Unique:
	57,009	Mom-targeted deals. Taps into semi-volunteer groups of viral moms who are motivated as much by recognition and contribution as by saving money.
	80,189	Seeks out lesser-known, specialty retailers that deserve national attention. Jasmere shopping team personally tests & evaluates every product it offers.
	86,753	Travel & tourism-focused deals on things to do locally and abroad such as kayaking tours, cooking classes, dance lessons, wine tastings, etc.
	102,844	Women-focused city guide providing exclusive daily offers to local businesses in beauty, health, fitness, dining, travel and other relevant categories. Part of PopSugar women’s media.
	164,726	Donates a portion of each purchase to a local cause in your community.
	719,511	Social buying network that offers deals for restaurants, goods and services on and around college campuses.
	2,168,319	Discounts on cheap eats and fun things to do for the college campus bound.

Know of any other great Groupon-like sites? Let us know in the comments and we’ll consider adding them to our list.

Web Ad.vantage offers Online Media Buying and Planning services for campaigns that target digital moms, the health and wellness community, seniors, and other niche audiences. Give us a call at (410) 942-0488 or visit our Newsroom to learn more about us.

Related posts:

1. Local Online Media Planning Options, Part 2
2. Local Online Media Planning Options, Part 1
3. Ten Ways Online Media Planning Differs From Print
4. Summertime Media Planning Strategies

10 Comments »

1. There is a great company called CityDeals that sells gift certificates to restaurants, shops, spas, hotels, golf courses, etc. at discounted prices. They are based in Utah but have expanded across the west. The nice thing about their deals is that you don’t have to buy them that day. They sell them until the gift cards are sold out and then they continue to get more. You can check out their site at citydeals.com.

     Comment by Brittney Nielsen — November 29, 2010 @ 3:46 pm

2. Add Paylessnow.com to your list of Groupon like sites!

     Comment by Chris Wright — December 1, 2010 @ 1:23 pm

3. Your readers should definitely check out Shooger -
   http://www.shooger.com/ which provides “sweet deals” — coupons — based on location and deal type via your mobile phone.

     Comment by David Schreiber — December 3, 2010 @ 4:08 pm

4. Don’t forget Urban Dealight - Alexa rank of 43,614

     Comment by Bethany — February 8, 2011 @ 7:00 pm

5. New site for South Florida that just seem to publish great deals as they get them. They also show virtual tours of the businesses (on most of the businesses), have contests and more. It’s SFLDeals.com.

     Comment by Carl Garofalo — February 18, 2011 @ 9:30 pm

6. Most useful are groupon-like site aggregators an meta search engines - like dealosaurs.com, who was the first of this kind an is leading the pack. You can see the deals from all of them in one single swoop.

     Comment by Stefan Gruenwald — February 22, 2011 @ 7:09 pm

7. Love daily deals but don’t have time to visit every site and read every email? Dealosaurs (http://www.dealosaurs.com) aggregates daily deals from numerous group buying and deal sites and brings them together in one place. No we’re not creating the deals, we just bring them together to make your life a little easier.

   Dealosaurs brings you deals from Groupon, LivingSocial, BuyWithMe, Tippr, KGB Deals and many other sites….

   We’re currently available in all cities in USA and some cities from others

     Comment by Dealosaurs — February 23, 2011 @ 1:26 am

8. Here is an Atlanta based daily deal site: https://buyalongwithus.com

     Comment by Tabitha Walters — April 23, 2011 @ 9:30 pm

9. There’s a great site in Buffalo, NY called Seatly.com to add to the list.

     Comment by Jim Grayson — May 12, 2011 @ 3:29 pm

10. Many Groupon clones are success already. Even our Daily deal site is quite popular now here in TX .We Purchased Source code of Wroupon and Developed our own awesome daily deals .

      Comment by shela — October 5, 2011 @ 11:28 am

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