The first coupon was introduced in the year 1894 by Coca-Cola, offering their customers a free glass of fountain drink, for a reduced price of 5 cents as a deal. In 1895, C.W. Post created a coupon for a penny, for his new cereal grape nuts. Thereafter, Cereal coupons became widely used. In 1998, the United States of America celebrated National Coupon month for the first time. This journey of coupons started centuries ago and today with the amalgam of technology it holds an interesting grip in the market with its fancy deals and discounts with Daily Deals App Development.
Introduction of Daily Deals Apps
Are you looking for discounts on the product? Are you a restaurant owner and wish for fully occupied tables in your restaurants? No worries, daily deals apps help you to grab a bulk of customers at your place, by offering discount coupons and deals online. These apps are not only for service providers, merchants are also thrilled with the benefit of such deals and discounts.
Daily deals apps are so much enticing and facilitate the customers to buy their choice of products and services at a nominal price.
Market & Growth Stats
The Daily Deals industry is facing a humongous growth of $5.7B during the current year 2021, with an annual growth rate of 5.7%. As per the survey, various players are flooding into this market. In addition to this, the majority of revenue is propagated by the niches like spas, concert tickets, travel offers, and electronic buy discounts.
The biggest opportunity for growth in this industry is due to the large presence of mobile internet users, looking to search for a cracking deal over various daily deals sites from across the globe. Around 45.7 million global unique visitors have grabbed at least one deal on these platforms.
A few of the industry leaders for daily deal mobile applications are Groupon, and Rue Gilt Groupe, for their strong brand value. They are first to enter into the additional market to beat their competitors. Both have generated a larger amount of traffic on their websites, higher purchase rates, and a large customer base.
The number of Groupon users downloaded worldwide is 200+ million users with over 75% of transactions on mobile.
Business Model of a Daily Deal App
Daily deals apps are usually different from other mobile applications. In such apps, the seller has to post deals, offers, and discounts every day to lure their customers and get aware of them with the latest deals so they can take the maximum benefit of your website. Keeping these things in mind, the dealers have to adopt a few of the business models to align their business with the customer and earn a commission, while these apps also convert their revenue to high by below models.
- Commission-based: The mobile app platform is the medium that provides a large number of people to the seller to expand their business. The seller registers over this interface and gives a small penny of commission to the application for every sale.
- Advertisements based: Advertising is one of the evergreen ways to capture the attention of the people and the market by bridging the gap between both of them, and showing the most appropriate suggestion to the user’s screen at a certain place. Once your daily deal app idea gets boosted up, many sellers and distributors come to you to place their business on your application at a specific place.
- Freemium – There is no freemium kind of model for the daily deals app, sellers have to pay some amount to gain many benefits with their businesses.
- Third-party Revenue – Third-party revenues from payment gateways or ecommerce portals are also a big part of earning using the application.
- Credit Card Commission – Another monetization model is the deals users have made over the app using their cards, which are also a big source to run revenue.
Advantages of Daily Deal Apps
- Reach: Are you new to the market? Or you are a novice planning to start your own business but don’t know how to generate revenue and attract new customers? Then daily deals on mobile apps help to expand your business. These apps are the best interface to connect the new sellers to the gribble people, who are looking to buy products or services but with some discounts. Sometimes users want to buy products in bulk, if you offer a good discount, they will use your platform to purchase their needs. So, overall daily deals apps are a great source to expand your reach in the market.
- Upfront costs: For every purchase on the daily deal mobile app, the seller has to give a small part to the mobile application. Mobile application is a two-way kind of business to both the seller and the app, to earn as in the return for their cumbersome effort.
- Saves time and money: It’s a big benefit. Since every type of product is available on the application itself, the user has not to roam different stores to buy their choice of item, once they are on the daily deal mobile app, they can easily save their time searching for the best items and deals.
- Discounted rates: Every day a lot of offers and discounts are running at the slider part of the daily deals mobile app. Plus, every product is labeled with original pricing and the discounted price so that users easily save their money.
- No extra expense: There is no need for advertising your products separately; this platform offers all-in-one functionality at their place. So no extra charges as a seller you have to pay.
- Lowest rates: If we are the end-user, we are always a font of such mobile apps which give good discounts and offers for their products. The idea behind the success of these apps is the same: they have offered huge discounts on the products at the lowest rates compared to the market price. So why not, everyone wants to make their purchase on these apps.
Challenges Faced by the Daily Deal Apps
The grass looks green on the other side. It is a proverb, but it fits into the industry of uncertain market risks. Every business, in the beginning, has faced different challenges from planning to reciprocate it into success. Daily deal apps are also influencing challenges. Keep challenges in your mind and work on them parallel to assure your success. We have enlisted below some of the challenges as an owner you have to keep in mind.
- Many of the successful mobile apps like Groupon, LivingSocial have offered their users a heap of discounts and offers on their platforms. But yes they have provided a mass of product range on their platforms to expose better options for their users. So, if you want to make a mark inside the fascinating industry of deals and coupons, you must add some curated features to your app.
- Sellers are more prone to stay on your application, only when they are assured that they have quite a good market of users to offer their products, plus they are in profit even after offering the discounts. Make sure your application is embellished with a large sum of people to give a big market to your sellers, which leads to huge benefits for both of you.
- How do we forget about the fast and responsive interface? It is one of the best ways to tie glue to a user’s experience. Exciting and attractive screens are the best way to capture users’ attention on your application. Try to focus on the design of your mobile app to look most promising for your clients and customers.
- Users are so smart nowadays; you can’t fool them by manipulating things. They have come to your platform for a reason, make sure that the reason is so allure to justify your app. First, survey other platforms and plan a skilled strategy to offer discounts and promotions on your app. Else, they can move to other platforms with low rates of the same product.
- There is always a chance to bounce back and forth in this industry of coupons and deals. Sellers do not give margin to the product over your application, and without an attractive deal, customers won’t buy things.
So, before moving into this industry, you have to explore in detail the most crucial challenges you would face in your journey.
Why are Daily Deal Apps so Popular?
Behind every success, there is some reason to happen. Daily deal apps have changed the entire market of e-commerce with their lucrative offers. The majority of the people is young-looking to purchase more aggressively online than others so, apps are ideal sources to keep them engaged and automate into your customer. Small scale businesses come to expand their business within a short time, then these fancy yet promising apps are the best way to grab a large pool of customers.
Top Five Daily Deal Apps
- Groupon: If we count the maximum sum of people using daily deals apps on which platform, then Groupon is at the top. Since its launch in 2011, it has offered its customers a ton of fancy deals and e-coupons. Whether you are looking for local deals or getaway deals or online deals, Groupon is the one-stop solution for everything.
- LivingSocial: This app is similar to Groupon with add-on features like GPS to help predict the best product in proximity to their locations.
- Gilt: It contains three domains, say, Gilt provides deals with luxury products, Gilt City gives the same offers as Groupon and Jetsetter is for travel discounts and deals.
- Coupons App: This app is customized for deals and offers on all type of products.
- Ibotta: If you are looking for groceries, this app helps you with the best deals to cut down your cost for buying groceries items.
Different Types of Daily Deals Apps
- Deal Apps: This app helps the merchants to retain their customers every day, and make a strong connection with the seller of local areas. Daily deals renew every day to offer the best out of all deals for their customers.
- Coupon Apps: This type of daily deals app development is quite flexible, as they give the facility to book on the app itself and redeem at the service place. These are the digital coupons for restaurants, hotels, and spas.
- Membership Apps: This app activates once customers take their membership to enjoy any premium deals and in return get the cashback on each purchase.
General Features / Panels
User Panel:
Registration – It is this section where users first land on and from here the user can sign in to the app using their email ID or social networking credentials.
Deals Section – This section displays all deals regarding grocery, clothing, dining, and a lot more to the users.
Invite friends – Users can invite their friends by the app to use offers and deals for various categories. This way they get to explore huge shopping opportunities.
Favorites – Under this section, users get to store the deals of various categories. They can accordingly avail deals later on; though before the deal validity expires.
Coupon Codes – Here, users can apply coupon codes as they shop. Codes can be redeemed by the users whenever needed and at their convenience. These are used in coupon application development.
Browse stores specific/category-wise Deals – Users will be available to customize their choices and preferences. They can choose a specific store or can analyze all related offers as well, to shop conveniently.
Merchant Panel:
Add & Manage deals – As per the liking, the deals can be added by merchants & store owners related to a specific section, as well as they are liable to manage the deals.
Track status – The storekeeper manages the offers & deals along with the status. The number of users who have availed of the deals can be viewed from here. Merchants can also check if any extension regarding deals is required in terms of date and products.
Manage orders – From this section, all orders assigned by users are managed. At the same time, deals that are used while order placement is verified as well, to avoid confusion in later stages.
Mail system – Merchants and dealers send emails to users, to inform them regarding upcoming deals, and their benefits.
Coupon Redemption – Under this section, merchants can manage coupons redeemed by users. This is greatly helpful to maintain the shopping & billing processes transparency.
Acquired deals – Heading here, the entire deals which users have to redeem are managed. At the same time, this section also stores deals that are widely used and most loved by users.
Admin Panel:
Manage deals – From this section, Admin manages the deals introduced by merchants as well as monitors the arrival & expiry date.
Manage Coupons – All of the coupon-related information, like its code, store it belongs to, & its category is stored and analyzed by Admin.
Deals categories & subcategories – Admin manage, and monitor different deals, and their products.
Manage merchants – Information related to store owners linked to the mobile app, with their address & products sold by them, is managed by Admin under this section.
Content Management System – From here Admin manages the content like, About us, Buying guidelines, FAQs, Policy, thus maintaining consistency.
Share Deals – Deals can be shared by the admin on social networking sites, thus enhancing app visibility & prominence.
Review user comments – Admin can check the comments and reviews given by users regarding the deals. Accordingly, improvisations are done as per user suggestions and their requirements.
Advanced features of daily deal apps
Tracking & Navigation
Users love to avail themselves of deals that are near their current location. Hence, with Apple Maps/ Google Maps, users can identify deals related to shopping, grocery, dining, etc. Users can easily avail best deals running nearby their location while it also benefits your business and attracts users as they love this convenience offered to them.
Compare Prices
It pleases users to the core to get to shop at fewer prices with huge discounts. They hate it when the product bought by them is showcased on other websites at a lower price. They can easily compare the product’s price on various stores by applying the coupon codes & offers. Once they have checked the price, they can conveniently shop and pay the minimum price.
Payment Gateway
Multiple payment gateways are available to the customers nowadays, using PayPal’s Mobile SDK, Stripe, Braintree, and Apple Pay in the Daily Deals app. This makes the payment procedure sound and transparent. Customers love this convenient and hassle-free approach to making payments.
Gift cards
Help to keep users engaged. Gift cards are offered to users to encourage them to shop more using coupon codes and offers. This way, users stay attentive and motivated to avail themselves of services whenever required.
Not just this, but promotional activities, like Gift Cards and vouchers, also enhance business visibility, hence making your daily deals app a huge hit among the user base.
Integrate Social Media
Shopaholics offer to share with their friends about their purchases and often people also like to share the best deals grabbed by them. Hence, integrating social media features into your app offers people to share their deals and experiences with friends and family. Moreover, it is an astute marketing and promotional practice that enhances user engagement and also helps in bringing more users to the app.
Cloud Technology
Manage and store data safely and securely with the integration of cloud technology. Cloud technology is very useful for storing all the processed & raw data related to users, merchants, payment details, deals, making business processes a lot seamless.
A daily deals app integrated with cloud technology helps make your business scalable as well as handles entire communication on its secure servers. This way it protects business integrity.
Real-time Analytics
With this feature, it is possible to extract processed information from the huge amount of data that is stored in the daily deals app. This way it is useful in determining accurate and productive statistics related to various deals & stores, which further helps in making the right decisions to take your business to new heights.
Push Notifications
It is hugely beneficial in augmenting user acquisition & retention. App users notify regarding new offers, discounts, and various coupons. Hence, the push notification feature is not just productive but enhances business visibility too while keeping the users glued to the app.
Tech Stack of a Daily Deal App
- Real-time Analytics: IBM, Cisco, Hadoop, Spark, BigData, Apache Flink
- Database: MongoDB, Hbase, Cassandra, Postgres, MailChimp Integration
- Cloud Environment: AWS
- Push Notifications: Bandwidth, Twilio
- SMS, Phone, Voice Verification: Nexmo
- Payment Integration: Braintree & PayPal
- Programming: GWT
- Data Management: Datastax
- Send emails: Mandrill
- Operating System: Debian
Daily Deals App Development Process
The development process is a very crucial part of the project. It would require a lot of time, research, and effort to create anything from scratch to integrate it with advanced features within the budget.
This process goes through five main steps like analysis, UI/UX designing, development, QA, and deployment. Once the app is completed, it will be launched to the market. Maintenance and marketing costs are the additional costs that come after the launch of an app.
Required Team Structure
- Project Manager: To handle everything smoothly and maintain coordination between the team.
- Developers: Three main developers are iOS Developer, Android Developer, and Back-end Developer.
- Designers: Two main designers are UX/UI designers and Graphic Designer.
- Testers: QA for keenly examining every corner of the app.
Cost of Daily Deal App Development
Numerous factors determine the cost of developing a daily deal mobile app, as it varies as per the complexities, features, the number of dedicated platforms required by the app, region (as each country has its budget ratio), and various other criteria.
In the case of coupon mobile app development, the companies charge as per hour basis, with the current standard rate per hour ranging from $30-$40, which is considered reasonable to develop this kind of app. This cost also comprises payments to UX/UI designers, backend & frontend developers, Quality Assurance & Testing team. Now the cost to develop an app depending on physical location varies from:
- India-based developers: $10-$80 per hour
- USA-based developers: $50-$250 per hour
- Singapore-based developers: $30-$150
By calculating the overhead, an average coupon app development costs you around $10,000 and $15,000 for developing a native mobile app. If you want to add more features the cost will rise to somewhere between $18,000- $25,000.
Conclusion
The idea of daily deals and coupons is vast and converges a lot of space for experimentation. Daily deals apps are hand-shaken merchant and seller to generate combined profit for both of them and also to the customer.
You can build a newly exemplary app similar to Groupon with a new twist. You can pick from any of the niches like travel holidays, restaurants, apparel, and many more. There is ample scope for the new niche to enroll into this world. People are getting more influenced by the daily deals concept and are attuned by using daily deals and coupons online.
If you are new and planning to enter the market of mobile coupons and daily deals app development, hire a team of skilled programmers from Octal Info Solution. With over a dozen daily-deals applications successfully deployed, we know what it takes to build a powerful & feature-rich application.
