Whilst group buying sites like Groupon and KGBDeals are not solely about beauty, I tend to only really use them for such purposes. I’ve used both these sites quite a lot over the past couple of years and I’d say my experiences are mostly positive, although it’s fair to say I’ve read a few horror stories too.
The idea off group buying is that a a deal is created (like a haircut at a salon for £40 that’s worth £100, for example) and if enough people buy the deal, we all get the discount. Whilst I can’t prove it, I don’t think it’s strictly true that a certain amount of people need to buy the deal as I’ve never once seen a deal not go ahead, no matter how few people have purchased.
There are many pros and cons to these sites, but first I’ll talk a little bit about the main two that I use which are Groupon and KGBDeals.
Groupon has been around the longest and operates by area. You normally get 3-4 deals ranging from things like a pamper session to a day’s car hire. You usually have 24 hours to purchase the deal – from midnight to 23.59 – and then you receive a voucher for the deal.
KGBDeals operates slightly differently as they have several deals running at the same time for longer periods of time (usually around 5-7 days). Once you purchase the deal, you receive your voucher straight away. Deals get updated nightly at around midnight too.
For both sites, you are issued a voucher which will include an expiry date; meaning how long you have to use the voucher. This is where it can go a bit wrong for some as a lot of people either forget they have the voucher or forget about the expiry date. I’ve found that deals with Groupon tend to offer a degree of flexibility with the expiry date as I’ve spoken to a few companies when the date was closing-in who have allowed me to use my voucher after the expiry date as they couldn’t fit me in before. I feel this is good practice and I’ve purchased a couple of KGBDeals vouchers who seemed to have set themselves a limit of how many voucher-holders they’ll accept; for example, if they run a deal and 100 people buy it, they’ve already decided they’ll only make time available for 50 of those voucher holders and hope that the others will forget to use the voucher. I really don’t like this approach to the business as I think it sets a bad example. KGBDeals are thankfully very reasonable when this happens and have offered me a refund on these occasions.
Another thing to ask yourself when considering buying the voucher is that if it sounds to good to be true, it may well be. Obviously both these companies are intending to make the deal sound incredible, so do research on the company offering the deal beforehand. I’ve come across a couple of deals that sounded amazing, then found horrible reviews of the venue offering the deal and obviously not bought the deal.
Lastly, is it really a deal? I’ve noticed recently that a lot of companies are marking up their products for the intention of the deal. This means that they may have a product or treatment that they usually charge £30 for, but they offer it as a deal on one of these sites for £30 stating that the original price is much higher. This is really poor practice and it results in me losing faith in both the business that changed their price and the site that offered it as a deal. As mentioned in my blog here, I realised KGBDeals had done this.
On to the good things, I’ve had some absolutely amazing experiences through these sites. Thanks to Groupon I found Kalma Spa in West Hampstead and have had two brilliant treatments there including a massage and a facial twice and both times the service was out of this world. I’ve also had three haircuts/colours and had really positive experiences with them – during one cut I became aware that everyone in the salon was there on a Groupon deal!
The key to success with these sites is to not get carried away with the excitement of a bargain. Research the business offering the deal carefully and find out if it really is worth it. Before purchasing, check the expiry date to make sure you’ll definitely be able to use the deal and don’t kid yourself into believing you’ll be willing to travel miles for a deal because chances are, you won’t! Keep it local and only purchase deals you know you’re going to use.
Groupon can be found here.
KGBDeals can be found here.
Wahanda can be found here. This is another group buying site that I’ve yet to use so I feel it would be unfair to comment. There are also many, many other sites offering similar things, so shop around and see if anything takes your fancy.
thanks for explainingthat, I wondered how they work
No problem Bruce, thanks for your comment 🙂 xx