New group buying sites are being launched in India practically every week and the complaint most experts have for the new entrants is that they are following the same Groupon style model and not trying to differentiate themselves from the crowd.
A few sites are trying to differentiate themselves by restricting their deals to a niche industry. This allows them focus their resources and rise above their competitors that are spreading themselves to thinly amongst various verticals. It also allows them to be recognized as the go to source for deals in their segment without having to become the biggest site in terms of traffic.
Here are a few niche websites that we found targeting Indian markets as well as one that has an interesting variant to the standard model.
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Vamoosevacations, unlike other group buying websites in India which focus on showcasing daily deals across many categories, showcases deals only in the Travel category. Travel is the one of the most popular ecommerce categories in the Indian market and Vamoosevacations has a good product to convert customers who are looking specifically for good deals on travel and adventure. Vamoose helps its consumers to plan holidays not just in India but also across the globe at very affordable prices.
Foodome is a Chennai based group buying website which focuses on the food category. Foodome finds good food deals in restaurants around the city and also displays deals on food products.
Groffr was one of the first niche focused group buying portals in India. It focuses on the real estate and automobile niches. Why real-estate and cars? Their idea is that these categories target similar audiences as a customer in search of a new home might also be interested in a good deal on a car.
Soldinsixty.com is not a niche focused site but we thought we would mention it as it has a unique daily deal model. The site features a new product deal every hour rather than every day and displays upcoming deals as well. Sold in sixty claims that products deals that expire are not repeated during the day. It focuses on one category a day and the category changes everyday at morning 9; their idea is to provide a fresh category deal to their consumers every morning. Consumers here get a variety of products to choose in a whole day with good deals. Also, the hourly change of deals probably keeps customers coming back multiple times a day.
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We commend the above ventures for thinking about the box and hope that they inspire more niche-focused sites.
About the author:
Nuhail is a business developer for Enthrall Media, a company that provides comprehensive deal content and promotion solutions.
One Comment
Nuhail, I got a similar kind of website related to groffr.com, Property OK Please. I am just shocked how rapidly the group buying ideas are spreading in todays market. anyways it was a good post. Thanks.