Daily Bits

shopping

The Rise of Online Deal Seeking and Couponing

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Do you have memories of parents or grandparents sitting on the porch or the kitchen table (or wherever their favorite spot was) on a lazy Sunday afternoon, meticulously weeding through the coupon section and cutting out the useful ones? Those days are long gone, although the concept of couponing is definitely still here, thanks to the Internet.

Groupon. Living Social. Coupon Mom. Coupons.com. Those are only a handful of the sites that have attracted millions of consumers with the offer of coupons and daily deals. The United States is not alone in experiencing this phenomenon. In fact, in other parts of the world, countless daily deals sites crop up almost everyday. Confession coming up…

Yup, I am a sucker for those daily deals sites. There was a time when I had purchased so many deals that I was unable to use some of the coupons I had. I even had to give away some of them! The argument of every sucker like me: “But I can save a lot of money!”

A debatable point, of course, but that does not change the fact that people are still on the lookout for ways to make some savings on their purchases, and patronizing coupons sites and daily deals sites is one such way. Don’t believe me? Maybe you’ll believe this infographic by Credit Score ((Source)) – it’s full of official statistics so it must be true!

Truth be told, I was more interested in the figures from the past – I am already convinced that daily deals sites and coupon sites are way too popular for our (consumers) own good. For example, did you know that it was Coca-Cola who introduced the first ever coupon? They did so to promote the soda in 1888 when it was first launched. The coupon gave the bearer a free glass of Coke!

A quick summary of stats for the year 2010:

  • Digital coupons outsell printed coupons 10 to 1
  • More then 332 billion coupons were distributed in 2010
  • There were 63,000 daily deals in the US in 2010
  • There are about 200 daily deals sites
  • 68% make impulse purchases on daily deals sites, compared to only 38% on coupons sites

Interested in more? Here’s the infographic. Click on the image to see the full size.

The Rise of Online Deal Seeking and Couponing
The Rise of Online Deal Seeking and Couponing

So tell me, are you merely part of the statistics, like I am?

Virtual Fitting Room Courtesy of the Kinect

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Virtual Fitting Room

Want to bet that before the year is over, we might just have no need to actually try on clothes when we go shopping? If the setup that Russian company AR Door ((AR Door)) is successful in its endeavors – and I don’t see why it won’t be – we could very well see virtual fitting rooms everywhere.

The idea is simple and not new. In fact, I seem to remember a teeny bopper movie from ages ago where the lead character used a similar system. She would merely use her computer to try on combinations of clothes to see which looked good.

What AR Door is doing, though, is far from a mere teeny bopper project. Using software that they have created, coupled with the Microsoft Kinect, they have created virtual fitting rooms for Topshop, a popular clothing chain. Basically, if a customer fancies a dress, she does not have to look for a private fitting room to undress and actually put the dress on. Instead, she only has to stand in front of a huge screen and let the system do the work. The Kinect scans the customer and displays her on the screen. The customer then has to push virtual buttons to try clothes on. And yes, it works with the back as well. (Of course, you have to see how your backside looks in that pair of jeans!)

See the virtual fitting room in action.

I have to say that this is a brilliant application of the Kinect, which I thought was silly when I saw some people playing with it during a tweet-up. I can already imagine the convenience that this setup will bring!

Brits to Enjoy Amazon’s Black Friday Sale

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Black Friday is something that practically every American looks forward to. And, why wouldn’t you look forward to this day? All sorts of gadgets and other items can be had for ridiculously low prices – if you have the patience and energy to battle it out with countless other shoppers looking for a good deal. So yeah, every year, on the day after Thanksgiving, everyone goes nuts, and stores – both online and offline – have to deal with massive amounts of transactions.

This year, the “guys across the pond” are going to have taste of what their American cousins consider a normal experience. The UK branch of Amazon is holding a five-day sale dubbed Black Friday Deals Week. That’s pretty much self-explanatory, but you have to be ready to get drooling once you visit the online shopping site for good deals.

What do you think of newly-released CDs that are worth only 1 GBP? How about video game consoles with severely slashed prices? (That’s something that no one can say no to!)

In order to be able to take advantage of the deals, though, you have to keep your eyes peeled – the deals run throughout this week, but each specific deal only stays up for a limited period of time. The reason for this is, according to Richard Dodd (British Retail Consortium spokesman):

This move is a reflection of how tough trading conditions are, even in the run up to Christmas, and more evidence of how retail competition benefits customers. But, over a period, all retailers have to cover their costs – premises, staff, buying in stock and a reasonable return for investors – so there will always be a limit to the depth and duration of discounts.

Limited or not limited, you’ll have to at least give this a look. Don’t expect to easily find a Kindle for less than 100 GBP, though. Yeah, I checked. 😉

The Comeback of Coupons

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Coupon
Coupons have long been part of the people’s lives. Remember the good old days when your grandmother – or mom – spent Sundays clipping coupons from newspapers as thick as book. There was a point when people stopped spending hours on this activity, but that does not mean that coupons are gone for good. Indeed, we are seeing more and more of them once again. Sure, the popular medium may have altered slightly, but the idea remains the same, and in any society, making some savings is always a welcome thing.

Enter the comeback of coupons. [Read more…] about The Comeback of Coupons

The Economics of Valentine’s Day

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Economics of Valentine's Day Infographic
I have said it before, and I will say it again (and again). Valentine’s Day is a mere Hallmark holiday that has gotten way out of control. It is commercialism at its best. Sure, it is always nice to spend special moments with the special person in your life, but it will not kill you if you do not subscribe to the hype that is Valentine’s Day! [Read more…] about The Economics of Valentine’s Day