Social and mobile retail technology company One iota has launched a Facebook platform for its Groupon alternative, DealsJoy.
DealsJoy is a free platform that enables businesses to cash in on the trend for special offers and daily deals. It’s a self-service product that retailers can now embed into their Facebook page to better target an audience of fans.
The new integration with Facebook allows users to launch special offers and control timings, order volumes and redemption criteria. As this works on an already social platform, it will no doubt also provide a way to manage offers in line with customer expectations.
Over 100 businesses have signed up for the service in its first week, and they all get to keep 100 per cent of the revenue generated.
Consumer appetite for special offers and local daily deals has exploded over the past year and many businesses have jumped on board, providing group buying deals and offers through platforms, such as Groupon, Living Social and KGB Deals. But this field of commerce has not been without its own drama.
Damian Hanson, CEO and co-founder of One iota, is aware of the issues and feels that Dealsjoy can address them:
“We know that shoppers are hungry for money-saving deals, while businesses are looking at ways of driving customers in-store and generating revenue from their Facebook Fans. DealsJoy can support this demand. It gives business owners a free tool to promote and manage deals through Facebook, while keeping all of the revenue generated. We hope this will give businesses in the UK and beyond a much needed boost in the current economic environment.”
The system itself is simple to set up with Facebook. Once customers have claimed their deal, they are encouraged to share this with their friends to increase brand awareness too.
All deal claimants are then sent an email with a unique deal code, which must be redeemed in-store and redemption is automated online or through a mobile device by the business owner to ensure complete visibility of the customer.
The deals sector is growing fast and DealsJoy has a little bit of catching up to do in order to compete with the likes of Groupon and Facebook Offers, but the idea of a free service to businesses is bound to have an impact while so many are trying to cut overheads and ride out a recession.
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