Daily deal revenue at Groupon and LivingSocial in the US has dropped two consecutive months based upon data collected by CouponHq, a global daily deal data provider, perhaps a harbinger of what is to come in the Australian market.
August data shows Groupon daily deal revenues dropped 4.8 per cent and LivingSocial dropped 1.8 per cent.
Hurricane Irene negatively impacted August numbers throughout the US market for both companies.
The number of Groupon daily deal vouchers sold was down 14 per cent. Groupon relied on higher priced travel deals to maintain revenue parity, with five of Groupon’s top 15 grossing deals in August getaway travel deals.
The average price per deal has increased significantly over last six months, increasing from $41 in March to $57 in August. Average price per sold voucher increased from $21.20 in March to $29.60 in August.
This reflects increasing deal offers and voucher sales in the travel category as Groupon’s Getaways and LivingSocial’s Escapes and Adventures grow in prominence.
Large deals anchored Living Social revenues earlier this year, resulting in high revenue variability. For example, LivingSocial’s Fandango promotion grossed $9 million and represented almost 20 per cent of March revenue. However, LivingSocial deal revenue variability has now moderated with no deal representing more than per cent of its revenue.
Given stalling revenues in the US, high growth now depends on the fast growing international markets.