Local group buying market worth nearly $500m in 2011
Australians spent half a billion dollars on group buying deals in 2011, according to analyst firm Telsyte.
The announcement:
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – Australians continue to have a zest for online group buying deals with the market growing to be worth $498 million in 2011, according to local emerging technology analyst firm Telsyte.
Since commencing in 2010 group buying has grown to become a half a billion dollar local industry with some 5000 deals published and an average of 1 million vouchers sold each month.
Telsyte expects the group buying market to grow an additional 30 per cent in 2012, exceeding $600M and reaching $1 billion no later than 2015.
The best performing category was physical products (e.g. jewellery, electronics, clothing, etc) and now accounts for 30 per cent of the total market.
“Increased focus on physical product sales in group buying will change the face of the industry and introduce competition between deal of the day and grocery and discount online department stores” Telsyte Senior Research Manager, Sam Yip, says.
2012 will be a year of continued market growth fuelled by the refocussing of group buying sites on driving customer loyalty.
“In 2012 loyalty programs and targeted deals will continue to drive sales, while leading sites will enhance their mobile commerce strategies and expand their offerings” Yip says.
The top eight group buying sites for the 2011 calendar year were Scoopon, LivingSocial, Spreets, Cudo, Groupon, OurDeal, Deals.com.au, and Ouffer.
“About 95 per cent of the market revenue is generated by the top eight sites,” Yip says.
While there were more than 80 sites in operation in 2011, Telsyte expects that the barriers to entry will increase in 2012 and some sites will fail due to lack of scale.
According to Yip, this year the local group buying sites will battle it out with the multinational players meaning bigger discounts, better quality deals, more offers, and more loyalty programs – all for the sake of winning and keeping Australian customers.
The Q4 results show the continued rise of the multinational group buying sites like LivingSocial and Groupon. Groupon was market leader in December 2011. LivingSocial was the leader in Q4. Scoopon was the overall market leader in 2011.
Source: Telsyte press release
