In the USA, the world'd leading daily deal site Groupon recently purchased the fashion flash site Ideeli.com. Ideeli is very similar to NZSale, the site where you can access clothing and accessories from top brands, at deal prices. Ideeli also ships worldwide which may be of interest to kiwis.
The purchase of Ideeli for 43m USD shows that Groupon is trying to diversify it's income sources away from the traditional daily deals model. Online fashion flash sales are hot, and a growing market so Groupon is trying to continue growing by any means it can.
Again, Groupon is moving heavily into deals of physical products. It launched Groupon Goods more than a year ago to differentiate away from just online vouchers. Groupon have set up their own distribution warehouses across the US.
Ideeli offers premium brands, so it helps Groupon get away from the bargain basement image it has built. There is more profit and margin in products, and even more in top brands so overall it's a good move for the company as it struggles to meet investor expectations.
Ideeli will also widen Groupon's customer base into those who are in to fashion, but may not have purchased from Groupon before.
Interestingly, local kiwi site GrabOne already made an acquisition of fashion flash site called Brands Exclusive back in mid 2012. Last month they sold Brands Exclusive for a large loss. So the Kiwis and Aussies (in GrabOne) have already been down the flash sales path. And it didn't work out for them. So it's a wonder whether Groupon will be able to make a good go of it.
ideeli.com
