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Groupon – LivingSocial – AdJuice

The following is a reprint Daily Finance:

It’s good to be a leading group-buying website these days.

LivingSocial raised $400 million in new financing last week, according to New York Times’ DealBook. The new round values the country’s second largest social coupon website at more than $3 billion.

Just four months ago, Amazon.com (AMZN) led a smaller round at a presumably much lower valuation. This time around Amazon.com is being joined by T. Rowe Price (TROW) and new venture capitalists in bankrolling LivingSocial’s heady expansion efforts. An IPO can’t be too far away.

It’s not just LivingSocial closing in on its Wall Street debut with healthy momentum.

I wasn’t the only one scoffing at Groupon for rebuffing Google’s (GOOG) seemingly ridiculous $6 billion buyout offer late last year. Boy, was I wrong. These days the IPO chatter and secondary market trades find Groupon being pegged with a whopping $25 billion price tag.

Patience has paid off for Facebook, Twitter, Groupon, and any other dot-com darling that has thumbed its nose at buyout offers that seemed generous at the time but too low in retrospect.

The challenge here is for Groupon and LivingSocial to keep growing. Juicy margins and feeble moats have attracted more than just upstarts. AOL’s (AOL) Wow.com and CBS’ (CBS) CBSLocal.com have hopped on the bandwagon in recent months. Travel deals publisher Travelzoo (TZOO) and dining reservations leader OpenTable (OPEN) have seen their shares skyrocket since embracing the pre-paid voucher modelfor discounted offers within their respective niches.

Will crowding lead to confusion or a shakeout? Will the viral nature of hot deals backfire when good offers go bad? Will non-discounting merchants find a way to fight back before they lose more business?

Then we have the biggest question of all for prospective investors: Will LivingSocial and Groupon manage to pull off their IPOs before they peak?

Are you looking forward to the inevitable Groupon or LivingSocial IPO? Share your thoughts in the comment box below.
Google is a Motley Fool Inside Value pick. Google and OpenTable are Motley Fool Rule Breakers recommendations. Amazon.com is a Motley Fool Stock Advisor pick. The Fool owns shares of Google and T. Rowe Price Group. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors.

Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz has already seen one of the Groupon deals he purchased go belly up. The site quickly refunded his money. Since there doesn’t appear to be a lot of consumer advocacy in this niche, he just launched GroupOffed.com as an industry watchdog blog. He does not own shares in any of the companies mentioned in this story. He is also part of the Rule Breakers newsletter research team, seeking out tomorrow’s ultimate growth stocks a day early. The Fool has a disclosure policy.

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Facebook Will Introduce New Service That Sells Discount Deals Like KaChing KaChing

This is a reprint from Bloomberg:

Facebook Inc. is planning to test a service that will let consumers buy discounted one-time offers as it looks for new ways to boost sales and attract local business customers.

The service will let people share discounted offers with their friends, Facebook said in an e-mailed statement. Part of the company’s Deals program, the service will be introduced first in five cities, including Atlanta, San Francisco, San Diego, Dallas and Austin, Texas.

“Local businesses will be able to sign up to use this feature soon, and people will be able to find Deals in the coming weeks,” the Palo Alto, California-based company said in the statement.

With the service, Facebook is seeking to expand in the fast-growing U.S. market for daily online coupons made popular by sites such as Groupon Inc. and LivingSocial. That industry will grow to $3.93 billion in 2015 from $873 million last year, according to a projection from BIA/Kelsey, a Chantilly, Virginia-based consulting firm.

Facebook’s discount offers will be sold to businesses by its own staff. Users also will be able to buy discount deals through the service from partners including ReachLocal, Gilt City, Tippr, HomeRun.com, PopSugar City, KGB Deals, Plum District and Zozi.

With more than 500 million users, Facebook seeks to attract more companies that want to do business with its growing user base. Recent advertisers include Starbucks Corp. and JetBlue Airways Corp.

The company said in January that it raised $1.5 billion from investors led by Goldman Sachs Group Inc., placing a $50 billion valuation on the entire company. Facebook may have reached $2 billion in sales last year, three people familiar with the matter said in December.

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This is a reprint from Mashable:

Half of consumers are using their phones to help make shopping decisions, suggesting that old-style feature phones have a place in the market, according to a new survey.

The report, by Arc Worldwide, based on a survey of 1,800 U.S. mobile phone users and a smaller qualitative study with 30 mobile shoppers, shows 50% of consumers are using their mobile devices while shopping. Since the smartphone penetration rate in the U.S. hasn’t yet hit 50% that means that some consumers are using feature phones.

William Rosen, president and chief creative officer of Arc, puts shoppers in two groups — heavy and light users. The former tend to be wedded to their phones and love experimenting with new apps. The latter view their cellphones as an inferior, on-the-go version of their computer. While many marketers are focusing on the former, Molly Garris, digital strategist at Arc, says that light users currently represent 80% of the mobile shopping population. She suggests the best way to address the market right now is via multi-tiered campaigns aimed at both heavy and light mobile shoppers. Garris says Sephora is a good example of such a marketer; the brand has in-store displays directing shoppers to m.sephora.com, which can be accessed with a feature phone, but Sephora also has a barcode-reading app for those with smartphones.

Otherwise, the report also finds that what is becoming a considered purchase has been redefined. “What’s casual is now more considered,” says Rosen,”and what’s considered is more casual.” For instance, shoppers are finding that bringing their phone with them helps them research big, considered purchases like cars on the fly, but phones can also add a layer of complexity to simple purchases, like coffee. “Nothing more casual than buying a cup of coffee,” says Rosen. “But now Starbucks is using it to broadcast your location and pay for coffee.”

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The amount of money that LivingSocial and Groupon are spending to dominate eCommerce retail shopping in the social networking world is just mind blowing.

The following is a reprint from Mashable:

A few days after Groupon locked in a Super Bowl ad, LivingSocial has responded by purchasing a pre-game spot.

LivingSocial hired Richmond, Virginia-based ad shop The Martin Agency back in November, but hadn’t previously announced the relationship. The 30-second ad will feature a guy who uses LivingSocial and “goes through a deal addiction.” Further details are not available. LivingSocial’s pre-game Super Bowl buy will be augmented with the purchase of three Academy Award-related spots.

The move comes after Groupon earlier this week confirmed that it had bought a spot during this year’s Super Bowl and is running ads before and after the game. Groupon is working with Crispin Porter & Bogusky, the agency perhaps best known for its Burger King ads.

The infusion of ad dollars signals the latest front between the two biggest players in the fast-growing online group buying category. Groupon currently claims more than 44 million subscribers, while LivingSocial’s 
are in the range of 16 million. Update: A LivingSocial rep says the number is now around 20 million.

But LivingSocial, which received a $175 million investment from Amazon in December, is a feisty competitor. Last month, the company leveraged its Amazon relationship by offering a $20 Amazon gift card for $10. After that, LivingSocial’s traffic jumped 80%.

The entry of Groupon into the Super Bowl and LivingSocial before the game also displays a coming of age for social media firms, but offers a stark contrast to the 1999 and 2000 Super Bowls, which were full of then-hot dot-com companies like Pets.com and Epidemic.com that went belly-up not long afterwards. This time around, soon-to-IPO companies like Facebook and LinkedIn are sitting the game out.

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When Facebook gets into the “deals” business with a Deals Page, the money (KaChing KaChing) can’t be far behind. Let’s face it, Facebook knows an opportunity when they see it. The Deal Wars are on and everyone wants a piece of it.

The following is a reprint from Mashable:

Want to access nearby Facebook Deals using your web browser? Now you can, thanks to Facebook’s new “Find Deals on Facebook” page.

The page, which was launched last week, enables users to find local deals on a map, just as they would using Facebook’s official iPhone or Android apps, or by accessing touch.facebook.com on their mobile phones. Users can also browse deals in other neighborhoods via search.

The page does not appear to be well-integrated into the rest of Facebook.com, although we expect it will be soon. Integration on the Home tab would no doubt drive greater awareness among those who primarily access Facebook from their desktops.

Emily White, Facebook’s director of local, told the Wall Street Journal that since Facebook Deals launched in the U.S. in November 2010, “millions” of people have used the service, and more than 50% of merchants have elected to renew their offers. Facebook Deals went live in five European countries on Monday.

This is the link:

http://mashable.com/2011/02/01/facebook-deals-page/

KaChing KaChing Inc

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E commerce is exploding ( KaChing KaChing ) and the brick and mortar retail industry is embracing it in a huge way.

“Macy’s is just the tip of the iceberg. What you see happening here is going to accelerate throughout the industry,” said Les Berglass, chief executive officer of Berglass+Associates executive search firm. “E-commerce represents the greatest need for talent, relative to its size, both for top talent and the folks to support this talent.”

The following is a reprint from

Department Store Retailing News

by David Moin
From WWD Issue 01/05/2011

In a dramatic buildup of its online operations, Macy’s Inc. will add 725 positions at macys.com and bloomingdales.com. over the next two years.

Macy’s said it was the single biggest growth maneuver to date in the 15-year-old online operation. Macys.com was launched in 1996 as an information-only Web site but later that year started selling merchandise. Macy’s relaunched the site in 1998, recognizing the potential of the channel. Bloomingdales.com was launched in 2001.

The announcement has broad implications for the retail industry, which in the past two years has done more firing than hiring but now sees e-commerce as the biggest avenue for growth.

“Macy’s is just the tip of the iceberg. What you see happening here is going to accelerate throughout the industry,” said Les Berglass, chief executive officer of Berglass+Associates executive search firm. “E-commerce represents the greatest need for talent, relative to its size, both for top talent and the folks to support this talent.”

According to Berglass, brick-and-mortar retailers experienced a 25 percent average increase in their e-commerce business this holiday season, more than double their overall increases. “Add smartphones, iPads and soon-to-be-released new versions of the tablet, the growth accelerates even more,” Berglass said. “While e-commerce now is 10 percent of the retail universe, it accounts for more than 20 percent of our search practice today.”

Macy’s said the recruitment drive for its online businesses centers around midlevel positions and lower — rather than senior level. “There are a lot of young people coming out of college excited about the new vistas in retail,” said Hal Reiter, ceo of Herbert Mines Associates, another executive search firm. “At the senior level, there is always a challenge of recruiting. But in this case it will be eclipsed by the excitement of the opportunity. It won’t be a traditional war for talent.”

Terry J. Lundgren, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Macy’s Inc., said the recruiting for macys.com and bloomingdales.com will be across merchandising, marketing and site development, complementing ongoing improvements in systems infrastructure, fulfillment capacity and customer service. “This is a business that thrives on unrelenting creativity and innovation,” Lundgren said. “Having the right talent in the right place is vital as we seek to sustain and accelerate our sales growth online, as well as in the stores.” Lundgren said Macy’s Inc. would build “one of the largest, most efficient and resourceful e-commerce organizations in American retailing as part of our comprehensive omni-channel strategy.”

In the 2006 to 2008 period, Macy’s made another big maneuver online, investing $300 million to scale up online operations, including delivery efficiency, functionality of the Web sites and customer service.

“The substantial investment in the e-commerce business by increasing personnel just reinforces Terry Lundgren’s previous commitment to the sector,” said Elaine Hughes, president of executive search firm E.A. Hughes & Co. “He bet on the success of Macy’s e-commerce business when there was an overall decline in retail sales. His bet proved successful, and he put Macy’s at the forefront of combining a national direct-to-consumer distribution with a traditional retail experience.”

Macy’s Inc. doesn’t specify the volumes for its two Web sites, but combined they exceeded $1 billion in 2009. Total Macy’s Inc. revenues were $23.5 billion in 2009. In the first 10 months of fiscal 2010, Macy’s online sales rose 29 percent compared with the same period the previous year. In 2009 and 2008, online sales grew 20 percent and 29 percent, respectively. “It really doesn’t matter to us where the transactions take place,” said Macy’s corporate spokesman Jim Sluzewski. “What really matters is giving the customer a 360-degree view of both brands so the customer can access Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s in the way they prefer at any given point in time.”

There was some speculation Macy’s was pouring resources into its Internet operations at the expense of renovating the Herald Square flagship here, where a major overhaul is contemplated. “That’s not necessarily the case,” Sluzewski said. “These are expense dollars associated with a revenue-generating business, p&l [profit and loss] dollars, not capital dollars. Dot-com are separate organizations. People building Web sites are not people designing stores.”

Regarding the flagship, Sluzewski said: “We continue to improve it and make plans, but there is nothing new to report at this point.”

Macy’s said it will set up a dedicated microsite for people to apply for online jobs by the end of this month. Macy’s also expects people to be able to apply for positions at macys.com via a mobile device and to register for e-mail notifications. Macys.com information will also be available on certain social-networking sites by early spring.

Over the next two years, macys.com’s merchandising and marketing organizations in New York will add about 260 positions. Macy’s has leased additional space at 1440 Broadway, where there are currently 420 macys.com associates, to accommodate the growth.

Also, macys.com will expand its site development and operations teams in San Francisco by 200 positions and has increased its space at 685 Market Street near Union Square, where there are currently more than 300 macys.com associates.

Bloomingdales.com expects to expand its merchandising, marketing and operations organizations in New York by about 115 positions and is negotiating a lease for additional space in Midtown Manhattan. There are currently about 200 bloomingdales.com associates.

Macy’s Systems & Technology organization, supporting the macys.com and bloomingdales.com e-commerce technology platform, expects to add about 150 positions at its central campus in Johns Creek in suburban Atlanta, bringing the total to more than 1,200 employees. The company is purchasing its office location at 5955 State Bridge Road and expanding there.

Overall, the company expects to add nearly 3,500 full-time, part-time and seasonal holiday associates in the next two years to its online businesses. This includes a new online fulfillment center to be built near Martinsburg, W.Va., and the expansion of a fulfillment center near Portland, Tenn., both previously announced.

KaChing KaChing Inc

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Amazon posts 36% jump in sales (KaChing KaChing) for the quarter , but operating profit slips. Operating expenses rose 38%. So they are selling more stuff to more people who want to buy online instead of at a brick and mortar store, but their model is costing too much money. Sales without profit won’t do any good, which means the model needs to change. Could Amazon be the next Sears, Kmart, Myspace, the CD or Kodak?

The below is a reprint from the Wall Street Journal:

Amazon.com Inc. bested many of its retail rivals during the holiday shopping season, but the company spent dearly to expand its business, cutting into profit.

An increase in operating expenses and a tepid profit forecast spooked investors, sending shares tumbling 9% in after-hours trading.

The quarterly results—an 8% rise in profit and 36% jump in sales—showed Amazon continuing to outperform the overall online-retailing industry.

In the November to December period, typically the most crucial for retailers, online retail spending reached a record $32.6 billion, up 12% from a year earlier, according to industry tracker comScore Inc.

Amazon projected its revenue would rise 28% to 39% in the current quarter ending in late March, but that operating profit would fall 2% to 34%.

Tom Szkutak, Amazon’s finance chief, said the projections reflected investment in new fulfillment centers and other infrastructure. Last year, the company said it was opening 13 distribution centers, bringing its total to 52.

Adding the fulfillment centers, mostly over the second half of 2010, means “you’re not as productive on those assets for some time,” he said in a conference call. “I’m very pleased with the investments we’re making and we’ve shown over our history that we’ve been able to make great returns on the capital we invest in.”

The Seattle company, which dominates the Internet retailing landscape, reported income of $416 million in the fourth quarter, or 91 cents a share, up from $384 million, or 85 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue rose to $12.95 billion from $9.52 billion a year ago. Operating expenses rose 38% in the quarter.

Amazon drew criticism several years ago for its high spending when it was investing in new digital media initiatives. Some of those investments, such as the development of its Kindle electronic reader, have paid off.

Some analysts said they were surprised Amazon needs to keep spending so aggressively.

“It’s disappointing because we were expecting that investment spending will come down now, but it clearly hasn’t,” said Caris and Co. analyst Sandeep Aggarwal, though he added that the investments could pay off later.

On Thursday, Amazon said books for its Kindle electronic readers have overtaken paperback books as the most popular book format on its website, with the company selling 115 Kindle books for every 100 paperbacks. The company also said it sold millions of Kindles in the fourth quarter, but in keeping with its custom, didn’t provide specific figures.

Amazon’s growth was fueled by sales in North America, which increased 45% over the quarter from a year earlier, even as international sales rose 26%, below some expectations.

Helping Amazon’s domestic growth were consumers such as Meaghan Keane, a Fairfield, Conn., nursing student who, for the first time last year, did all her holiday shopping online on Amazon.

“I was finding really great deals,” said Ms. Keane, 25, who got her boyfriend a $50 digital video camera that could be mounted on his mountain bike. “I was able to find all these different items that I wouldn’t have even known where to look for in stores.”

Amazon shares rose 5.2% to $184.45 in 4 p.m. trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market before tumbling to $167.78 after hours.

Eric Best, chief executive of Mercent Corp., which helps retailers such as Office Depot and the Home Shopping Network sell goods on Amazon and other sites, said same-seller sales for his clients on Amazon’s third-party marketplace grew 46% in the fourth quarter, versus 26% overall growth for his clients.

KaChing KaChing Inc

Tim Wizba -

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The e-commerce wars are heating-up and KaChing KaChing has the only model of it’s kind. KaChing KaChing Inc is a nationwide chain of online retail stores where you manage the business and promote sales of name brand products at everyday low prices.

The following is a reprint from Mashable:

LivingSocial’s traffic skyrocketed by 80% last week with a little help from Amazon, closing the gap between it and group-buying leader Groupon.

Before last week, LivingSocial had one-tenth of the web traffic of Groupon. Thanks to Google’s $6 billion offer and Groupon’s subsequent rejection of that offer, the deal-a-day service has been experiencing a new wave of growth. The second largest competitor in the space, LivingSocial, experienced an uptick in traffic as well, but nothing as dramatic as Groupon’s rise.

New data from Hitwise Intelligence shows that last week was a major inflection point for LivingSocial, though. It garnered 0.018% of all U.S. visits on the web, an 80% increase from 0.010%. Groupon, on the other hand, actually dropped by 20% to 0.035% market share of U.S. visits.

Why the sudden spike in traffic? The answer’s simple: Amazon. The e-commerce giant made a strategic investment of $175 million in LivingSocial last month to counteract a potential Google-Groupon combination. Last week, LivingSocial offered 50% off of Amazon.com, which resulted in more than 1 million Amazon vouchers sold. It was the biggest group-buying deal in history.

With a deal as good as 50% off Amazon, it’s no wonder traffic skyrocketed so fast. However, we bet that when this week’s data comes in, LivingSocial’s traffic will fall back to Earth. Still, the Amazon deal gave LivingSocial a lot of attention and helped it sign up new customers, which could help accelerate its growth and bring it within striking distance of Groupon.

Both companies are about to get some serious competition, though. Google is building its own group-buying service, Google Offers and Facebook is testing a group-buying prototype of its own.

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KACHING KACHING is so excited about the prospects for our independent Store Owners that we have created a business building promotion to help you and your (ISO) teams create a lucrative future of personal independence.

All you have to do is enroll two new Super Store Owners (SSO), one in your left and one in your right business center. This will earn you $200 in CAB bonuses and an additional $100 promotional cycle bonus for a total of $300.

Tim Wizba -

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I’ve watched as a new ecommerce concept and company went from being born to crawling, then walking over the last 9 months. It was so cool to watch the process and see the incremental growth and development as it happened. They have been steadily getting on their feet and taking those initial steps before confidently walking themselves up to the next level.

They recently announced that their Phase 1 tactical pre-launch of their emergence as the world’s largest online shopping community and retail chain store has been successfully completed. The phase II rollout has begun and they are starting to build out the national footprint of Independent Store Owners (ISO) who offer millions of products and thousands of named brands at everyday low prices to customers across the nation. They have already identified and established Independent Store Owners in over half the states.

Phase II will integrate KACHING KACHING’s tier 1 merchandise partners into its co-branded proprietary online storefronts, allowing KACHING KACHING to maximize the viral aspects of the Internet. As they roll out their retail chain of online stores, it will provide a totally new shopping experience for both Independent Store Owners and the mass market consumer.

I see 3 powerful forces that seem to be combining into something that could be very special and kind of actually change the online rules. Internet retail sales generated 150 billion dollars in the U.S. last year and it’s been growing by 20% a year for the past 10 years. People just marketing to other people sold 100 billion dollars in products and services worldwide last year and has a 25% growth rate. Online social networking is still the number 1 growth area in online marketing.

This company plans to exploit this by having 100,000 licensees up and operating within the next year, creating such a vast network that it becomes a force unto itself, and will likely capture a significant portion of the online retail space.

KaChing KaChing Inc is a publicly traded ecommerce company taking advantage of all three trends by offering brand name merchandise and over 2.5 million products that are sold through a nationwide chain of online retail stores.

The company was founded by the man who created the internet shopping phenomenon that started it all, shopping.com. Bob McNulty is an accomplished entrepreneur with over 25 years of industry experience in retail and online shopping.

Executive VP of Kaching Kaching, Mark Guest, called the new ISO model ideally suited to the complex and challenging contemporary environment, and pledged KCKC’s dedication to providing the intuitive and comprehensive support infrastructure for Store license holders to make sense of it all, and drive their home-based businesses to record revenue generation.

Mr. Guest said that simplicity was the guiding principle when it came to engineering an entirely new compensation arrangement which can escape the “traditional multilevel marketing requirements of heavy sponsoring”.

This isn’t a “sit on your butt and get rich” scheme. This is an honest to goodness business opportunity that you have to work at to make money. This is not being built on lotions, potions, pills, juice, travel or jewelry. This is built on the likes of Sony, RalphLauren, Apple, Microsoft, Adidas, Lancone and Intel.

I’m not writing this to sell you on it, only make you aware of it to determine if you have any interest in it. The biggest challenge of any business is getting folks to know you’re there. I’m not selling it – just telling about it.

If the idea of owning an online store stocked with millions of name brand products that you promote, and getting up to 10% of the purchase price back in commission, appeals to you…..

Go Here For More Info at the store.

Professional Marketers will agree that there are 5 questions you should ask yourself before seriously considering joining any referral marketing program. Everyone in a legitimate referral marketing program will agree with these.

1. What product or service is the company selling?

The best referral marketing companies differ from pyramid schemes legally and practically in that they earn their money by selling real products or services that people really want and use.

2. What is the unique selling proposition of the product?

If the company’s product is not clear or easy to understand and easy to talk about, it will never catch on in an internet network marketing model.

3. Would you buy it anyway and at that price?

Be honest with yourself. Even if there was no way to make money by being associated with the company, would you still buy the product or service at the price it’s being offered?

4. Who owns and runs the company?

Can you easily find out who’s behind the business? That’s pretty simple and straight forward. If you can’t find them, don’t let them find you!

5. Did you like how you were approached?

Was the way you were approached respectful, straightforward and honest?

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Tim Wizba -