Digital scorecard gradually popular Groupon group buying mode is challenged

Introduction: Foreign media today, the article said, the provision of digital scorecard projects are more and more entrepreneurial enterprises.　　Some merchants believe that Digital scorecard is more valuable than group buying activities.　　The following is the full text of the article: New York, Evie Zano, a bakery owner, said she had a better way of attracting customers to buy the cheesecake multiple times than Groupon's group purchase, which was to lure customers back to the store with a bonus card. These cards are designed by cartera commerce and are not physical cards, but are associated with credit cards used by customers. Through the scorecard, when customers shop, merchants can offer discounts or airline mileage rewards.　　Customers can swipe the card directly, and the merchant will automatically deduct the preferential amount for the order. When consumers shop, companies like Evie Zano Bakery can collect consumer information, such as how often they shop again, and the amount they spend each time. This information is not available from old-fashioned paper scorecard, and it also makes it more valuable for Groupon and LivingSocial's group buying activities.　　By 2015, Aite Group expects about 900 million deals to be linked to the Merchant integration program, bringing in 1.7 billion dollars in revenue, up from $300 million in 2011. Peter Krasilovsky, vice president of Bia/kelsey, a marketing research firm, said: "This is a step in the way of trading." Pitt Krasilovsky This is done not just for new users, but also as part of a consolidated business transaction. He also said that the digital scorecard market has been developing rapidly since 2000. At that time, some start-ups and venture capitalists began to consider how to apply the scorecard in the digital age.　　The integrator card software provider attracts more than 155 million dollars in venture capital. The Cartera has completed a round of funding of $12.2 million trillion this month, and the New England venture capital fund has led the company's round of funding.　　Similar to cartera, companies such as Plink, cardspring and Mirth, which offer merchant trading services, have also attracted increasing attention. "We think this is a huge opportunity," said Jeffrey Basgan Jeffrey Bussgang, Flybridge Capital partner of Cartera Investment party. Card-related marketing will also benefit card distributors and consumers. "These integration projects usually offer additional benefits to users on the basis of credit card credits, and for businesses, the cost of using these points is lower than the use of coupons," he said. LivingSocial and Groupon, the largest US two group buying sites, typically require a 30% share of the income, and the integration project usually requires only 5% to 15% of the income split. In addition, market competition also makes Groupon's outlook face greater uncertainty, since last NovemberGroupon's share price has fallen 51% since the city. Virtual currency Some integration projects enable consumers to obtain cash returns, discounts, or virtual currencies in games such as FarmVille.　　Through American Express's Zynga Serve Rewards scorecard, consumers can get virtual currency when shopping and use it in Zynga games. Rohn Sheffrin, a senior analyst at Aite, says the virtual currency attracts more than 20-year-old young people. "Zynga games have a lot of players and they are deeply involved in the game," said David Messenger, executive vice president of American Express online and mobile operations, David Massinger. We can relate this online engagement to offline behavior. "The Denver Venture Plink has designed an integration program to help users win Facebook's virtual currency," he said. Users can get a virtual currency by simply eating at any of the more than 25,000 restaurants.　　Cardspring allows customers to develop their own web pages and mobile applications, offering coupons, digital receipts, and integration items. Mirth is currently testing the scorecard project in New York. Through the scorecard, Mirth will offer a 3% discount when regular customers dine in a co-operative restaurant. "Many businesses are disappointed with big discounts and promotions," said Mirth CEO Jeremy Jeremy Galen. You don't have to cut prices when you work with us.　　"On June 19, the online payment venture Square also launched a scorecard project to help small businesses provide rewards to customers who swipe their card readers." Increasingly fierce competition could lead to a further reduction in analysts ' expectations of Groupon.　　Groupon reported in March this year that it had "substantial flaws" in its financial controls, and that the fourth-quarter results were worse than previous reports due to higher merchant refund rates. Repeat business earlier this year, a survey conducted by Yipit International Group and group buying information aggregation service found that about half of the merchants who had conducted online group buying did not plan to do so again for the next 6 months.　　Businesses are worried that new customers, lured by group buying, will not spend again. "We continue to wonder whether Groupon can maintain high growth and make a handsome profit in reducing marketing costs," said Edward Woo, Ascendiant Capital market analyst Edward Wu. "Groupon's IPO is one of the worst performing Internet corporate IPOs since the". com bubble burst. LivingSocial is still a private company whose investors include Amazon (Weibo), Lightspeed Venture, and AOL founder Steve (Steve case). The company did not wearFinancial situation. LivingSocial and Groupon have also launched their own scorecard projects. In May this year, LivingSocial and JPMorgan issued joint credit cards.　　The credits earned by cardholders can be converted to LivingSocial dealbucks virtual currencies and can be used to participate in LivingSocial group buying. In Groupon's rewards project, customers earn points if they use a registered credit card for a partner.　　Groupon started the event throughout the country at the end of the first quarter. "We contract with hundreds of businesses every week and hundreds of thousands of consumers on the platform," said Jay Hoffman, vice president and general manager of Groupon Rewards project. The popularity of the service was unbelievable. "But some business owners still believe that the integration project is a more favorable investment than group buying." "It's not sustainable to offer one-off promotions through Groupon," says Evie Zano. "And since she began using the Cartera integration technique 1 years ago, the number of bakery customers has increased by 18%." (Chu Yue)