ANCHORAGE, Alaska—
The coupon website Groupon, which held its Anchorage launch in November, already has thousands of subscribers. Local shops offer unbeatable deals to get customers in the door -- possibly taking a loss up front that could pay off in the long run.Stylists at Salon Ivy haven't had much of a break lately. Owner Brian Ivy says they've seen hundreds of new clients come through the door in just the last few months, after the salon was one of the first Anchorage businesses to be featured on Groupon.
“They contacted me more or less out of the blue,” Ivy said. “Thirty-nine dollars for $100 worth of services -- people can't look past that that easily.”
Groupon says its Anchorage launch has been a success, citing the numbers as proof.
“We launched in the Anchorage market in November 2010 and so far we've featured close to 70 local businesses, saving local consumers over a million dollars,” said Groupon spokesperson Kelsey O’Neill.
The website features a different business every day, with a discount of at least 50 percent. A certain number of people, set by each featured business, must commit to buying a deal before it goes into effect; if that doesn’t happen, nobody is charged.
“I expected to sell 40 or 50,” Ivy said. “We sold that before nine that morning; we sold several hundred of them, and we've been essentially overrun with new clients.”
Across town, the lunch hour is in full force at the Spenard Roadhouse -- and many customers came with Groupons in hand.
“When we first started talking with them, they told us we would probably do about 500 of the Groupons, and we ended up doing almost 2,000” said the restaurant’s marketing manager, Darcy Kniefel.
The Roadhouse launched its first Groupon deal last month.
“It's been a good thing for us,” Kniefel said. “Because it brought in some people that we normally wouldn't have seen -- but also in January, when it's a slower time of year, it brought back some of our regular guests that we might not have seen.”
Groupon is not without its risks for businesses, however. Ivy says working with Groupon is an investment and could take a while to pay off.
“As a matter of fact, it's a loss for me,” he said. “But dollar for dollar, as far as advertising goes, it's brought in 10 times the new clients as we would normally expect, which has resulted in the salon revenue practically doubling.”
Groupon says that initial risk is why they have dedicated sales representatives for each market. Anchorage’s representative isn’t currently based in Alaska, but soon could be.
“Our sales representative in Anchorage works directly with local businesses to make sure that their deals and (the offer) makes sense for their business and is going to be successful,” O’Neill said.
Both Salon Ivy and the Spenard Roadhouse say they will probably try Groupon again, whether or not the first rush settles down.
Kniefel says the Roadhouse expected a rush in the first month after the deal was announced, and then another rush in the last month before it expires.
Contact Todd Walker at twalker@ktuu.com
