Best Social Group Buying Sites For Daily Deals And Deep Discounts

Friday,

Group buying sites leverage the power of collective bargaining to provide incredible local deals that offer huge savings for consumers while also promising spectacular sales numbers to participating merchants. As a result, these group deal sites have become immensely popular and successful for all parties involved. Most local group coupon sites offer short-term daily deals that discount products and services by more than 50% off and therefore usually sell out of such offerings within just a few hours. In this review list we’ve identified some of the top group buying sites that are currently available. If you’re a local merchant, you might also want to take a look at our group buying business tips for owners. If you know of any other group savings sites or if you’d like to share your experience using one of these websites, please use the site submission and comments link directly below.To submit other group buying sites to list or to share your experiences with any of these daily deal sites please leave us a comment here.

LivingSocial – A group deal website that offers shoppers daily deal coupons from participating local merchants in their area. One killer feature that sets this site apart from the pack is the incentive that’s provided by LivingSocial to tempt its users to share the daily deal offerings with their friends. That is, if three people buy the deal using the link you’re provided upon signing up, then you receive the deal for free. LivingSocial also has an iPhone app called LivingSocial Deals that allows you to browse the daily deal and receive deal notifications on the go. Unfortunately, LivingSocial is only available in a handful of major U.S. cities at this time.

Dealster – This is a large group buying website that recently inherited Adility Deal’s coupon serving inventory and now it’s available in over 50 major cities throughout the United States. Members are notified of daily deals in their city for which they can then purchase deal vouchers that are redeemable at the merchant’s place of business. The site offers ten dollars worth of Dealster credit that can be used towards buying any Dealster offered group deal voucher. Dealster’s group coupons are also transferable and may be given to friends or family members as gifts.

BuyWithMe – While it’s currently only available select U.S. cities, BuyWithMe displays daily deals on its website and promotes them through the social web to elevate group buying power and obtain deep discounts for its users. Their daily deal offerings are a boon to local merchants and essentially includes no risk since the deal is canceled if the business owner doesn’t obtain the sales volume he/she requires.

Groupon – This is the original group buying site that launched the group discount craze. Groupon is well funded and offers more local group coupon offers in more cities across the U.S. than any other competitor. Nearly everyday a new daily deal is posted for each major U.S. city and if a minimum number of buyers sign up, the deal is activated. After purchasing your Groupon, you can use it like cash to purchase the local product or service at a huge discount rate. If however, you purchase the discount coupon and the deal doesn’t attain enough buyers to become activated, the deal falls through and your credit card is not charged. Groupons can be used for more than just your own needs; users can purchase Groupons for their friends or buy Groupon gift certificates that can be used for any future Groupon purchase.

SocialBuy – A daily deal service that emails subscribers local hot deal in their city for such things as food, drinks, heath products, and entertainment services. SocialBuy lets current users earn $10 in SocialBucks for every friend they refer to their service. One SocialBuck is worth one U.S. dollar towards a SocialBuy purchase. Users can also can earn rewards points through SocialBuy’s Membership Rewards program. For each friend a SocialBuy user refers, they’ll also earn one rewards point and they may refer up to a maximum of 50 friends per month.

HomeRun – A unique social group buying website that uses its own virtual currency (i.e. Credit) to incentivize user actions on the site. Credit can also be used to purchase the daily deal and if you earn enough Credit through promoting HomeRun you can earn a free deal. The HomeRun Beginner’s Luck feature allows new members to take advantage of multiple deals that they can choose from during their first 30 days. Previous Beginner’s Luck offers have included many free products at local restaurants and bars. Another special feature of HomeRun is The Private Reserve section that dishes out exclusive offers to the most valued HomeRun members. In order to gain access to The Private Reserve one must gain a specified amount of HomeRun Points by completing actions such as sharing deal, inviting friends, and interacting with the HomeRun community members.

TownHog – A newcomer based in San Francisco that is looking to quickly expand to serve your city. Like other daily deal sites on this list, when the sale ends TownHog emails you a purchase voucher for you to print and serve to the business provider from whom you obtained the amazing deal. TownHog allows users to recommend local businesses that they’d like to see deals offered by as well.

CrowdSavings – Assembles huge online crowds of people to generate the collective bargaining power for obtaining amazing daily deals. The service works much like Groupon but it’s currently only available in a limited number of U.S. cities.

Pricebunch – This group buying site operates similarly to the others allowing you to share deals with friends in an attempt to reach the minimum buyers target. However, it also displays reviews/testimonials of that daily deal’s product or service to help potential buyers make an informed purchasing decision. Pricebunch is currently only available in a limited number of major U.S. cities.

Twongo – A group deal site that uses the power of team buying to attain excellent discount prices on local products and services. Twongo’s extra features include email based deal alerts, live support via web chat, a public discussion forum, and Twongo Charities for which a portion of revenue is donated to nonprofit organizations.

Yipit – A social group buying aggregator that recommends local daily deals featured on sites like Groupon and other group discount sites listed here according to your Yipit account preferences. Daily deal alerts are sent to your email address and originate from local businesses in your city ranging from bars and restaurants to spas and sports attractions.

Groop Swoop – This group deal site features local merchants to provide the ability for users to leverage their combined purchasing power to get great discounts on various local services and products. Groop Swoop is only available in the San Francisco area at this time.

Bloomspot – A group coupon service that features discount savings vouchers for numerous local merchants in the buyer’s area. Bloomspot is only available in select cities throughout the Unites States.

Scoop St. – Provides group discount coupon deals that are offered by New York City merchants only. Scoop St.’s daily scoop offers daily deals for products and services like sporting event tickets, food, drinks, haircare, health, and much more. It appears that Scoop St. intends to expand into other U.S. cities but it’s not currently known where and when this will occur.

SwoopOff – This group buying site is currently only serving the Los Angeles area. Daily deals provided by businesses from the surrounding LA area are displayed on SwoopOff’s website where users can take advantage of excellent savings on many local services. Deal alerts are sent by email to notify subscribers and sell vouchers that are used to collect purchased products or services from the merchant who’s offering them.

MyDailyThread – Similar to other social group buying sites, MyDailyThread offers daily deals from restaurants, bars, retailers, and spas. To provide further incentive for users to recruit additional buyers, MyDailyThread gives out what they call Breakthrough Bonuses when a large number of sales are made. These bonuses range from free appetizers to free manicures and are in addition to the daily deal that is purchased.

FlyCoupon – This group buying website offers daily deals in several cities throughout the United States. Their daily deals include such things food, drinks, and tickets to various entertainment venues. Yelp reviews are integrated into the site to provide feedback on a merchant so buyers can make an informed decision as to whether or not they should take advantage of the deal.

eWinWin – Based out of Tampa, FL, eWinWin alerts users via email of new daily deals that provide savings of 50% or more off products and services. Like other group buying sites, the customer’s credit card is charged for the purchase of the deal voucher only if the minimum number of sales is reached.

EverSave – A social group buying site that offers local daily deal coupons to help consumers obtain incredible savings. Visitors are provided with details about the deal on the website and they may comment on it as well. After purchasing the deal voucher, the customer takes the printable coupon or coupon code and uses it toward the purchase products or services offered by that particular merchant.