The Australian online group buying market is continuing on its rapid growth trajectory; growing from $71.8 million in Q1 to $123.9 million in Q2 ‐ a 72 percent quarter on quarter rise.
A Telsyte study found the group buying market is now well on track to reach or potentially exceed $400 million by the end of 2011 – which is good news for businesses.
“Australian consumers are spoilt for choice with group buying deals. The market has gone from publishing around 800 deals a month at the end of 2010, to currently around 4000 deals a month,” Telsyte Senior Research Manager Sam Yip said.
Over 2.6 million vouchers sold in the last quarter, which equates to close to 900,000 per month. The fastest growing deals in Q2 2011 were in the “leisure and recreation” and “other products and services” category, growing 121 percent and 264 percent respectively.
“Although the health and beauty segment is still growing, it is beginning to show signs of saturation as hyper-growth is slowing down. In response to this, sites will need to expand into other sub categories of health and beauty beyond general hair, spa, and relaxation” Yip added.
Multi-national group buying sites Groupon (trading as Stardeals) and Living Social (including Jump On It) gained market share after a period of aggressively investing in advertising and marketing. Groupon was the fastest growing site, experiencing 1356 percent quarter on quarter growth.
The top 8 group buying sites (Scoopon, Cudo, Living Social, Spreets, Groupon, OurDeal, Deals.com.au, and Ouffer) generated 90 percent of industry revenues. Sites outside the top 8 are also growing strongly however, making it a dynamic and highly competitive market.
Scoopon General Manager Jon Beros expressed excitement at the growth figures, and said he’s delighter his company had held the top spot.
“We want to provide our customers with choice and access to a broad range of products and services at the best prices. The recent airfare deal we ran with Strategic Airways offering a flexible return direct airfare to Phuket was a phenomenal success.”
“In 24 hours we sold 2000 airfares – which is a staggering response. The travel category is just one of a number of new categories we intend to explore this year, to broaden our appeal and capture the middle ground.”
