New players have to avoid taking discount seekers for a ride. They have to comply with the ethical principles and be careful of their merchant relations to increase business life. Vigilantism is engulfing the gulf’s social networking sites replete with the stories of unfair dealings of Dubai deals. Who can neglect the importance of word of mouth in determining rise or fall of an online campaign?
Dubai deals are making the life easy and fantastic in less. Since the coverage of group buying websites has spread across the emirates or gulf region as a whole, the windfalls are omnipresent in the shape of daily deals in UAE including the deals of foods, makeup, car repairs, room nights, massages, desert safari, dhow cruise, and so on and so forth.
Although the history of group buying is not old, a plethora of complaints is piling up against the group buying websites in UAE as bargain hunters whine at their rip-offs because of the connivance of websites and merchants whose deals in UAE were too good to be true.
Veering away the tirades, group buying proponents say when customers feel of getting caught in some trap or cajoled into the false catchy advertisement/copy, actually they may have overlooked one important component of that catchy ad and that is the fine print which, in most of the cases, throws light candidly on nitty-gritty of a deal.
Maybe overlooking the truth behind Dubai deals
So, howsoever appetizing food deals in Dubai are looked at first glance from title and circumlocutory deal description, the offers are highlighted in black and white in the fine print. As an example content of a deal published on a daily deal website debuting Dubai deals can be cited.
Although the title “Feast on Authentic Pakistani Dishes: AED40 instead of AED80 at Kabab BQ Restaurant” calls for an action, a cursory look at the fine print transpires conditions that may compel a second thought. One of the fine prints limits redemption of one voucher per table per visit.
There is no need to reiterate how important it is to read carefully all that is written to stave off unpleasant circumstances instead of prompting into buying because of promise of discounts in deals.
It is good on the part of a site if it does bring into light every detail. If a site does conceal actual incentives carried forward by, for instance, daily deals in Dubai, it is nothing but a blatant freeloading on the self-regulatory nature of online marketing in UAE.
Freeloading on soft regulations
Experts call for well-defined regulations and laws to secure the interest of consumers as well as businesses, though the industry has to abide by the local laws currently.
Pressed by the numbers of disgruntled deal buyers criticizing group buying websites and relating their bad experiences with regard to Dubai deals, Dubai Economic Department conducted probe into the cases against Groupon and appointed Tecom as an investigation leader.
Groupon was exonerated from the charges of delays in deliveries. Cynics did not agree on outcomes.
Of course, group buying websites are also leading to huge savings. For example, the Middle East’s leading group buying site, Cobone, has saved customers more than Dh158 million since its launch in 2010.
“With the growth in this segment and the increase in trust from customers, it is set to boom and become even bigger than it already is,” Paul Kenny, Dubai-based CEO of Cobone Middle East, told Gulfnews.
According to an estimate, there are 30 group buying websites operating in Middle East. High competition may be one of the factors engendering customer dissatisfactions, but it is not the reason.
In a bid to hit the breakeven point as soon as possible, new entrants in daily deal industry partner with all that are coming along their way with the common intention to ramp up revenue. Sometimes, this objective causes serious trouble to the customers.
Itis not a cakewalk!
Not from any angle, daily deal business is as easy as 1-2-3. Enterprising entrepreneurs started off the business soon to have realized that how hard it is to gain economies of scale.
“People like to state that this is an easy model to start. [But] what’s not easy is scaling,” the newspaper citied Dan Stuart, Managing Director LivingSocial Middle East, as saying.
They are also too amateur to understand the secret of long-term operation is customer satisfaction and delivery as promised in deals. The group buying industry bellwether, Groupon, which is successfully capitalizing on the model in Middle East, takes measures to ensure customer satisfaction even through ghost visits to merchant’s locations.
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