Being an entrepreneur what do you want?

Obvious to Guess! A business model that can take you to the top of the marketplace. Innit?

And what is the best business model?

Again obvious! A model that has a high rate of merchant and consumer retention, and a vast scope of generating recurring revenue. Right?

So, to get you what you want, in this piece of writing, we will provide you with a proper analysis of – How to Build a Groupon Clone App – through which you can leverage a business model that not only has a high retention rate but also a lot of opportunities to generate recurring revenue.

And, that model is – Digital Coupon Based Business Model – Also known as the ‘Groupon Business Model’

This model has its own loyal audience which helps businesses dealing in this domain in generating recurring revenue.

Though Groupon (an e-commerce-like platform) is not making that buzz now, it was made in its initial foundation days but nonetheless, still it is one of the most consumer-attracting business models around the world.

Thus, for startup and small-scale businesses looking for a unique competitive advantage in the market, the digital-coupon-based model, Groupon leveraging, can bring instant customers and merchants and let them grow at a rapid rate.

So, what are you waiting for? let’s get started and find out how to build the Groupon Clone App to leverage digital-coupon-based-model, and set up your daily deal business.

Why Build A Groupon Like App?

As per the statistics, the percentage of users who always redeem the Coupons before making a purchase increased from 15% (in 2017) to 19% (in 2019). This data shows gradual but promising growth in the upcoming years in the coupon redemption behaviors of consumers.

Everyone wants to save money and, thus, loves discounts. Not only do these discounts help businesses to attract their targeted consumers but also help with converting them into loyal ones.

Offering discounts has evolved as a new way to win consumers in this competitive environment. While securing the profit, discount plays with consumers’ psychology and causes them to experience that they are making the best deal.

An App like Groupon, by offering daily exciting coupons, can make your consumers believe that you are a business offering daily amazing deals with heavy discounts. This belief gives them a reason to stick with your business which ultimately generates a new stream of recurring revenue. 

Digital Coupon Business Model Monetization

To monetize this model for your business let’s understand the working of Groupon App first. Groupon is by and large, an e-commerce platform, however, it isn’t involved in product manufacturing or service creation. It works only as a middleman between retailers and consumers.

Groupon uses its App to showcase coupons contained within the latest discounts retailers are offering on their products. The percentage of these discounts can go up from 5% or less to 85% or more. This heavy discount showcasing attracts a large number of consumers enabling Groupon to generate revenue in the form of commission.

Now, if you built a Groupon-like app you not only can offer your products at a discount through coupons but also help other businesses reach their potential customers in exchange for the commission they will pay to you. This could potentially generate another promising stream of revenue you can utilize for your business.

It is considered the best business model since it benefits both businesses and consumers.

Are you planning to build a Groupon Clone App? But you are confused about how to start? Don’t Worry! Hire Experts with experience in developing successful e-commerce websites to handle your project, and get the exact results you desire.

Benefits Of Building Groupon Clone App For Your Business And Customers?

Evidently, building the Groupon Clone App can benefit both businesses and consumers. Where businesses can acquire a good customer base, consumers can access amazing deals that save them money. So, this is a win-win situation for both.

Not limited to this, there are some other benefits that Groupon-like apps can bring, let’s explore them below!

Benefits to Businesses:

• Businesses can reach their target consumers and sell their products.
• Retailers, due to the hike in purchases, can earn more.
• Promoting products also promotes the name and brand that offers discounts.
• Retailers don’t have to pay for products that didn’t sell even after being promoted via the App, this ensures value for money.

Also Read: WooCommerce Vs PrestaShop: What To Choose For Your Online Store?

Benefits to Consumers:

• Consumers get the cheapest deals even for branded products.
• They also can redeem coupons for their daily necessities.
• They can access the discount via their mobile conveniently.
• Along with monetary benefits, consumers can explore new reliable brands to purchase products of their necessities.

What Does Make Digital Coupon-Based Business Model Popular?

Coupon Based Business Model can help you sell more for your business OR earn more as a middleman. Nowadays, digital coupons are used efficiently to convince consumers to buy a service or product. They help in capturing the most portion of customers’ demand.

As a host of the Groupon Clone App, you can not only earn via commissions but also monetize your platform with other business models like click-based earning, where, your revenue becomes directly proportional to consumer clicks on the products showing discounts through your app.

This model prevents revenue loss due to consumer changing their mind during the purchasing process, and leaving the page after clicking on the products. You can earn only by getting retailers a lead rather than a purchase.

Also, the Groupon Clone App host can focus on the local demand instead of targeting the global audience. This increases the chances of deal redemption as you can predict consumers’ demand more accurately.

Moreover, displaying the bundle offers with discounts can help in increasing up-selling and cross-selling. You also can increase recurring revenue by offering exclusive offers to loyal customers.

Groupon Clone App – How to Build Guide

If you want to build a Groupon-like App by yourself, follow the below process. While the process is technical, we are trying to use the least technical jargon possible. So, let’s start to understand the process.

 

1. Choose Web Development Technology

First of all, you have to select a website development technology. You can choose a technology slack like PHP, Python, or any other suitable to you for Backend. Similarly, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, or any other of your choice for the front end. The selection of database technology is also up to you, or you can choose MySQL, MongoDB, or any other you are proficient in.

2. Select a Reliable Web Hosting

After that select a reliable web hosting provider to host your application. You also can opt out of cloud service to host your platform. While the selection is solely your choice, we recommend going with evidently reliable services like AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, or any other with a proven track record. Before finalizing, check if the service can handle your web traffic efficiently.

3. Design Database

The next step is to design a database. You must implement a database management system to store valuable information in a specific and aligned manner. This will be used to store information about user and merchant accounts, transactions, deals, discounts, reviews, and other relevant data.

4. Implement Security Measures

To ensure the security of user data you must implement a secure user authentication mechanism. To secure data transmission, SSL/TLS-like encryption works exceptionally well. You also can try SQL injection and cross-site scripting to protect your platform against common web security threats.

5. Integrate Payment Gateways

For this purpose, you can select from Stripe, Paypal, or other gateways to ensure compliance with data security standards. These payment gateways also help in handling financial transactions in bulk. Put some extra effort into making this portion of the platform more user-friendly and convenient, as it will directly impact revenue generation. 

6. Build Responsiveness

When it comes to finalizing the design ensure that it functions well on different devices with varying screen sizes. It should work well and all its features should be adjustable to meet the unique requirements of mobile, tablet, and desktop.

7. Implement Search Functionality

To allow users to conveniently find the best deals by entering location, category, keywords, etc., consider implementing efficient search functionality. While the choice of technology is up to you, we recommend Elasticsearch, as it works great with e-commerce-like platforms, when properly implemented.

8. UI / UX

User Interface and User Experience impact the overall growth of the platform. By designing a platform that is intuitive and visually appealing to the users, you can enhance the overall experience of the visitor contribute to more sales, and decrease the bounce rate.

9. Admin Panel

Develop an admin panel for site administrators so they can easily manage users, deals, and reviews, and resolve issues that arise. Also, provide them with analytics and reporting tools to allow them to track website performance and other administrative tasks.

10. Other Features

Consider implementing other important features like:

• User-friendly Dashboard for Merchants
• Notifications and Alerts
• Backup and Recovery Options

What Does It Cost To Build A Groupon Clone App?

The cost depends on several factors and many aspects contribute to the final price for the development of your application. Let’s analyze them from a cost perspective one by one.

• App Platform

The platform you have selected to build the application for significantly impacts its overall development cost. For instance, the cost for an App being built natively for Android would be around 50% less than a hybrid one, developed to work on iOS as well.

• Complexity

How complex the App also contributes to its overall development cost. If the has only basic features like simple navigation, email subscription, static pages, etc. then its cost would be around $10K. The Cost of an App with medium features like payment gateway, etc. would increase up to 2K to 4K US dollars, so the final price would be around $15K. Or one step ahead, if you want developers to develop an advanced App for you then you might have to pay around $20K. So, the complexity of the App is directly proportional to its Cost.

• High-Cost Features

Features like Email Subscription, Simple Login, are RSS Feed are basic and lesser in cost. Then, features like Social media login, payment option, camera accessibility, image editing, and user profile are counted into the medium ones, and features like video streaming, AI implementation, advanced search bar, and admin panel are the high-cost features. So, it is all up to you what features you want to go with and how much you want to spend on the development of your application.

• Time Consumption

The cost of app development also depends on the time consumed. Usually, the native apps take less time with respect to advanced and cross-platform apps. If you want developers to build an iOS native app it would take approx 400+ Hours, on the other side, building an Android App would take around 500+ Hours, Also the charges per hour for hiring Android developers are slightly more than for iOS developers. Thus, developing an Android native app would be way costlier than the iOS native app. Similarly, since the Hybrid or Cross Platform app takes more time to be built, it is approx. 700+ Hours, it would be more costlier than the two we have discussed earlier.

• Hiring Cost

Professionals including a business analyst, project manager, Android developer(s), iOS developer(s) QA engineer, and UI/UX designer involved in the process of App development. Their salary for the hours they worked on your app will add to the overall cost of your app’s development. However, their service charges per hour would vary on the basis of whom you have hired whether it’s a local agency, freelancer, or overseas company, these charges also vary with geography.

Now that we have got to know everything important about developing a Groupon Clone App, let’s conclude it.

Conclusion

We have provided all the essential details that will help you in developing a Groupon-like App. However, if still you have any questions in your mind ask us here. Or if you find this a complex task making you puzzled, hire an expert developers team to build a successful Groupon Clone App for you at the minimum cost possible. Hiring experts will guide you throughout the app development process and you will have no need to be stressed about the technical part.

FAQs

Now, let’s take some queries to answer, Users like you building an e-commerce-related app ask us frequently.

1. How much time does it take to build a Groupon Clone App?

It depends on several factors like complexity, platform, size of your business, and other related aspects. However, you can expect it to take around 6 months, at least for the MVP (Minimum Viable Product) version.

2. Will it be beneficial for my e-commerce local store?

Of course, you can use a Groupon-like app to showcase your daily discount offers. It will not only increase your reach but also allow your customers to find your online store conveniently, which will deliver them an amazing user experience.

3. How much in minimum cost possible I can build a basic Groupon-like app?

There are several factors we have discussed earlier that impact the overall cost and help in guessing an estimated price. Despite that making an exact guess is not possible without knowing your requirements. We recommend you contact our experts to get a free estimate.

4. Can you build a Groupon Clone App for me?

Yes, our team of experts with experience in building e-commerce-related apps can build it for you with promising success. Check our portfolio to take a look at our skills, testimonials, and successfully completed projects.