OpenTable Ditching Daily Deals Is A Bad Sign For Groupon
By Robert Jackson:OpenTable (OPEN) stopped its daily deal offers after concluding that fine dining restaurants are better served by real-time revenue management systems that restrict discounts to off-peak periods. OpenTable's rejection of Groupon (GRPN)-like offers may be a reasonable case study for problems that Groupon may face in other verticals.Ironically, on the same week of the Groupon IPO, OpenTable announced the cancellation of their “Spotlight” daily deal program. When Spotlight was launched about 15 months ago, many investors concluded that it would be a huge success and a boost to earnings. Indeed, the number of deals sold, particularly for the more popular restaurants, was impressive. To expand the program, I imagined that OpenTable account executives would just make a quick phone call to their long-standing restaurant operators, set it up the deal over the phone and OpenTable would send out an email to their massive list of fine dining patrons. However,Complete Story »
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