The Gap takes over Groupon, and Crashes Site.

The Gap takes over Groupon, and Crashes Site

The Gap took over the localized social site today by rolling out an international groupon deal for $25 for $50 Worth of Apparel at Gap. Within minutes of the deal going out to Groupon members, the site crashed.

Groupon offers “Unbeatable Deals on Local Adventures!” according to their site. So has Groupon sold out? The site launched in Vancouver earlier in 2010 and offered localized neighborhood deals to their members for the restaurant around the corner, or the dry-cleaning company in your neighborhood. Groupon did a great job of promoting the “small guys” in a charming and fun way. Definitely not promoting international companies such as The Gap.

What do you think? Has Groupon lost it’s way?

Written by Kelly Robertson

About the author: Kelly Robertson

Kelly, one of the main bloggers for 6S Marketing, was born and raised on Vancouver Island and spent most of her childhood running free through Strathcona Park hiking, camping and feeding the Whiskey Jacks. When she's not blogging for 6S you can find her enjoying the outdoors at Stanley Park and the Squamish Chief or training for half marathons.

Learn more about Kelly »

7 Comments

Comment by Jan Dawson — August 19, 2010 @ 1:16 pm

What do you think about the local competitors?
Comment by JackStraw — August 20, 2010 @ 9:22 am

Groupon is all the talk right now in Silicon Valley. Looks like
they didn’t anticipate the wave from the big companies. I noticed
the majority of their business was from services not products. This
is a big door they opened and could definitely change their identity.
It may not be a good thing depending on how much they sell out.
Comment by Kelly Robertson — August 20, 2010 @ 11:58 am

Hi Jan,

Local competitors like Living Social? I think that they should continue to only offer deals from localized businesses which is what all of their members appreciate ( in my opinion). Perhaps Groupon will find a niche offering international deals as they did yesterday, and other sites like living social will focus on localized business.
Comment by Quentin — August 20, 2010 @ 3:31 pm

IMO the reservoir of local companies “turned on” to internet marketing enough to use a service like Groupon is pretty small, and mostly in large metro centers. Expanding to big brands was inevitable if they wanted to keep expanding.

That being said, this was a pretty horrible way to introduce a new type of business.
Comment by Darren — August 24, 2010 @ 9:48 am

In my opinion a deal is a deal. I think the idea is savings to the masses not promote the little guys. I don’t see why you cant do both. Otherwise most of the population outside of large cities will be left out and unable to enjoy the advantages of Groupon.
Comment by matt — August 24, 2010 @ 9:54 am

I think there’s room for a national, big brand service, and a small more local service. Personally I prefer Groupon as it provides a mix of both. At least so far
Comment by James H — August 26, 2010 @ 9:10 am

I recently unsubscribed from Groupon because I found the ‘deals’ totally irrelevant to me. Not only that, but the business advertised were not in my city but for neighbouring ones which (having a young child) we don’t often travel to. Not sure if they are doing better elsewhere but my impression was that they didn’t really have the ‘local’ thing dialed anyway. Throwing in a Gap promo would actually be good for me – I live a 10 min walk from the mall and could have picked up something for our daughter!