Business & Tech

First Groupon Offered on Main Street Libertyville

Local business had 30 new customers in the deal's first week.

Back in mid January, a downtown olive oil store leveraged the power of collective bargaining to attract new customers.

Dr. Sandra Shuenemann, co-owner of Oh, Olive!, approached Groupon, a Chicago-based company, to offer discounts. But there was a catch; the deal would only be valid for a short period of time and only if enough people purchased it.

Shuenemann set deal to “tip” or become valid if 50 people purchased a coupon. Close to 900 Groupons were sold.

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The downside to Groupons is that the company gets half of the deal while the merchants gets the other half.

“You are only getting a quarter of what people are leaving your store with,” Shuenemann explains. “So I guess you’d have to be willing to take the chance that you’d get enough repeat business, because this is an investment for a business to do a Groupon. It’s an investment in advertising because obviously you are losing money on the product you are selling,”

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New Way to Advertise

For Shuenemann, this new form of advertising has so far proved worthwhile. The first week after the Groupon was offered the store had 30 new customers and four out of five new customers came to redeem their coupons, according to Shuenemann.

“Most of them have purchased things over and above the Groupon amount,” she says.

What’s more, Shuenemann says she is seeing customers from neighboring communities. Neighboring communities have each purchased around eight to 10 percent of all Groupons sold, while 25 percent of coupons were sold to Libertyville residents, according to Shuenemann.

“We had Groupons sold in Ohio, Minnesota, Arizona and Wisconsin,” she says. “What other venue would you use to reach that many people? So I guess that’s what you have to keep in mind, that you are reaching many more people than you would with a printed publication, probably.”

Customer's Reaction

Lindenhurst resident Michelle Rhind and customer at Oh, Olive! says she appreciates that merchants in the northwest suburbs are offering Groupons.

“I get irritated that they are all down in the city. I’m not a city girl, I live in Lindenhurst, so for me to come here is easy but not to go all the way down there; I have no reason to go get my nails done in Chicago,” Rhind said at the store.

In addition, Rhind says with the slow economy, Groupons are a great way to help people watch their budget, while offering the chance to explore new places.

“We came here just for the olive oil store, but now we are going to go and have lunch down the street, I mean they are helping other businesses,” Rhind said.


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