3 On Your Side: Daily Deal Fatigue
By Jim Donovan
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Everyone loves a bargain, but at what point do you say enough is enough? Daily deals, once the best thing to land in our email, are now filling our inboxes faster than we can hit delete. 3 On Your Side Consumer Reporter Jim Donovan finds that may even be leading to daily deal fatigue.
Jeanne Chan used to love daily deals, but not anymore.
"I was really excited about it when it first came out," she says.
The fashion blogger also says that it's getting harder and harder to find anything she really wants these days. According to Chan, "I am just so immune to it; it doesn't really catch my attention that much anymore."
Marketing analyst Rocky Agrawal says a lot has changed since the peak of the daily deal boom two years ago. The number of deal sites has dropped dramatically, fewer merchants are participating and those still involved are scaling back offers and adding more restrictions.
"The deals are getting less generous," Agrawal says.
Deals related to dental and cosmetic work are beginning to attract a new audience. According to Agrawal, "We used to see a lot of restaurant deals, and now we're seeing laser hair removal."
If you aren't sick of daily deals just yet, Agrawal recommends buying only from sites that have solid corporate backing and good refund policies. To be on the safe side, he also suggests that you only buy deals that you plan to use within 60 days.
Even Groupon, the company that started the whole daily deal frenzy, has been affected by what some are referring to as daily deal fatigue. Groupon's stock value has plunged by more than half since it went public last year.
