Restaurant.com sells 1.5m gift vouchers in 2 days!

Thursday, 14 October 2010

Yes, that’s 1,500,000 gift vouchers in two days!!

As reported on techcrunch this week, restaurant.com sold 1.5 million vouchers a couple of weeks back through one of the ever multiplying daily deal sites (many of which now actually have decent offers!)

They offered vouchers for up to 90% off their face value (prices from as low as a $1).  OK, so it’s costing the 15,000 participating restaurants a chunk of margin but hey, they’re getting a new customer through the door that may never have entered their premises!  It just goes to show that, during tight times, promotions with a perceived high value (a €25 voucher for $1) really do still work, will solicit interest from customers and, more importantly, will drive incremental spend.

Just imagine if, when just 10% of those vouchers are presented, the diner buys a bottle of wine? That’s 150,000 bottle of wine across their network that may never have been sold.

So start thinking about what you can do from a promotions perspective – maybe something as simple as handing out 200 cards with £5 on them only valid on a Tuesday morning (your quiet time).

Give it a crack and see what happens – what have you got to lose?

SMcI