mido at this moment is a web service that aggregates all the coupons online into one single location(the mido website) and allows customers to personalize what type of coupons they receive.
Here is a summary of the main points:
Aggregate coupons into one location(the mido website). We have an agreement with 11 sites.
Provide a unique filtering that allows end users to personalize what type of coupons they receive according to interest, location, how often do they want to receive emails of deals, price etc.
We guarantee that all the coupons we offer are for products that are ethical.
For more information read the following
The need:
- Recently they has been an explosion in the amount of daily deals/coupon sites which are currently over 400. Unfortunately most people know of only 3, so not only are we missing out on amazing offers, it is a hassle to keep track of all these sites.
- Second check this out, lets say you are diabetic, you don't drive etc and you sign up at one of the daily deal sites and you end up receiving coupons for car oil exchange or coupons for fat burger. You are going to be pretty pissed about this as these are not things you need or want. This is one of the major problems with coupon sites as individuals get overloaded with things they don't need.
- Another problem comes in the retailer side of things. Over 55% of retailers will not repeat business with coupon sites. Reasons for this include customer retention, lack of a community, lack of control over deals, and coupon sites just demand such a high percentage. Now I would imagine at this point you are probably wondering what mido is doing to make it better for the retailers. Well we are only providing deals which are ethical and our website will be invite only. The reason for this is we only want to get people who are interested around ethical products and create a community around that. Furthermore, our goal is to solve the customer problem first, get a customer base and then talk to retailers. We do have other ideas on the retailer side of things, but it would stretch us thin to do both, so we chose the customer first.
- Next question which has popped up is whether our filtering system is sufficient enough to prevent one of the major coupon sites from building the same thing if we are successful. Starting off most coupon sites will be our partners not our competitors. Secondly for the little guys, they have nothing to lose, but everything to gain as our website gives them exposure to people who without us would have never known they existed. Now in regards to the algorithm, they can build it, but it would take time to build a sophisticated filtering system;In addition to this, we are not going to rest on our laurels as we will constantly be improving the system(continuous iteration) and most important we don't offer one deal per day as we are aggregating numerous coupon sites(which is itself an advantage).
- There are many other features and plans we have, but we are keeping everything lean at this point to test our assumptions. We hope we have answered some of your questions and if you still have any doubts, feel free to comment on our blog and we will gladly answer your questions.
This post is really helpful, thank you peter - I have a much better understanding of exactly what mido is all about :).
ReplyDeleteThe only other question I have about mido is just with respect to revenue. Are you guys going to be getting most of your revenue from advertisements on your site or do you get some form of commission from each deal that is offered? Sorry for the pedestrian question.
From your posting you clearly painted a picture of what mido is and does not only for customers but for competitors as well.
ReplyDeleteI enjoy your point about being a diabetic and getting coupons for someplace that you would never be able to go to. With all the sites these days you sign up for, or stores that get your email address, there are no many unnecessary emails I receive and fill up my inbox. If I could just get emails that interest me, it would probably set me to use the site more and promote it to my networks.
Oh no Matt don't be sorry, that is a valid question. At this point our main source of revenue will be the coupon sites.For each deal sold we get 30% of what they make from what they retailers. Now over the long run that is not quite sustainable, but it should be enough to get us through the first year. This is when we plan on talking to the retailers and possibly advertising companies(with the concept of targeted advertising through our filtering system).This is why our main goal is to get as many customers as possible within our first year.Hope I answered your question effectively, please let me know if you have any other questions or would like to share any inputs.
ReplyDeleteI really like the path which mido has chosen by only targeting companies that are ethical. People who are passionate about protecting human rights as well as the environment become very very passionate and dedicated to the choices which they make that could affect both of those. I know this from a few people in some of my other classes...they are pretty into both os those things. It is also a good way to create the community aspect you were talking about that mido is trying to create.
ReplyDeletegood job
Thanks for the response Peter! That was super helpful. I think you guys have a good strategy in place. I like how you guys have adapted the groupon model in way that hopefully will be more sustainable. I think the biggest thing to focus on is how you can generate repeat customers for companies. I think this is probably the biggest pitfall of the groupon model is that it really attracts consumers that are looking for deals rather than looking for brand loyalty. If you guys can figure out how to keep consumers coming back to the companies. Your clients will be willing to pay more because you provide a much higher ROI.
ReplyDeleteThat definitely clears up the mysterious Mido.
ReplyDeleteI see who your customers are now - not only the end users but other coupon sites as well. And your revenue model seems feasible, as long as you can stay above water for the first year until you have enough traffic to effectively advertise.
Great job guys, keep it up