Groupon Has Saved Canadians $4.6M and Hits $2.5M in Gross Sales in Canada
Chicago based Groupon which started selling its daily deals in Canada on April 19 in Toronto and on April 26 in Vancouver has hit the $2.5M in gross revenues as of yesterday. Back on June 20th I posted that Groupon hit $1M in Gross Revenue, marking a acceleration in revenue.
NOTE: This is according to my tracking document and not an official release from the company.
Some other interesting facts about their first 4-months in Canada:
Toronto represents 44% of their Groupons Sold, while Vancouver respresents 56% of total units sold. This is quite a major shift from my post in June 20th, when Toronto represented a larger share of the units sold for Groupon.
In terms of gross revenues, Toronto is 46% while Vancouver is at 54% of gross revenue.
In terms of savings to consumers – Groupon has saved consumers $4.6M during this time.
In terms of traffic growth, as reported by ComScore, they started to register in February of this year and are a good upward trend, breaking the 300K UV mark in May.
What is great news for Canadian consumers is that Canada’s largest deal site, RedFlagDeals.com is launching a daily deal service very soon.
How Social is Yellow Pages Group in Canada?
It was one of those amazing days of incredible meetings, finalizing a new deal (wait for this one) and introductions to some incredible technologies and start-ups in the social media space. During one of those meetings, I was asked the question; “How Social is Yellow Pages Group?”.
This was one of those questions that I had to pause to give some thought. I answered by outlining some of the initiatives and realized we do a lot. So I figured this would make a good blog post.
Here are just some of the things that we are doing in the social space.
YellowPages.ca
Introduced this year, you can now login into YellowPages.ca using your Facebook Username and ID which will automatically set you up with a Yellow Pages Account. Login in the top right hand corner of the site. This initiative is lead by YPG’s social media guru, @martyboy008 and his incredible team of social media experts.
This sign-in allows you to rate and review businesses and share your discoveries with your social graph. For example, here is screenshot of a recent review that I wrote on the Red House Thai & Malaysia in Pickering (this is the place that started my love affair with Thai food and anybody that knows me, knows I love Pad Thai).
Finally when you connect using your Facebook Account, you can actually see what businesses your friends like.
YellowPages.ca Facebook Application
The first of its kind in Canada, released in 2008 – the complete YellowPages.ca experience within the Facebook environment complete with ratings and reviews.
This one even got press coverage by CTV in June 2008 – check out the video,
Get the Flash Player to see this player.
RedFlagDeals.com
Without a doubt, RedFlagDeals.com is Canada’s most active shopping network featuring one of the most active forums discussing all the best places in Canada to find deals.
For everybody looking for free stuff, one of their popular areas is Canadian Freebies & Free Stuff,
Coming Soon … the RedFlagDeals.com Daily Deal,
Urbanizer iPhone Application
Urbanizer is Canada’s first “mood-based” application for the iPhone (here is the link the iTunes Store) that works in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal.
One the web you can see moods of current cities. Here is a screenshot of Calgary.
LesPac.com and BuySell.com Classified Sites
In the province of Quebec, LesPac.com has established itself as the leader in the classified space. In English speaking Canada there is BuySell.com, another top classified destination for Canadians.
Restaurantica.com
One of Canada’s most engaged communities, Restaurantica.com features over 200,000 reviews on restaurants.
New Additions to the Social Family of Yellow Pages Group
Urban Pill
One of the leading blog destinations for what is happening in Vancouver, UrbanPill.com is pretty cool to follow if you live or plan on visiting Vancouver.
GigPark
GigPark is a social recommendation engine that was built by @pema and @noahgodfrey (these guys kick-ass in the Canadian tech space) – who sold this platform to CanPages in 2009.
Quick Links to the Social Destinations for the Above
YellowPages.ca on Facebook
YellowPages.ca on Twitter (managed by @zelia, YPG’s super crazy social media communicator)
PagesJaunes.ca on Twitter
Yellow Pages Group Local Video Channel on YouTube
Yellow Pages Group Ad Campaigns on YouTube
Yellow Pages Group on LinkedIn
YellowPages Mobile on Twitter
Urbanizer on Twitter
RedFlagDeals.com on Twitter
RedFlagDeals.com on Facebook
Restaurantica.com on Facebook
Funny thing, on the phone this took all about 2-minutes, this blog post took a little bit longer. Perhaps I should have done just a video.
Tell me what you think – did you enjoy this post? Any feedback?
First Look – Screenshots of the new YellowPages.ca
Last week I had the pleasure of posting screenshots on the new YellowPages.ca iPhone Application launch – check out that post to see those pictures, this week I get the pleasure of posting screenshots on the new YellowPages.ca.
Canada’s Largest Online Directory has just launched its most ambitious release. This release includes some new features that are sure to please users. I will follow this posting up with a more detailed look at the new features, but here are some screenshots and highlights.
Of course the best way to experience this new platform is to check it our yourself at YellowPages.ca.
New YellowPages.ca Home Page
You will notice some new features on the home page. Type-ahead, links to Deals, provided by RedFladDeals.com and new Dining Guide provided by Restaurantica.com.
Deals from RedFlagDeals.com
Dining Guide by Restaurantica.com
New Search Results Page
Here I did a search for Restaurants in Calgary.
On this page, notice a few items. At the top of the screen – towards the right hand side you will notice that I am now logged into YellowPages.ca using my Facebook Account. You will want to do this as this is what is going to allow you to rate and review businesses.
Another neat feature is when you have a listing that has lots of individual listings in a city, for example, big chain restaurants. Here is a search for Restaurants in Toronto and you will notice the listing for Mandarin Restaurant expanded to show me locations.
New Merchant Page With Ratings and Reviews
Here is a search for Monty’s Crab Shack in Calgary.
If you are the first to review this business, select the review this business icon and you will be presented with the following pop-up window:
Finally if you are looking at a listing that does not contain any enhanced content information, YellowPages.ca will suggest other places that are similar that contain enhanced information. Here is a search for Badass Jacks Subs and Wraps in Edmonton.
Focus on Mobile
New YellowPages.ca Mobile section featuring direct access to all the popular device applications such as iPhone, Blackberry, Android and Palm.
The Video Channel continues to get it home page exposure and is fast becoming the source of local video searches in Canada. Check out my original post for YellowPages.ca Video Channel Get Home Page Exposure.
In my opinion, the Online Services team at Yellow Pages Group did a great job pulling this together. From my perspective, always great to working with a team of incredibly talented individuals who can make big projects like this happen. I am proud of their work.
So what do you think?
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