A Qualitative Study of Consumer-Generated Videos about Daily Deal Web sites

Deal of the day, also known as social couponing, is an e-commerce business model that offers consumers heavily discounted deals on a regular (daily) basis, and gives merchants access to a mailing list of potential new customers in exchange for a commission. There are thousands of deal Web sites worldwide, offering deals from industries as diverse as hospitality, consumer electronics, fashion, and medical services. This study was performed to learn more about consumers' attitude toward deal of the day, and their motivations for purchasing (or not purchasing) daily deals. A systematic qualitative methodology called BASIC IDS was used to analyze 30 consumer-generated YouTube videos about deal Web sites. The analysis showed that many deal-prone consumers can be considered deal mavens; they take effort to learn about different sites and offerings and are eager to share their knowledge with others. Although many of these mavens show hedonistic shopping tendencies, others appear to focus mainly on utility, that is, monetary savings. Consumers with a negative attitude toward deal of the day are often worried about receiving poor service, and some believe that redeeming a deal voucher makes them look cheap. (C) 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.