
Mary concludes she needs 176 customers to return 20 times each ($12 purchase) to recoup her costs. The cost to acquire each of those 176 customers was $41.176 customers came back (Groupon says 22% return a second time).Since her shop’s profit margin is 18.2% instead of making $2 per $12 sale, the Groupon cost her $7 per sale, for a total of $7,196.Some used a groupon multiple times increasing her cost.As the rush tapers off a few of the customers start to return. She gets a flood of customers, a few very busy weeks and gets a check for $3,000 from Groupon. She runs a Groupon, $6 for $12 worth of pastries! Groupon wants to keep the entire amount (they keep full amount if under $10) but Mary negotiates a 50/50 deal. Mary has a cupcake and coffee shop with profit margins of 18.2%.

SCENARIO 1: The Gourmet Cupcake and Coffee Shop


Think before you Groupon (and think before you jump into any large marketing investment). The data confirms Groupon deals come with a significant price tag but can be profitable under the right circumstances. We created 2 scenarios, we researched sales numbers, and did some math to forecast the results. This post was published quite a while ago, however you will still be able to use the formulae below to estimate the returns or losses from using Groupon or other types of services like Groupon.
