Pricing and monetization · Empirical multi-business analysis of Groupon promotion outcomes.
How Effective Are Groupon Promotions for Businesses?
Utpal M. Dholakia (2016). How Effective Are Groupon Promotions for Businesses?. Management Science. https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2016.2666.
Plain-English take
Promotion effectiveness varies substantially by business and deal execution; the study evaluates whether deals are profitable rather than assuming sales volume equals success. For your marketing: Use the study to frame a pricing or packaging hypothesis and identify outcomes to measure; estimate effects with your own customer mix and willingness-to-pay evidence.
How much weight to give this
2.5/5 Evidence needs cautious interpretation
The 1–5 evidence-check score is a practical reading aid, not a formal peer review or a probability that a conclusion is true. It combines design strength (2 points), sample reporting (1), comparison/control clarity (1), and how much of the paper could be checked (1). Access affects how confidently this directory can assess a study, not the study's underlying quality. Blinding is reported separately because it is not relevant to every design.
Empirical multi-business analysis of Groupon promotion outcomes.
Businesses running Groupon daily-deal promotions; redemption, profitability and repeat-purchase outcomes.
Judged from the publisher-described design and comparison; inspect the paper for complete analysis.
Publisher page and abstract were retrieved directly; full text was not assumed open.
Double-blind? Blinding was not established from the retrieved publisher record.
Research question
What the authors investigated
Under what conditions do deep daily-deal promotions produce profitable customer acquisition for businesses?
Design
Empirical multi-business analysis of Groupon promotion outcomes.
Sample and setting
Businesses running Groupon daily-deal promotions; redemption, profitability and repeat-purchase outcomes.
Reported result
What the study found
Promotion effectiveness varies substantially by business and deal execution; the study evaluates whether deals are profitable rather than assuming sales volume equals success.
This is a paraphrase of the source. Check the original paper for definitions, estimates, statistical uncertainty and analysis details.
Scope and transfer
Limitations to keep in view
Business self-selection into Groupon and survey/retrospective outcome measures limit causal interpretation; results concern daily deals, not recurring SaaS discounts.
Possible founder application
Use the study to frame a pricing or packaging hypothesis and identify outcomes to measure; estimate effects with your own customer mix and willingness-to-pay evidence.
Evidence access
Publisher record and abstract retrieved; consult the linked paper for full methods and tables.
INFORMS DOI landing page identifies the empirical Groupon-promotion article; the study’s design/context are described in its publisher record. Direct publisher-page retrieval was recorded on 2026-10-09; this profile uses the publisher abstract/metadata and does not claim independent review of unavailable full text.
If only an abstract or metadata was available, the profile is limited to claims supported there. A paper's paywall does not change its evidentiary status, but it limits what we can substantiate from accessible text.