| Kippreport.com

Jumping on the Bandwagon?

April 6, 2011 1:59 by Eva Fernandes

So what do these more than encouraging findings mean for the region?  Dana Adhami, director for digital at media agency Mindshare, says good things, of course. To begin with she says the region will see more growth in group-buying websites.

“The way I see it is that agencies will recommend it; they will push it from a services and products perspective, but as we move into more sophisticated software and more sophisticated platforms, clients will definitely see this as a distribution channel that they need to include,” says Adhami.

Currently, the businesses in the region using group-buying websites for their marketing are generally service-based. “The segment that will start this move, I think, will be retailers,” says Adhami. “When we find the big retail stores coming in to it, that’s when it becomes very, very serious. And the usage will increase.”

Adhami says that the group-buying model is helpful to a lot of small and medium businesses. It gives them a good kick-start to showcase their products and services. “Right now, the usage is limited to a small number of users, and that is why we are not seeing the big brands investing,” she says. “As these sites grow in scale, we’ll find bigger brands coming in.” Increase in Internet penetration, usage and consumer confidence will also encourage bigger brands to offer deals on such websites, adds Adhami.

Remember the Nissan-Cobone sorta-kinda group buying deal, Kipp covered a few days ago?

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