How To Guide

Hi as you may know, currently there are roughly 34 daily deal sites that are known as "Groupon" whereby it combines the word GROUP & COUPON. The concept of this websites is to offer daily discount on a product (food or item) or service (spa, haircut, slimming or even car wash) to the internet consumers who will then be able to bulk purchase (buying alot) either separately or an individual itself.

The discounts can usually range from 20% to 90% from the original value. There will also be a chance for the consumers to win a lucky draw without purchase (which equals to 100% discount !!!) by just signing up with the website. It is that simple. Example:

Ok now I will teach step by step to purchase from the Groupon website:

1) Head to any groupon website. I would currently recommend MyDeal, I Love Discounts, Dealmates, Groupon Malaysia & Jack Cow (more to come after I explore other website offers).

2) There will be 'Login/Register' tab at the top right corner of the website. Example:

3) Fill in your details required such as Name, Password (usually 4 to 8 characters long), handphone number (for prize notification) and your city (certain groupon websites covers other states like Penang or Ipoh). Remember to click on the tick box to subscribe their daily deal news which will be send to you via email. Example:

4) After registering, you will be asked to activate your account by clicking on the activation link send to your email which you registered. Usually the email from the customer support will read out like this:

Hello Mr. XXX,
Thank you for registering at our website. Your account is created and must be activated before you can use it. To activate the account click on the following link or copy-paste it in your browser:http://www.xxx.my/index.php?option=com_user&task=activate&activation=ad90a1a4b753ac1f783ded609a33d115
After activation you may login to http://www.xxx.my/ using the following username and password:
Username: xxx

5) Once your account is activated, you're basically ready to go !!! Surf through the groupon website for any good deals that interest you. It can be based on the price or even the location to your convenience. If you have made your choice, click on 'BUY' or 'BUY NOW' as show in example:

Supposedly you are interested in the deal but would like to consider or discuss with your family and friends, remember to look at the 'Time Left to Buy' below the deal so that you don't end up missing the opportunity to purchase it. Example;

6) After clicking on Buy for the deal of your choice, you will be asked to made the payment through methods either credit card (Visa, Mastercard) or bank transfer (M2U, Cimb Clicks, etc..) which is secure and usually powered by IPay88 gateway. Example:

7) Once you settled your payment, you can either sit back and wait for the Deal to be broken or refer to your friends. This means that groupons that you purchased will only be successful if it hits the minimum number of buyers. It is actually a marketing strategy to get more people to know about their website as well as purchase the groupons. However no worries if the deal did not get the minimum buyers target after you purchased. Your payment will be refunded to you if the deal did not hit the required target. Example of the minimum buyer target:

8) Once the minimum buyer target is reached (which 99% usually will), you will be send via email a coupon certificate which you can the print and redeem and the premise or location that the deal offers. Example of the coupon certificate:

It is that easy. Hopefully my step-by-step guide will make it easier for you readers as well as ease your fears on the payment security. I will be blogging about 'How to determine a good deal from Groupon websites' in the coming weeks.