WPGroupbuy Review: Launch Your Own Daily Deal Site with This Groupon Clone Theme
Daily deal sites exploded in popularity in the early 2010s, led by Groupon which became the fastest company to reach $1 billion in revenue. The group buying model allows consumers to get large limited-time discounts on local products and services, while providing businesses an influx of new customers and revenue.
Although the craze has died down somewhat, deal sites remain popular today. Over 40% of consumers say finding low prices is the biggest factor in their purchasing decisions. For businesses, promoting a deal can lead to a 30%+ increase in overall revenue on average.
If you want to capitalize on this proven model, creating your own daily deal site is now easier than ever thanks to WordPress. The WPGroupbuy theme in particular makes it simple to launch a full-featured deal marketplace that connects consumers seeking discounts with businesses offering promotions.
In this post, we‘ll take an in-depth look at how the WPGroupbuy theme works and walk through how to use it to start your own money-making deal site.
How Daily Deal Sites Work
Before we dive into the theme itself, let‘s quickly review how sites like Groupon operate. The basic process is:
- Businesses partner with the deal site to offer discounted products or services for a limited time (usually 1-7 days)
- Consumers purchase deals in the form of vouchers that can be redeemed later with the business
- The deal site promotes the offers to its user base, aiming to drive a high volume of sales
- Revenue from each purchase is split between the business and the deal site
The keys to a successful deal site are curating compelling offers, attracting a large audience of consumers, and making it easy for shoppers to find and buy relevant deals. With its group buying functionality and vendor management system, the WPGroupbuy theme provides all the tools you need to make this happen.
WPGroupbuy Theme Review: Key Features
Now let‘s take a closer look at the specific features WPGroupbuy provides for building a daily deal site on WordPress:
Flexible Deal System
WPGroupbuy offers a powerful coupon and deal management system in the backend. As an admin, you have full control over the parameters of deals:
- Minimum number of purchases required for a deal to be "on"
- Maximum number of buys allowed per customer
- Expiration date and time remaining
- Associated vendor and commissions
You can also customize exactly what displays on the front-end deal pages, such as images, countdown timers, pricing, etc. Plus WPGroupbuy automatically generates PDF vouchers when purchases are made that can be configured and delivered to buyers.
Multi-Vendor Marketplace
One of WPGroupbuy‘s most powerful features is its multi-vendor system. This allows you to partner with an unlimited number of businesses who can sign up and submit their own deals to be included on your site.
Vendors get their own dashboard where they can create deals, track sales, and manage payouts. You can set custom commission rates for each vendor and choose from PayPal, Stripe, or bank transfer for paying your partners.
[screenshot of vendor dashboard]You also have the ability to define different user roles and permissions. For example, vendors can give limited access to shop managers to edit basic deal details without full control of the vendor account.
Customizable Design
The WPGroupbuy theme comes with multiple layouts and designs to choose from:
- 9 different homepage styles
- 3 vendor page templates
- 2 options for displaying categories
- Responsive design that works on all devices
You can further customize your daily deal site using the theme options panel and the native WordPress customizer. There you can change colors, upload your logo, select fonts, add custom CSS and more to truly make it your own.
Other Notable Features
A few other key capabilities WPGroupbuy provides:
- SEO optimized code and Schema markup for better rankings
- Compatible with page builders like Elementor
- Built-in social sharing buttons
- Affiliate portal for partners to earn commissions
- Detailed sales reporting and analytics
- Geo-targeting to display location-specific deals
- Integration with email marketing platforms
How to Set Up a Daily Deal Site With WPGroupbuy
Want to use WPGroupbuy to launch your own deal site? Here‘s a quick step-by-step guide to getting started:
- Purchase the WPGroupbuy theme and install it on your WordPress site
- Configure the homepage layout, header, colors, etc. to your liking
- Customize the deal options in the theme settings, including max purchases, expiration rules, etc.
- Create your deal categories and attributes to keep your deals organized
- Configure your payment gateways to accept payments from customers
- Recruit your initial vendors and have them sign up for accounts
- Work with vendors to create your first deals and publish them on the site
- Promote your deals via email, social media, paid ads, etc. to drive sales
While it may take some work to establish partnerships with vendors and build an audience, WPGroupbuy provides everything you need to run your deal site from a technical perspective.
WPGroupbuy Theme Examples
To give you a sense of what‘s possible with this theme, here are a few examples of live sites running on WPGroupbuy:
[showcase 3-4 example daily deal sites using WPGroupbuy]As you can see, the theme is quite flexible and can be adapted for a variety of deal site concepts – from local city guides, to product-focused stores, to online course platforms.
WPGroupbuy Pricing
To use the WPGroupbuy theme, you‘ll need to purchase a license which includes 6 months of support and lifetime updates. Pricing starts at $99 for use on a single site.
While this may seem steep compared to free WordPress themes, WPGroupbuy packs a ton of deal-specific functionality you won‘t find anywhere else. You‘d need to spend thousands of dollars to develop these features from scratch.
Considering revenue-sharing daily deal sites earn an average of 25-40% commissions on sales, your WPGroupbuy license should pay for itself quickly once you start making sales. You can always start with the less expensive single site option and upgrade your license later as your deal empire grows.
WPGroupbuy Alternatives
Of course, WPGroupbuy is not the only option for creating an online daily deal business. Here are a few other avenues to consider:
Build on an existing network like Groupon. Established deal sites are always looking for more local partners. Platforms like Groupon Merchant allow you to piggyback on their audience and technology – although they will take a hefty cut of sales.
Use a hosted platform. If you prefer an all-in-one solution, there are a number of SaaS deal platforms like Dealify and Rezdy. These handle everything from your website to payment processing to customer service, but come with monthly fees and less customization.
Try an alternative WordPress theme. Other daily deal WordPress themes include Kupon, Deal Struck, and Couponer. However, these tend to be less feature-rich and flexible than WPGroupbuy.
Code a custom site from scratch. For maximum control you can always hire a developer to build a deal site to your exact specifications. Just be prepared to invest a lot more time and money going this route.
Ultimately, WPGroupbuy hits the sweet spot for most users – it‘s affordable and easy to use, while still allowing a great deal of flexibility. Plus you have complete control over your platform and revenues.
Is WPGroupbuy Right for You?
Daily deal sites can be lucrative, but they are not a get-rich-quick scheme. It takes real work to source quality deals, drive traffic, and keep customers engaged.
However, if you already have an audience, or relationships with vendors, or a knack for marketing, WPGroupbuy can be a great tool to monetize those assets. The theme makes it about as simple as possible to get a professional daily deal site up and running.
On the other hand, if you have zero experience with WordPress, e-commerce, or online marketing, you may want to start with something simpler. Generating sales on your deal site will be an uphill battle if you don‘t have those core skills.
Tips for Running a Successful Daily Deal Website
To conclude, here are a few tips to help you get the most out of your WPGroupbuy-powered deal site:
Focus on quality over quantity. Don‘t accept every deal that comes your way. Be selective and make sure you are only promoting legitiamte businesses with great products and customer service. Earning a reputation for quality deals is key to gaining repeat buyers.
Spend time on vendor outreach. Recruiting vendor partners is one of the hardest parts of running a deal site. Attend local business events, leverage your personal network, and offer generous revenue shares to get merchants on board.
Actively grow your audience. More email subscribers = more sales. Invest in SEO, paid advertising, social media, and other channels to build your list. You can also incentivize referrals by offering credits when users get their friends to purchase.
Curate and categorize deals. Don‘t just dump deals on your site. Organize them into categories, highlight the most popular ones, and send targeted deal roundups to different user segments. Anything that improves the shopping experience will drive more revenue.
Provide top-notch service. Respond quickly to customer questions, honor refund requests, and proactively solicit feedback. Strong service keeps buyers coming back and encourages them to tell their friends.
WPGroupbuy provides all the functionality you need to create a profitable daily deal site. But it‘s up to you to put in the marketing elbow grease required to drive sales. By focusing on quality deals and great service, you can build a loyal audience that generates sustainable revenues.
