Hi Members,
This thread is dedicated to developer/company working for a client who wish to start a groupon clone or group buying website in their own market.

Please share your ideas and options available.

???

Your post implies that you've taken on the job and are now asking in a forum how to do it? Please tell me I'm wrong.

Hi anyone there to post a solution for building a groupon clone ? How to start with?

I am interested in building one for my community.

You need to understand, asking for a clone of an existing service is not a specification.

Anyway, a service like groupon relies more heavily on salespeople out on the street setting up vendors than software. Distilled to it's basics, it's just an email list. There's tons of software for creating mailing lists. Just google for it.

However, I think the larger problem is, you don't know what it is you want to build.
You need to take some time to figure out exactly what you want rather than making a vague request (clone of xyz).

BTW, groupon runs on nginx not PHP

Originally Posted by PaulW

???

Your post implies that you've taken on the job and are now asking in a forum how to do it? Please tell me I'm wrong.

Not at all. I was just curious to find a best way to do it because there seems a lots of opportunities in groupon type of projects.

I thought many would have similar thoughts and wanna share their experiences in it.

what do you say?

Originally Posted by willcode4beer

You need to understand, asking for a clone of an existing service is not a specification.

Anyway, a service like groupon relies more heavily on salespeople out on the street setting up vendors than software. Distilled to it's basics, it's just an email list. There's tons of software for creating mailing lists. Just google for it.

However, I think the larger problem is, you don't know what it is you want to build.
You need to take some time to figure out exactly what you want rather than making a vague request (clone of xyz).

BTW, groupon runs on nginx not PHP

I absolutely agree with your thoughts. Groupon kind of business is more towards getting your sales guy do more work. But i am talking as a developer in need of building one for potential clients.

I can see many such commercial scripts exists in the market. But i am really looking for a stable platform for my clients than those cheap crap of code sold at less than 200 dollars.

If i where to build one for my clients, what will be the good choice? Where should i begin?

The groupon application is just another variety of e-commerce site with coupons as products. Is it wise to use existing open source e-commerce platforms as a base for group buying websites?

You could take cash out of your wallet and throw it away. That's currently Groupon's business model. They lost a little more than $400 million last year and are on pace to do the same this year.

I'm being sarcastic of course, but there's some truth in there. Before jumping on the Groupon bandwagon keep in mind they aren't making money. The bandwagon may not last long. I've seen reports where many of the businesses using the service are also losing money and the few people I know who've tried it have decided never to try it again.

Paul's right about the technology. It's really just a giant email list that can be filtered into several smaller lists. People have options to decide what kind of offers they want to receive and new coupons are sent out daily to anyone on the list who's checked the box for that kind of coupon.

I would think any email list service could do what Groupon does, though perhaps not to the same scale. Many shopping carts also have similar functionality built in or via addons that can handle it on yet a smaller scale.

I'd suggest learning as much as you can about email lists for the technology. The business is mainly in the salesforce.

Hello vangogh,

You might be right in the region you are living. It might be saturated with offers everydayfor three years since groupon is launched.. i assume in USA atleast. But there is a potential business in many parts of the world. For instance in my country, about 99% don't even heard about Group Buying Concept.

So, there is really a lot of potential to do business here.


Now, i feel the thread is moving away from the topic. "How to build a Groupon clone". That is what i am trying to get answer rather than to discuss about potential business in group buying concept.

When i google more about the subject, i come across Magento shopping cart is the best one out there that suits for both small scale business and large enterprise level applications. Will it help really?

Is that groupon functionality comes built-in with magento or can it be customized to my needs by small alterations?

The "Group Buying" concept works well in the US because of the way "shopping" is done and because the "shops" are usually well away from residential areas and a "car culture" exists where walking to a local store is looked on as being
The concept works on military bases as well where "on camp" shops are often very expensive and supermarkets are some miles away.

If you did a "straw poll" around your friends, neighbours and family most of them won't even be interested in group buying.

Here in the UK shops and supermarkets are in within walking distance in many cases so the idea of bulk buying between a group of neighbours rarely gets considered. The exceptions here would be in outlying villages or remote communities.

My comments about the business model were meant to be taken partly in jest. However at the moment Groupon isn't making money and many of the businesses using Groupon are saying the same thing. All I'm suggesting is that you don't see this type of business as the next best thing, because it may not be.

As far as how to build a similar service I think the question's been answered. Groupon is basically an email list so if you want to develop skills to build similar services, learn what you can about email lists.

If you're asking what CMS or platform would be best for this type of project I think the answer is: whatever you're most comfortable with. As has been mentioned several times, the core concept is simple, so you don't need any specialized application. If magneto is what you know, then use magneto.

ok.

I have researched more on building a groupon clone for myself. I have been cornered with the following options.

Standalone scripts.
Modified Magento.
Groupon Extensions for Magento eCommerce

When considering standalone script for groupon clone, google puts Groupon clone from Agriya, and Groupon Clone from Alstrasoft at the top 10 results. Going through their corresponding websites promises more than what we actually need from those scripts.

Major drawbacks i found with them is, that it is developed by a very lesser known company. Next is the limited Availability of built-in Payment Gateways with their scripts. And more over their code is encrypted with Ioncube etc. So its not possible to customize those scripts with our own develper staff.

Important to note about is the reviews from their existing unsatisfied customers.

http://www.consumercomplaints.in/com...y-c544755.html
http://www.complaintsboard.com/compl...m-c271654.html
http://www.complaintsboard.com/compl...m-c380202.html
http://www.ripoffreport.com/directory/Alstrasoft.aspx

These companies seem to be a bogus one though it ranked top in google.

I have totally lost faith with the standalone script developed by a very lesser known company in freelancing world. So next comes is the Groupon clone based on Magento, an open source, award winning open source platform that is supported and backed by huge community of users.

The below post helped a lot to make out my decision.
http://www.adolmedia.com/posts/knowl...-livingsocial/

As i said in my earlier posts, choosing existing stable Magento eCommerce seemed to be a better option while comparing with standalone scripts. It leaves us to do our business smoothly with their stability and quality of scripts.

So when i considered Magento for groupon clone, i am again left with two options. Modified Magento and Groupon extension for Magento.

Modified Magento.
Groupon Clone from contus support is a modified version of Magento. What it means is they have completely modified the Magento eCommerce platform and made a Groupon clone out of it. But i understood it is not the correct way of programming Magento. Because, any codes modified at the core of Magento would lose its functionality, when we upgrade Magento.

Again i was terrified by the reviews and complaints they got from their ex- customers.
http://contus-support.pissedconsumer...801191973.html
http://www.complaintsboard.com/compl...d-c364947.html


Groupon Extensions for Magento eCommerce

One more of research, i found choosing the Groupon clone as an extension for Magento is the best option. There seems to be a couple of Magento extensions that extends the functionality of Magento into a dailydeals website

• Groupon clone from Adolmedia and
• Groupon clone from developers-inc.

Both the above does the purpose. Developers-inc extension seems to be a pretty basic one, with the functionality required for dailydeals website. so i could not start-up a group buying business straightaway without hiring a developer or freelancer to suit my needs. If you in-house staff, you can consider them to try.

While the Groupon clone from adolmedia (see demo http://demo.adolstore.com/dailydeals/ ) gives a ready-made solution for it. I can start-up a site without much of customization required. They also seems to be working on Groupon themes for Magento.

So the good decision will be to stay away from standalone scripts for Groupon clone and chose Magento instead.

Hi neema19s,

Thanks for posting your valuable research. Surely it will help many others looking for groupon clone. As you said, building a groupon clone in magento is a good option comparing to standalone scripts. Also when considering the above two extensions, http://www.magentocommerce.com/magen..._groupon_clone is the best option. It offers all that is required for groupon like websites.

By the by, had you started building your groupon clone?

Do you have access to code i mean is it encrypted? also can you share the script with me ? regards

a good groupon site build on drupal 7 have you look at groupon[dot]demo[dot]tabvn[dot]com,

you can use drupal, and ubercart to build a groupon site.