3 Daily Deals Website Success Stories [2024]
Looking to tap into the e-commerce boom without the burden of inventory? Consider starting a daily deals website.
This business model involves partnering with various vendors to offer exclusive discounts on products or services for a limited time. It’s a win-win: consumers get great deals, and vendors reach new customers without heavy marketing efforts.
Setting up a daily deals site requires a robust web platform and reliable merchant agreements.
Your main tasks will involve sourcing deals, managing vendor relationships, and marketing these offers to attract a loyal customer base.
If you're intrigued by facilitating great deals and have a knack for negotiation, this idea could be both lucrative and exciting for you.
In this list, you'll find real-world daily deals website success stories and very profitable examples of starting a daily deals website that makes money.
1. AppSumo ($80M/year)
Noah Kagan conceived AppSumo after being frustrated with the challenge of acquiring customers for his previous venture. Having a background in marketing at Mint.com, he noticed the potential for a service that could help web apps gain more users, especially with the rise of Dropbox and similar platforms. He created a simple landing page to collect emails and started validating the idea by connecting with companies and offering premium app deals at discounted prices.
To test the market, Noah cold-emailed the founder of imgur to negotiate a deal on their pro accounts, successfully securing an agreement to sell at a discounted rate. He then reached out to his network and obtained free ad space from Reddit to drive traffic. Along the way, he A/B tested landing pages and iteratively improved his offerings based on feedback. By securing his first 200 sales, Noah confirmed that his idea had viable demand and laid the groundwork for what would become AppSumo.
Snapshot of the Appsumo landing page fromearly daysHow much money it makes: $80M/year
How much did it cost to start: $50
2. ElectricityRates.com ($4.2M/year)
Rob Rex, the founder of Power Target, came up with the idea for his business after noticing the rising popularity of online aggregator platforms and the emergence of energy deregulation laws. Seeing an opportunity to apply the successful performance marketing framework to the energy industry, Rob founded Power Target and launched their online energy comparison site, ElectricityRates.com. The platform's core principles included being fast, simple, trustworthy, and user-friendly, and through constant testing and optimization, Power Target has achieved steady growth and attracted and retained customers through channels such as paid search, content and SEO, email marketing, and social media.
How much money it makes: $4.2M/year
How much did it cost to start: $15K
How many people on the team: 4
Power Target LLC, with an average growth rate of 20%, is a successful energy company that developed an online energy comparison marketplace called ElectricityRates.com, which has an excellent, 4.6-star rating on Trustpilot with over 1000 reviews, and allows users to compare competitive energy offers from providers and enroll through their fast, simple, and secure process.
3. Penny Canny ($36K/year)
Uzair Farooq, an accomplished developer, was inspired to start PennyCanny after working on a major coupon website. Leveraging his expertise and a financial boost from the 2021 cryptocurrency boom, his platform now generates $3,000 monthly profit.
How much money it makes: $36K/year
How much did it cost to start: $5K
How many people on the team: 11
PennyCanny is a coupon website founded by Uzair Farooq in 2021 that offers customers free coupons for popular stores like Wayfair, JCPenny, and DoorDash, generating a monthly profit of $3,000 and aiming to expand its coverage to multiple regions and complete a browser extension in the future.
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Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
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