Ingo Beauty Salons Finds Beauty Deals Nationwide
Aggreg
ators make finding relevant daily deals easier. Some even let you personalize the content that shows up in your inbox; But what happens when you KNOW what kind of deal you want, but don’t want to wait for it to show up in the X number of deal sites you subscribe to?
That’s the problem that Ingo Beauty Salons is out to fix, or to at least make it easier those who need salon services. The daily deal industry has revolutionized the way we choose our stylists and procedures, and Ingo is putting all those deals in one place.
Through their unique salon deal search, users can sift through deals on haircuts, chemical processes, spa treatments, all the way to manicures and pedicures from almost every major deal site, without risking those deals not showing up in their inbox.
We have lots of aggregators for location, but finding a categorical aggregator is rarer.
Mario Romis is the co-founder of Ingo beauty Salons and waited quite a while before launching the salon deal search to the public.
“Our goal was to offer people what they want, when they want it, and at the price they are willing to pay for it” he said. “We wanted to test, and re-test its every aspect. It was initially offered to the members of the site who played a vital role in the development by sharing their feedback”, he states on the site’s blog.
Ingo Beauty Salons started out as a simple salon directory in mid-2011, and morphed into a full-fledged social platform with features comparable to, well, Facebook.
The site is beautifully laid out with soft colors, that get the user into a “getting pampered’ state of mind. I visited it, and it’s very easy to use. Customer testimonials and an option to “search by deal” are features that are readily accessible. Technically the site is still in a beta period, so there’s plenty of room for expansion.
Every business listed on the site can take control of their page to personalize it for potential customers.
“Our goal is to become the online one-stop resource for anything beauty – I cannot wait until we actually launch the Ingo Exclusive Salon Deals”- Sarah Pucci, senior editor of Ingo Beauty Salons.
According to Romis, by mid-2012 the site will begin to offer exclusive deals for Los Angeles hair salons and before the next year, they plan on expanding to nail salons and spas in several major US cities.
Souce: Email Wire
India’s Taggle.com Closes its Doors
Off and running
It was only 18 months ago when Bangalore based startup Taggle opened its virtual doors. The company launched in June 2010 in the middle of a controversy that the concept of group buying in India had already been done to death. Regardless of the media, Taggle co-founders John Kuruvilla, Ujjwal Tickoo and Tej Arora believed in a sustainable business. The company raised an initial $1 million in venture capital. Taggle.com was good to go.
Within the first six weeks of operations, Taggle had gathered a user base in excess of 100,000. Within the first 3 months, the company’s revenues had increased by 10-fold. Venture capitalists Greylock Partners and Battery Ventures believed in the company, or at least the management team to the extent of helping Taggle with additional funding. Sources peg that number in the $8.5 million to $8.75 million area. It sure appeared as thought Taggle was off and running.
Letter to Taggle users
Today is a completely different story. This is what subscribers of Taggle’s are reading today:
Dear Users,
We have decided to cease our ecommerce operations effective immediately. We will not be taking any more orders from our users.
We started Taggle in June 2010 with US$1M in funding to build a sustainable and profitable business by getting the best service and product deals for our users. We have always believed in providing superior experience and value to our users. When we realized that service deals were not giving the best value to users, we quickly shifted focus to only products. Our users responded very positively to the shift and it reflected in our revenue numbers too, we grew our revenues 10 times within 3 months of the shift.
However, the current market conditions have many ecommerce players selling products at below cost price to lure users. The only way to sustain the business at this time is to get into a price war and burn a lot of investor money and try to outdo competition in a Last Man Standing game. This practice goes against our philosophy of building a sustainable and profitable company. Hence, we’ve decided to go back to the drawing board to figure out the best way forward.
We thank all our users who have shown trust in us and supported us with their business.
In case you have any questions or want to reach out to us we can be reached by email at care@taggle.com
Thank You
Team Taggle.
PS: We will be refunding Taggle Cash balance to the customers, but Taggle Points are not redeemable in cash, please see http://www.taggle.com/tos for details.
Cutthroat competition
Unfortunately for Taggle, the company appears to be a sign of the times. We have noted in many posts that the daily deal industry has an extremely low entry to barrier. Only the strong will survive. Taggle began to struggle with competition earlier this summer. By August, it seemed as though the writing was on the wall and the month was highlighted by the resignation of CEO John Kuruvilla.
It’s interesting to note that several daily dealing sites in India literally cut and pasted their way into business as clones to Groupon. In my opinion, to enter an industry without first doing a lot of homework is suicide. I am not suggesting that this was Taggle’s route. The original three founders contained some very impressive resumes. It will be interesting to see how (or if) this company moves forward after they “go back to the drawing board.”
Source: MediaNama
Facebook Acquires Social Guide Gowalla
Facebook isn’t talking, but according to unnamed sources, the social networking giant has acquired Gowalla, the location based startup that launched in 2009.
In September Gowalla reported a redesign of its mobile app in a move to change its focus from check-ins to a socially powered guide to cities, parks and regions around the world. Josh Williams, co-founder and CEO of Gowalla told Huffington Post reporter, Bianca Bosker that the move was prompted by an industry wide move toward combining check-ins with discounts and rewards, and that it was never a goal for Gowalla to enter the daily deals space
“We wanted to go back to our passion, which is inspiring people to visit new places and visit the world through the eyes of someone they trust,” he said. “I think the check-in industry is going to be doing interesting things around loyalty rewards and daily deals, but that’s something entirely separate from what we’re trying to solve.”
Bosker speculated that there might be more to the company’s change in direction, citing competition by sites like Foursquare, Groupon and Google all looking to deliver location-based offers to consumers’ mobile devices.
According to CNNMoney, Williams and most of the Gowalla staff will be moving to Facebook’s offices in Palo Alto where they will be working on the new Facebook Timeline feature.
When asked about the acquisition, Facebook’s only comment was “We don’t comment on rumors and speculation.” Gowalla was not available for comment.
Source: Huffington Post, CNNMoney
E-Commerce Start-ups for Holiday Shoppers: GiftSimple, Presentify.me & BarkBox
Digital shopping is in full swing this holiday season and start-ups are taking notice and advantage of this trend. Three innovative gift buying start-ups to take note of this season have arrived just in time for online shoppers. Presenting GiftSimple, Presentify.me and BarkBox:
GiftSimple stands by its name in providing an easy way for customers to get the gifts they really want through social media. The company, launched last week, is essentially a social gift registry, suitable for any occasion. Users create their own want list of gift ideas they would like and post it to Facebook for friends to see. The genius part of the model, is it allows friends to pay partial amounts towards a gift until the full amount is reached. In this way, users can get those expensive gifts they truly want, but my not feel comfortable asking for due to a high price. If a gift is not paid for in full, the recipient may “cash out” and collect the money that was raised – A win-win for everyone. Giftsimple collects a standard 3% fee on the total amount raised towards each gift.
“Many people find it difficult to save up for a large-ticket item, and receiving contributions toward that purchase would really help; but organizing a group gift offline can be hassle. At the same time, we all get presents we don’t want.”- Jessica Lachs, founder, GiftSimple
You can find the GiftSimple Facebook app directly on Facebook
Presentify.me works with major deal sites such as Groupon and GiltCity to make deal vouchers that are specially customized in the form of gift certificates. Uniquely, the company is inadvertently, taking the social stigma out of giving deal vouchers as gifts – An elephant in the room topic that has been circling the e-commerce and daily deal industry for months. The aim of Presentify.me is to make discounted vouchers as desirable and acceptable as any other regular gift certificate given as a gift. Users may choose from six different voucher design which they prefer to suit the gift giving occasion and are only constricted to a small mention of the deal company the voucher came from. Currently, the site works with Tippr, Groupon, Deal-find and GifltCity, with more to come in future months.
BarkBox, is a full service monthly subscription service like many others, except it is strictly for, you guessed it, Dogs. Weather the gift will be given to the owner or actual pet, this subscription service is the one-stop-shop for dog presents. Users may choose from various monthly services such as bones, shampoos, and other treats for a small monthly fee of $25 per month. The genius of the company, like many others recently, is the fact it takes a niche within the deal industry and focuses on it. If you have a friend that puts a stocking up for their canine companion, BarkBox is a must for your online holiday shopping destinations this season.
Source: Mashable
Daily Deals News Bites for November 27-December 3 2011
Singapore’s Sprooki, a location-based app, says it will make it easy for consumers to find local deals, make purchases via their mobile device such as iPhone or iPad and then redeem the deal without the need to print out a voucher. The app was designed with malls and retailers in mind, allowing them to promote offers to shoppers in the near vicinity.
Sprooki users can follow their favorite merchants and receive special offers. This provides the merchant with the added opportunity to gain repeat customers and build brand loyalty.
According to Terence LEE from SGEntrepreneurs, there are those that think shopping centers have fallen by the wayside when it comes to ecommerce, but he said this is far from the truth.
“…I like how this company has not forgotten the fact that malls still hold much sway in the Singapore retail industry. Sprooki is smart to leverage on them to promote their own app, while at the same time offering malls a tool to promote their brand alongside the merchants under them.”
You can learn more about Sprooki by visiting the site at www.sprooki.com. – SGEntrepreneurs
Koobflog.com, a site described as a social network for golfers says it has added an online store just for golf gear and accessories. The store is divided into categories to make it easy for shoppers to find exactly what they’re looking for, such as accessories, gloves, balls, bags, clubs and even training aids.
With the holiday shopping season in full gear, you may be wondering what to get that special golfer in your life. Koobflob may have the answer.
“Finding the right gift around the holidays can be difficult, but there is an easy solution for the golfer on your gift list,” said Anthony Westrup, Koobflog co-founder.
Koobflab also provides a place for users to connect with other players through their forum, research information on golf courses and book tee times with on-line Tee Time reservations to over 3000 courses in partnership with GolfNow’s booking engine (over 4 million tee times booked!).
“In our on-going commitment to providing the most comprehensive golf site on the internet, offering a shopping venue is a logical value added choice for our community,” said Westrup.
You can find the Koobflog online store by going to the main site and clicking on the Golf Store link. – PRWeb
Frugalo, yet another mobile app looking to help consumers sort through the confusion of managing their daily deal vouchers, launched this past week. The app links to users Facebook friends allowing them to share deals, get alerts when a Facebook friend makes a purchase and lets users get together to take advantage of special promotions.
The app connects with Gmail accounts and imports all users’ purchases from major deal providers such as Groupon, LivingSocial, kgbdeals, GiltCity, Bloomspot, and BlackboardEats.
Founded by two former Digg employees, Michael Cieri and Scott Reynolds, earlier this year Frugalo is backed by funding from AngelPad, a mentorship program founded by a team of ex-Googlers.
To find out more about Frugalo, you can check out the site at www.frugalo.com – Social Barrel
