Felix Salmon wrote an article, “Grouponomics” for Reuters recently that offers excellent insight into some of the competitive advantages Groupon should be able to leverage over copy cats. Things like localization, personalization and data. Groupon should be able to coach merchants on how to best price their offer based upon their average transaction price and profit margin; as well as volume, seasonality and new customer acquisition metrics.

I’ve been doing a lot of research on this topic – whether doing a Groupon-type offer is good for you business and this article provides a good intro-discussion on this issue.