Groupon clone of the day: Jump On It

The group-buying site is the Groupon of Australia

With two days left to go in our 12 Days of Groupon Clones, we’re going down under to explore Jump On It, Australia’s largest group-buying platform which launched in May of this year.

Founded in 2009 by serial entrepreneurs Colin Fabig, James Gilbert, and Adam Rigby, the startup is based out of Sydney’s lower North Shore and operates in 13 cities throughout Australia, including Auckland, Brisbane, Melbourne, and Perth, among others.  Fabig serves as the company’s CEO, Gilbert is the commercial director, and Rigby is the COO.

Like some—but not all—other Groupon clones, Jump On It combines the group-buying platform with the flash-sale platform, offering one deal per 24-hour period, which is only activated if a minimum number of people purchase it.

In November, LivingSocial invested $5 million in Jump On It for a controlling majority stake in the company.  The investment extends LivingSocial’s reach to Australia, in addition to its current foothold in Ireland, Canada, and the UK.  Together, Jump On It and LivingSocial will reach an estimated 1.2 million Australian consumers each day via email.

"Together we will lead the social shopping sector by offering consumers more and varied deals in their area, and by giving local merchants a one-stop shop for new customers across these two great websites,” said CEO Colin Fabig in the company’s announcement.

The company previously raised funds from Nextec Capital.

Currently, Jump On It is running a Christmas promotion whereby users can send $100 of Jump On it credit to any number of friends or family members.  The deal is free and recipients can spend the $100 on any deals they want, but the catch is that they can only spend $5 at a time.  So if a deal is $25 for $50 worth of goods at a store, users can’t use their $100 credit to cover the full cost of the deal.  They can only get $5 off, which is still pretty cool.  I recently got $5 off of a $20 purchase on Eversave and I teared up a little.  No, not really…

The site also offers $10 worth of credit when users refer friends.

Unlike other Groupon clones, Jump On It actually has invested time and energy into offering decent customer service in the form of a live chat feature, so that users who need help with a purchase or have a question can click on the link and immediately begin chatting with a customer representative.  This definitely sets the company apart from other Groupon clones, who have been criticized for having zero customer service. 

Image source: Jumponit.com