Groupon Clone of the day: Eversave

Eversave sees the third highest amount of traffic after Groupon and LivingSocial

Today’s Groupon Clone of the day is Eversave, which originally got its start some ten years ago as a coupon site (a poorly rated one at that) before it moved into the social buying space in 2010.  In November, the site, created by online performance marketing company Prospectiv, won the MITX award for outstanding achievement in Social Media Strategy.  Prospectiv focuses on connecting women with brands, and Eversave targets women aged 25-54 and operates in 57 markets.

Like other Groupon clones, the site holds one “save” (deal) per day, although saves may last for several days, while Groupon’s and LivingSocial’s deals typically only last for 24 hours. 

The site saw more unique monthly visitors in August 2009 than Groupon or LivingSocial, and while those two have climbed the charts, Eversave has maintained a steady number of uniques.  As of August 2010, Eversave’s traffic took the number three slot in social shopping companies, landing somewhere between LivingSocial and BuyWithMe with 4.8 million unique monthly visitors, compared to LivingSocial’s 6.9 million and Groupon’s 8.2 million.

Eversave has previously been tarnished by bad reviews on the Web, including reports that the company required customers to provide personal information like phone numbers and email addresses in order to access their coupons.  Some customers also reported that by doing so, they unintentionally agreed to give access to their personal information to solicitors, which meant that their inboxes were then flooded with emails from advertisers. 

But in recent weeks, Eversave has redesigned its website and has received more positive reviews that indicate that fewer people are experiencing inbox floods from advertisers.  And at this point, it is a social shopping site, so it is to be expected that it would ask for personal information in order to purchase the deal.

On Thursday the site published the results of a survey of its users that found that 53% of respondents said they either hadn’t started shopping yet or they were in the early stages of shopping.  A slim 15% said they were done shopping.  Additionally, 48% of shoppers polled in the survey said that the deals this year are better than last year’s, with 43% saying they’re about the same.  Only 9% said that the sales are worse this year than in 2009.

Prospectiv was not available to comment, but President and CEO Jere Doyle remarked in a prepared statement: "We're down to the final days of the holiday shopping season and fifty-three percent surveyed either haven't started or are in the early stages, so there are still lots of opportunities for merchants to drive sales and bring in new customers with last minute holiday promotions.”

Image source: Eversave.com