A Rice University faculty member just published a study on how effective merchants find Groupon. To Groupon critics, it was honey because a whooping 40% of participants wouldn’t repeat the experience.

But here’s the catch and why I’m still a huge proponent of the “group buying” model that encompasses Living Social, Buy With Me, Tippr and now the Yellow Pages and local radio stations and newspapers too: most of that 40% thought the Groupon customers were cheap and tipped badly. 

If that’s the worst of the problems, this model may actually be worth much more than the billion-dollar valuations already placed on the space.  Here’s why.  First, businesses like restaurants can prepopulate the “tip” field.  I went to a restaurant in Charlotte called Zebra which has done multiple group buying offers and they include a 15% gratuity in the bill.  Any business not already doing that could and should be.  Second, and more powerful, is that the group sites could capture information on who is a good and bad customer from the merchant.  Every redemption has a unique code associated with it (see image). None of the group buying sites are doing that now and merchants, at least according to the few that I’ve interviews, are keeping track of redemptions in rudimentary excel spreadsheets. The first company to provide a merchant tool that allows the flagging of particularly good and egregiously bad customers will be the winner in this space. By eliminating the “bad” customers from the offer, a merchant is much more likely to experience profitability or service issues that strain these small businesses. 

I'm wildly excited for Forrester's upcoming Consumer Forum entitled "Unleash Your Organization To Serve Empowered Customers," and I hope you are as well. Carrie Johnson, who leads our research team focused on helping you, the eBusiness & Channel Strategy professional, is the research champion for the event. And I have to say, she's done a wonderful job putting together an A+ event that I know will be incredibly relevant to the challenges you face in your role every day.

Aside from the opportunity to attend track sessions, and network and learn from peers, I'm most looking forward to the internal and external speaker presentations. This year, Forrester's Charles Golvin and Josh Bernoff will kick off back-to-back presentations. Charles will talk about ubiquitous customer connectivity, what it means, and how you should work to ensure you effectively serve your customers anytime and via any channel. Josh will then introduce concepts from his new book, Empowered, focusing his comments on how to empower your teams to use social, mobile, cloud, and video technologies to create innovative new customer connections thereby driving effective customer experiences and revenue. As executive champion for the Forum, I've received a sneak peak of both presentations, and they are not to be missed.

Social shopping -- and service -- has become a reality: The percent of US online consumers opting out of social media -- Inactives -- has fallen dramatically, from 52% in 2006 to just 17% in 2009 while all of the categories of social media usage have increased. In response, eBusiness executives are doing the best they can -- as fast as they can -- to experiment with social media and create solid strategies.

The challenge? Most social initiatives originate in interactive marketing departments with marketing goals like awareness and branding, while eBusiness executives must tie their efforts to increased sales and decreased service costs.

Social then tends to raise more questions than it answers: Who owns social? What is the role of eBusiness in setting the social strategy? How do we create a strategy that helps our online sales while coordinating with other departments? Our new report The Building Blocks For Social Success in eBusiness explores how some firms are dipping their toes in the water -- we call them “experimenting” eBusiness groups -- and how others are in the “directing and governing” phases with social -- owning not just the templates and process for social, but the execution as well, for their entire companies.

Where are you on the social spectrum? Does your company host a Facebook fan page? Do you offer customer ratings and reviews? Are your social efforts focused on increasing sales or increasing brand awareness?  Is social integrated into your online sales experiences? I told you social raises more questions than answers! I’d love to hear your thoughts on the role that social can play in driving online sales.

After almost 10 years at Forrester, I'm incredibly lucky to now lead the team dedicated to making eBusiness & Channel Strategy Professionals successful every day. And, more than ever, senior executives leading eBusiness efforts need help. Ubiquitous connectivity, new devices, and empowered consumers translate into very specific challenges. How do I drive commerce effectively anytime and anywhere my customers demand? How can I ensure a seamless and productive experience regardless of the channel employed? And, how do I align my people, processes, technology, metrics, and culture to support my customers?

If you or someone you know is interested in helping eBusiness & Channel Strategy professionals with these and other challenges, please consider the following open positions for which we are hiring:

• Senior Analyst - Serving eBusiness & Channel Strategy Professionals with Retail insights (US)
• Senior Analyst - Serving eBusiness & Channel Strategy Professionals with Retail insights (Amsterdam or London)
• Senior Analyst - Serving eBusiness & Channel Strategy Professionals with Technology insights (US)
• Research Associate - Serving eBusiness & Channel Strategy Professionals (US)