Australian-based startup DealWatch has crossed the waters to available within the United Kingdom. DealWatch is currently available in both Australia and the New Zealand. This is expected to have a large impact within the UK daily deal aggregator market with many under-established or abandoned aggregators remaining.

The daily deal market within the UK is expanding with a few large worldwide competitors such as Living Social and Group On, as well as local founded competitors KGB Deals and “Wowcher”.

DealWatch takes a stance in cleaning up consumers massively spammed inboxes one at a time, in using DealWatch consumers can aggregate the over 10 emails per day, into a one simple email – sorted by popularity. This saves consumers both time and money! “It’s most definitely a win-win situation, not only can our users save time by not having to check each site per day, but daily deals also end up saving them money”, says Founder of DealWatch, Alex Whiteside.

DealWatch UK will be available in over 30 cities, and serve up over 35 daily deal sites. “It was quite interesting, as we were developing over 40 of the listed sites are now out of business, page not found or have been bought out by larger competitors. This shapes the rapid consolidation process of the daily deal market”, says Mr Whiteside.

By the end of the year DealWatch hopes to expand its international portfolio even greater, more details will be released in the months to come.

For more information please visit: DealWatch UK

Looking for daily deals on Cudo? Read our comprehensive guide to get an insight on how Cudo works.

What is Cudo?

Quite simply put, Cudo is a Australian based deal site that offers a wide range of deals in both capital cities and suburbs throughout the country. Cudo offers a large discount on many unique activities that create a finer lifestyle including massages, hair salons and more. They are accredited a 5-stay Canstar rating for the best Group Buying Website.

How does it work?

Cudo offers large discounts on some of the best deals around each local city. Once you decide on the deal you like, simply click “view deal” and you will be prompted with a purchase screen. On checkout, Cudo will email you a voucher within 24-48 hours, this voucher can be redeemed at the local venue by presenting it during purchase. Keep in mind that any deal which explicitly declares that bookings are required will need to be booked well in advance, otherwise you may be out of luck when redeeming the deal.

Our Review

Cudo offers a modern design with a huge range of local cities, Cudo is one of a few daily deal sites still offering deep discounts within the local space. Cudo offers deals within many of the capital cities such as Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth and in addition they also run offers within Newcastle, Wollongong and the Gold Coast. Thus, Cudo tailors a comprehensive package which suits almost all Australians.

Cudo’s Sydney page had roughly 20 deals present however there was a large range of  ”online deals“. Such deals are quite often categorised as Photo Deals, Jewellery and even the basic home wares. Their layout is easy to navigate however, signup is required before you can view deals in your local city. In addition, Cudo offer a unique range of travel deals to some of the world’s leading travel destinations such as Bali, Fiji and Thailand.

Cudo has strict editorial processes which ensure all deals have adequate information, they even highlight the voucher to and from date under the “What you get heading”.

Cudo’s checkout is quite simple. A click of a button will bring you to the buy now page where you can enter your details and pay with either credit card or the newly found “paypal option”. Upon purchase you will be greeted with a thank you message and told your voucher will be delivered within 24-48 hours. Our voucher for a pizza deal in Sydney arrived almost immediately in our inbox which we could then either print or redeem on the iPhone application. We had no issues with the merchant and the food was quite amazing, in fact we may have been converted into a regular customer!

What we like 

• Cudo offer a range of daily deals, travel deals and online deals
• Cudo tailor for regional areas (Newcastle, Wollongong, Gold Coast)
• You can checkout with Paypal

As it turns out, So Sharp, has reassessed the quality of the KSM150 Kitchen Mixer from Panda2u and determined that it is not suitable for sale, most likely a form of grey trade or parallel import. Many consumers have responded in outrage, yet as the saying goes “some deals are just too good to be true”. As attached below a statement from Daniel McDonald – CEO of So Sharp.

Dear Valued SoSharp Customer,

Upon review of the documentation provided to us by the Merchant Panda2U Business Solutions, SoSharp executive team are not satisfied that the KitchenAid Mixer Stand KSM150 that you purchased meets our strict product policy guidelines. After further due diligence we have serious concerns about the authenticity of the product KitchenAid Mixer Stand KSM150.

As a result of this SoSharp are cancelling your order and will refund the full amount that you paid for the KitchenAid Mixer Stand KSM directly to you within the next 3 working days.

SoSharp values its customers and our product policy has been developed to ensure that all products being offered by SoSharp meet our customers expectation, unfortunately the product that was offered by Panda2U Business Solutions does not meet all of this criteria.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused you and hope you understand that this action taken by SoSharp is the result of our charter of customer service, satisfaction and protection. As a result of this charter we have taken this course of action.

We thank you for your business and are always here to ensure your experience with SoSharp exceeds your expectations.

Daniel McDonald Chief Executive Officer

Until next time! Happy Deal Hunting,

The DealWatch Team

This week has seen some interesting movements within the daily deal industry.

UK Aggregator Coupobox sells to DealCollector

UK Aggregator Coupobox announced that it has sold to DealCollector. This shows signs of consolidation within the European market. Stavros Prodromou, the founder and former CEO of Coupobox, highlights the sales were in the lower six figure range. Prodromou also notes that Coupobox has been highly profitable within its two-man team.

DealCollector formed its ground within the German market and with this purchase will now continue expansion into the UK. said Mathias Jacobs, CEO of DealCollector, released in a statement, “Our acquisition of Coupobox will bolster the company’s position in the daily deal sector and enhance our strategic partnerships; it’s an exciting prospect for DealCollector”. DealWatch is awaiting response from DealCollector, however, estimates provided suggest DealCollector has a subscriber base of near 1 million.

Coupobox founded in 2010, by Tolga Oenal and Alex Petrov claims to be quite profitable, however, with a subscriber base of near 60,000 we think otherwise.

Source: TechCrunch

Groupon falls to a depressing 50% Initial IPO value as lockup ends

Despite all efforts to become the “platform for local commerce“, GroupOn closed friday afternoon at 9.69$, near 50% of its initial public offering back in November. GroupOn is renowned for having one of the highest offerings from Google back in 2010, valued at over $6 billion.

Source: BusinessWeek