The Australian online group buying market has grown 72 per cent in the second quarter of 2011, study from Telsyte shows.
The market grew from $71.8 million in the first quart of 2011 to $123.9 million in the second quarter of 2011, a quarter-on-quarter increase of 72 per cent. The market is on track to reach or exceed $400 million by the end of 2011.
“Australian consumers are spoilt for choice with group buying deals. The market has gone from publishing around 800 deals a month at the end of 2010, to currently around 4000 deals a month” Sam Yip, senior research manager at Telsyte said.
Consumers have been quick to take up the barrage of offers, with over 2.6 million vouchers sold in the second quarter of 2011. The average number of vouchers sold per month in the second quarter was just under 900,000 and is likely to exceed 1 million in July.
The fastest growing deals were in the “leisure and recreation” and “other products and services” category, growing 121 per cent and 264 per cent respectively.
“Although the health and beauty segment is still growing, it is beginning to show signs of saturation as hyper-growth is slowing down. In response to this, sites will need to expand into other sub categories of health and beauty beyond general hair, spa, and relaxation,” Yip said.
National deals continued to grow, representing 17 per cent of the market, up from 13 per cent last quarter.
The fastest growing site was Groupon (Stardeals), with the site experiencing 1,356 per cent quarter on quarter growth, moving it up to fifth position in the market overall.