Nectar to close Daily Deals offering

Nectar is closing its Daily Deals platform just nine months after launching, the latest in a slew of brands exiting the market casting doubt on its long-term sustainability.

Nectar daily deals

The closure is a result of Nectar’s supplier Group Commerce, which provides white label deals services to a number of brands and publishers the UK including The Evening Standard and The Daily Telegraph, discontinuing its deals sourcing services in the UK. It will continue to operate its core technology platform.

It could mean the newspapers’ daily deals sites may also close as a result.

Nectar’s site opened in July last year and allowed subscribers to earn two loyalty points for every £1 spent on Nectar Daily deals. There was also the potential to use data from its 18 million Nectar card holders to personalise offers and offer something more tailored than other players in the market, although it is not clear if this was ever utilised.

A spokesperson for Nectar claims the company is “deciding the future” of its daily deals platform and could return to the market with a new supplier.

Nectar says the offer has been “positively received” by its customers, adding hundreds of thousands of customers subscribed to the service. Around 20 per cent of subscribers bought deals.

The move comes as the daily deals industry is in the spotlight again following another set of disappointing results from Groupon, which resulted in the sacking of CEO and founder Andrew Mason. Groupon is expected to hire an external candidate as CEO to lead the company, according to Bloomberg.

Groupon launched in 2008 and fuelled the rapid growth of the fledgling daily deals market. Although as an increasing number of brands moved into the space, including LivingSocial, KGB and Amazon, growth has slowed causing observers to question whether the model can survive long-term.

Newspaper group Trinity Mirror closed its Happli deals site last year just months after it launched, as did online listings site Gumtree.

Recommended

Case study: Diet Coke and its creative designers

Josie Allchin

The soft drink brand, which is sold in 127 markets and is globally worth $11bn, has a long-standing relationship with fashion. Designers such as Matthew Williamson, Gianfranco Ferre, Marni and Roberto Cavalli have all used their skills to design bottles and cans, targeting women who are into fashion.