The Qualitative Report 2014 Volume 19, Article 61, 1-15 http://www.nova.edu/ssss/QR/QR19/ardizzone61.pdf Consumers’ Motivations and Daily Deal Promotions Antonella Ardizzone and Ariela Mortara IULM University of Milan, Milan, Italy In the last years daily deal (dd) sites have become a substantial part of e- commerce scenario. Every day, for a limited time, such sites offer their subscribers, at very discounted prices, deals for products or services. Despite the worldwide success of daily deal sites, testified by articles in newspapers and magazines, there is an almost complete absence of academic research on this topic. The aim of this paper is to understand the consumers' drivers in online coupon buying. The study is exploratory in nature and authors have collected data by carrying out four synchronous online focus groups involving 21 participants and investigating five areas: level of awareness, perception area, social dimension, consumer behavior, and relationship with e- commerce. Respondents show a high level of awareness of daily deal sites. In the perceptive area, convenience emerges as the driving factor in coupon buying. As to the self-perception area, some ambivalences emerge between smartness and compulsive buying, highlighting also some dissatisfaction. The ‘social dimension’ is almost irrelevant, and as to consumer behavior, daily deal buying seems to be a kind of fashion. Consumers perceive the bargain side of the offer, behaving like “cherry pickers.” Keywords: Consumer Behavior, E-Commerce, Focus Group, Daily Deal Promotions, Groupon Introduction The daily deal promotions have emerged as a new trend along with the increase of e- commerce and despite (or probably thanks to) the economic crisis started in 2008. At very discounted prices (usually 50% to 90% off), for a limited time (usually one or two days), the daily deal (dd) sites offer their subscribers a deal for a product or a service. Groupon is the most popular and largest daily deal site, founded by Andrew Mason in Chicago in 2008. Thanks to a growing rate of 219% in a half year, in the first half of 2011 the total revenues were $688 million compared to $313 million in 2010, despite a net loss of $224 million in the first half of 2011 (Pepitone, 2011). According to The Archer Group (2011) dd sites count more than 500 and their numbers are still growing. In the US, besides Groupon, Living Social and Eversave are the best known and Groupalia and Lets Bonus in Italy. As a new two-sided market, daily deals sport one side representing businesses offering discounted products or services; the other side representing customers interested in buying them; between the two the network benefits from the intermediation of the dd site. Theoretically, the coupon sales increase along with the growing of site subscribers, and, consequently, the merchants’ benefits increase too (economies of scale). Clients benefit is proportional to the level of bargain obtained (number, quality, and convenience of the deals); the merchants and the dd site share profits from the sale of coupons in a variable percentage: for instance, Groupon’s commission is 50% of the coupon price, but other dd sites ask for less (i.e., the share of LivingSocial is about 35%). Even if the earnings of dd sites and those of the merchants are proportional to the sold coupons, the merchants should take into account the difficulties met in satisfying a higher number of clients. Thus leading the service providers to offer a lesser quality service and consequently dissatisfy the clients. Different