Yesterday afternoon I moderated the “Daily Deals Suck” panel at the GeoLoco Conference featuring Lilia Martinez-Coburn of BluLabel, Lawrence Marks of Choozon, Chris Silva of Altimeter Group and Jeremy Geiger of Retailigence. Even before our discussion, we knew the reasons Daily Deals already have a dubious reputation — from over-saturation on recommendations, to lack of merchant education, to a lackluster redemption experience for the user. But perhaps the biggest reason Daily Deals as we know them currently suck, is because most of the leading business models are flawed.

THAT’S A DEAL BREAKER LADIES
In the last few months, Groupon was forced to cut 10 percent of its sales staff. Meanwhile, BuyWithMe cut half of its staff and was aquired by Gilt Groupe (likely for a song). And finally, even with all of its demographic targeting and endless resources, Facebook cut its Deals product after only a four month test due to low performance. Clearly, there’s something wrong when an industry’s shining examples are struggling. The one large company continuing to invest in the local deals space is Google.



GOOGLE’S PLAY
Yesterday morning Google launched its Google Offers product. Between Google’s ability to display local in-stock inventory through the Blue Dot search feature, its foray into mobile payment systems via Google Wallet, and its acquisition of Dealmap to place inventory into Google Maps — the search goliath is poised to takeover the space. The problem is, with customer loyalty and conversion being as low as it is on existing deal services, it may not be worth it to become a leader in what could possibly be a losing approach to a great market opportunity.

Clearly, I’m just a critical bystander here. If you’ve got questions on the deal space for the real experts, feel free to ping my fellow panelists. Their Twitter handles are: @BluLabel, @choozon, @802dotchris and @retailigence.