Review of 100 Big Coupons
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Last week I received notification that the site 100 Big Coupons wanted to purchase a review here. Fair enough, I thought, and agreed.
According to their review request, they “… offer coupons for all the major online stores to help people save money while still getting what they want. The service is free to use for anyone who wishes and requires no registration or personal information.” With that in mined, I’ve looked over the site and have come away with a few main impressions.
Design
My first impression was one of being overwhelmed. There is a lot of information on that front page, and I can’t immediately tell what’s most important. The headings on the sidebar are decent, but what can I say, I’m a designer and I felt somewhat lost. Because I’m getting paid for this review, I took the time to sort through everything, but I’m not sure I would have if I’d just stumbled across the site.
Functionality
What does the site actually do? They share coupon codes. You know when you place an online order and it says “If you have a coupon code, enter it here”? Well, there are lots of sites that gather and share various promotional codes in the hopes of making money either through advertising or affiliate programs. 100 Big Coupons is one of these sites. I make it a habit to search for coupon codes when checking out at stores that usually have them, like GoDaddy, so I’ve seen lots of these sites.
When I clicked around through 100 Big Coupons, I found a fair amount of coupons, but also some confusion. For instance, clicking on a product category brought up a list of stores in that category, and also said: “View the 36 coupons in this category:” The colon made me assume the coupons were listed below… but they weren’t. I assumed something was broken. Later, I moused over the statement and realized it was a link, and clicking it brought up the promised coupon. However, since it isn’t underlined until I put my mouse over it, I didn’t realize that I could click it.
Similarly, I tried a search for GoDaddy, since I know they almost always have coupons floating around, and essentially got a blank page as a result. There wasn’t even a statement that there were no coupons found. I understand that no one website will have all available coupons listed (and I think that 100 Big Coupons isn’t even interested in listing domain name coupons) but I found the response unhelpful and potentially confusing.
When you DO find a coupon that interests you, though, the site is good about giving you the information you need to use the coupon.
But can it save me money?
Possibly. It depends on the kinds of things you buy, and mostly on whether you’ll remember to check the site before purchasing.
Suggestions
I feel like 100 Big Coupons is trying to be too many things to too many people. I imagine that offering coupons is a fairly low-profit-margin business, so a lot of eyeballs are crucial, but I’d much prefer to see the site focus a little and branch out within a niche. For instance, I frequent sites that feature domain coupons. Why not create a site that focuses on exclusively on Women’s Clothing (for instance) and has a blog that not only lists coupons but alerts readers to unusually good deals? That way you as a customer don’t have to go out of your way to check the site; it’s more likely that you’d use a coupon because you were already subscribed to the site.
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I understand the basis for your review, in that there is a lot of different categories on the front page. However I think this is typical of a large coupon site. Overall I think the homepage is very clean and nicely designed.
Also, I don’t agree with you that 100BigCoupons is flawed since it is trying to be “too many things.” Many of the internet’s top coupon websites provide coupons in many different categories. Sure a niche would be nice too, but the fact is an advantage that a coupon site like 100BigCoupons has over a niche coupon site is that they have the ability to get more cliental and the clients which they do get will be able to shop not only in 1 category but in many different categories. Once a customer gets used to and learns to “know” and like the coupon site they will likely always use that coupon site for anything they are looking to buy. This is brand loyalty.
Really being a niche and not being a niche are 2 different business models. Both are correct and both can succeed.
I definitely like the design of that website. Very web 2.0 look.