Teaneck, NJ – The story of KosherKouponz is a remarkable case study in how popular concepts developed by the secular world can be effectively tailored and deployed to the Orthodox Jewish community.
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Groupon’s historic rise has been documented and analyzed by virtually every financial publication. In just three years, the daily deal site, which offers deep reductions on food and merchandise in local communities, has grown into a major force in the e-commerce industry with many financial experts now placing a valuation on the company of more than $20 Billion. To date, no company has grown at such a pace in any sector. As such, a rush of entrants have been spurred into the daily deal business trying to emulate the business model.
However, the overwhelming majority of these daily deal sites do not appeal to the average orthodox consumer. Even with occasional offers from a kosher eatery, the observant consumer would need to sift through many days of non-relevant food or inappropriate entertainment deals before stumbling upon one that was attractive.
One year ago, David Siegel of Teaneck, New Jersey embarked on an ambitious plan to offer the daily deal concept to the observant community. The goal was to focus the deals on strictly kosher venues, Jewish themed events and other merchants in the local orthodox communities. All food entities featured would need to bear a reliable hashgacha in order to be featured. “We have had opportunities to do deals with popular eateries carrying questionable hashgachas but have declined”, Siegel remarked. “Our guiding philosophy is sensitivity to halacha and torah values”. After partnering with the founders of the popular OnlySimchas.com, the site went live in December 2010. The demand was overwhelming and within 3 months the site amassed over 10,000 subscribers and generated more than $200,000 in sales.
The first deals were only available in Teaneck and Manhattan, but with the help of Yeruchum Brazil of Far Rockaway, the company quickly expanded to the Five Towns, later to Brooklyn and now to Los Angeles.
Many of the most popular merchants in the Metro NY Jewish market have already been featured; including Carlos & Gabby’s, Estihana, Edible Arrangements, Levana, IDT, Subsational and an Uncle Moishy Concert. A recent buy 1 get 1 free cheese deal for Natural and Kosher products, resulted in 1,700 coupons printed. The largest deal to date was the Carlos & Gabby’s coupon with nearly 2,500 purchases of a $16 for $25 certificate to the popular restaurant located in Cedarhurst, Brooklyn, Queens and Riverdale. Recent philanthropic deals included matanos l’evyonim and maos chittim campaigns through Kollel Chabad which raised a combined $10,000 of donations for those in need.
While the site is still in its early stages, KosherKouponz has ambitious expansion plans and is now the first kosher Group Buying website on both the east and west coast. Many premier food manufacturers, supermarkets, entertainers and retailers who previously advertised exclusively in print have been exploring this new approach to advertising. “It takes time to explain the group buying concept, but once merchants understand it they really appreciate its value” explained Siegel. “We are optimistic that KosherKouponz will provide a venue for our community to enjoy what the rest of the world already has”.
Online: www.kosherkouponz.com
Hopefully, the lower costs available to an online merchant will result in big savings compared to the local merchants. This has the potential to do to the heimeshe mom and pop stores what Walmart and Amazon have done in general. Greater choice, more convenience and most importantly, great savings. Kol hakovod to these online entrepreneurs.
A wonderful website that I’ve used many times and have had only good experiences with.
I have bought many certificates from them. Just one thing, read the fine print. I bought one for a restaurant pay $10 for $20 of food. I didn’t see the fine print that it’s not good on Sundays. So I ended up paying for the meal full price. The problem they are going to have is there are only so many heimishe places they can get. This concept will last for a year and then they will have to start repeating. The Maos Chtim and Matonos Levyonim was excellent because for every donation you make on the site, they had an anonymous donor who matched it. So $10 from you became $20 to tzedakah. I wish them hatzlacha.