Bookstores Give High Marks to Community Coupons

Some bookstores are learning that it takes a village -- or at least an online community -- to make advertising effective.

Common Good Books and Green Apple Books have tried online group coupon services in recent weeks, and both consider the experiments a success. "I think we will try it again," said Common Good Books manager Sue Zumberge. "It worked out really well."

Common Good Books' Groupon and Green Apple's Joffer were similar: A deal offering a discount at the bookstore was posted on the sponsoring website and e-mailed to local consumers. The coupon only became valid after a minimum number of people purchased it, and the store and the coupon provider split the revenue.

Green Apple offered San Franciscans $25 in store merchandise for $15, and sold 105 coupons in the 48 hours the offer was available. "Our reasoning was that they would generally spend more than $25," said store co-owner Pete Mulvihill, and that's been the case for all the coupons redeemed so far.

Almost half the coupons have been redeemed by new Green Apple customers, something Mulvihill is particularly pleased about. "I don't know if you could ever spend $300 on advertising" and bring in 14 new customers right away, he said, especially during a slow month like March.

Zumberge agrees. She treated the promotion as an advertising expense from the beginning, after checking with the store's accountant. Groupon's 60,000-name mailing list of Twin Cities customers was the biggest selling point. "These are people who have signed up because they consume," Zumberge said, so they are the type of customer Common Good Books most wants to reach.

Common Good Books offered $20 of merchandise for $10, and sold more than 800 coupons. As at Green Apple, about a third of the coupons have been redeemed so far, and all the transactions have been for more than the coupon amount.

Groupon keeps half the revenue it collects, a figure that initially surprised Zumberge, but she is convinced the results are worth it. Because Groupon only promotes one coupon at a time, "You have that one day where you're all there is" to a whole group of potential customers, she said.

Zumberge learned about Groupon from her daughter, who used a local restaurant's promotion for an order of chicken wings during the Super Bowl. After Common Good Books participated, a restaurant across the street from the store decided to try it as well -- and the bookstore staff have signed up for the e-mail offers.

Mulvihill decided to work with Joffer after the company approached him with a discount of its own -- Joffer kept 20 percent of the promotion revenues, instead of its usual 30 percent. "The 20 percent was appealing," Mulvihill said, but he was also impressed with Joffer's package and reach. "I was amazed … at how many places picked up on it," he said. --Sarah Rettger