Coupon websites: Are they really a big deal?

In the past year, retail accessibility has expanded with the deliberate appearance of deal websites on the Internet that offer more than the usual discounted gadgets or designer duds. Sites such as Cash Cash Pinoy, Ensogo, Deal Grocer, Groupon, and Metrodeal offer vacations and full-course meals at discounted prices; all you have to do is plant yourself in front of a computer, purchase a coupon and use it before expiration date.

The original premise was websites would award discounts only if a certain number of people would avail of the promo. A counter displays how many more purchasers are needed, motivating sales and keeping paid buyers in suspense, wondering if they’ll ever get their dream creation at half the price.

But now, the quota requirement seems irrelevant — or maybe the counters have been proven to prevent sales. All you have to do is sign up and the whole city is yours for the taking regardless if one or 101 others have made the coupon purchase. Vacation packages in popular destinations, salon and spa treatments, restaurant specials, even short-term classes are all slashed from 30 to 70 percent off; 90 if you’re extremely lucky and vigilant.

Deals usually change on a weekly, if not a daily basis and acquiring the best deals requires on-the-ball clicking action. For example, Cash Cash Pinoy (www.cashcashpinoy.com), one of the bigger coupon sites in the country, is offering a variety of leisure discounts from a half-price rate on a haircut at Diana Kwong Make-up Design & Salon to 70 percent off on a slimming package from the Zen Institute to a P500 coupon at Florabel Restaurant for a thousand pesos worth of food. Just for this week or until the coupons get sold out. And they usually do — fast. Particularly for travel packages. This week, Cash Cash Pinoy is also expected to make a killing selling deals on a three-day, two-night stay for two at the Seasons Hotel in Boracay (airfare included) at a third of the price it usually sells for.

It’s difficult to turn away from such deals especially if you get discounts with pricey establishments. Hong Kong-based Deal Grocer, for one, is known for its discounted luxury packages, having partnered up with elite resorts such as El Nido, Bellaroca, Misibis and the Discovery chain (50-percent discounts on three-day stays) as well as posh restaurants such as Opus and Lemeuria.

While you have the real bargain buys, you can also get deal breakers, those questionable offers involving establishments that no one has ever heard of. It’s usually with the aesthetic clinics and the dime-a-dozen massage places and salons that you can find that cause hesitation. Unless you are already a patron of a clinic or have done extensive research, it’s not really recommended to purchase a whitening treatment, a hair removal package or even a dental extraction session with a random, unknown, untested establishment — even if it’s advertised at 70 percent off.

In the end, it’s all just another way of purchasing something without having to wait for seasonal sales or year-end promos, and with probably less effort as well (most sites just require an e-mail address to sign in.) There’s always a risk with any retail buy. At least you got yours at half-price.