Daily Deal Companies Desperately Need Targeting

Remarkably, both Groupon and LivingSocial sent me offers for Spider-Vein treatments today. This made me wonder:

1) With all the data and big data-crunching resources now available, why aren’t these companies doing more advanced targeting to optimize offers? As far as I can tell, I’m not a likely buyer for Spider-Vein treatment offers.

2) Are they running out of good deals? This seems unlikely given the number of local merchants there are in San Francisco, but perhaps existing merchants are reaching burnout.

3) Is there customer scarcity? Given that one offer came in at 5:43am and the other at 8:31am, perhaps one company was worried that there would be a limited supply of customers for a very similar offer.

4) Was there a commitment that required them to send out the offer to a minimum number of people within a certain time-frame?

Whatever the case, it seems far too unlikely to be coincidence. Here’s hoping for a double burrito or sushi deal tomorrow.