It’s fair to say that there’s been a bit of  an explosion of “group buying” websites recently; sites that heavily discount purchases as long as a certain number of people agree to buy them.
MySteal.co.uk is a new site that aggregates these group buying deals so visitors can view them all in one place. They currently work with the following group buying websites to bring you deals:
- Groupon (MyCityDeal)
- Groupola
- Townhog
- Wowcher
- VivaVoucher
- kgb-deals
- Likebees
- Wahanda
- LondonsBest
- mypiggyback
It’s fair to say that there are a few unknown sites on there, but of course Groupola has been getting quite a bit of press because of its iPhone 4 shenanigans.
When you first visit MySteal, it will try to guess your location (probably through IP targeting) and take you to the most local deals. It’s been a little inaccurate for me on the 2 visits I’ve made; whilst Telford wasn’t a bad guess, Rotherham is a little further away from my actual location in Wolverhampton . Thankfully, your location can easily be changed. As of writing, there are currently 58 UK towns and cities to choose from, with 70 deals available. MySteal claims it has saved visitors over £10 million so far.
For my home town, it appears that only Groupon (one of the larger group buying sites) provides deals. Switch to London, and there are naturally deals from several other sites. Like most of the group buying sites themselves, you can sign up to receive daily emails of deals, subscribe to an RSS feed or follow the deals on Twitter.
If you see a deal you like, click on it on MySteal and you’ll get transferred to the original site to read more details and carry out the transaction if you’re really taken with it. It looks as if MySteal is making a small commission from each deal.
Overall MySteal does a decent job of aggregating these deals, but I’m a little sceptical of the whole group buying phenomenon. It’s really dependent on the types of deal that the sites can secure, and you’ll get a better range of deals if you live in a bigger city. For a city the size of Wolverhampton, the choice of deals isn’t currently very good, but that might change. More and  more businesses are using voucher codes to entice customers, and so more businesses may be looking to get their offers onto group buying sites.
Amazing articles!
Toplifes uk provides a fast and convenient way to navigate around local ‘deal-a-day’ websites. We get all the group buying sites and put all the group buying deals togather.Each day we follow, index and categorize local deals to create a simple, time-saving way to find great savings in your city
Hi, try http://www.findperfectdeal.com – much better appearance and by far the best of all deal aggregators available on the web. No signup fuss and categorize and sorts deals in smart way!
I have been a member of Groupon and brought several deal through them. All have been good, haircuts, meals etc. Ive had some real bargains. Apart from Harley Fit, I got a beauty treatment to find that myself along with another 100 people that brought it were then ignored by the company.
Groupon hold no responsibility for ensuring the deal happens as they are just middle men. So Harley Fit are liable, but are laying low. Having read reviews with Harley Fit, it doesn’t surprise me, I’m about to threaten legal action. If you are going to make a purchase, just google the company first and check it out. Dont have that overwhelming trust just because it has come through a reputable website. It hasn’t deterred me from group buying though.