Zooyan: An Amazon.com for offers at local merchants

We launched Zooyan today as a marketplace where local merchants can create compelling offers to market their business and where consumers can freely search and browse offers to discover new places in their cities. The idea of Zooyan was created to address the current issues with the business model for daily deal sites such as Groupon and Livingsocial.

Our model structures offers that are available for a minimum of 30 days which helps smooth sales out over time for merchants rather than the one or two day surges in customers resulting from daily deals which can actually hurt business. We also recognized that consumers want variety and the ability to purchase offers on their schedule rather than make impulse decisions. The extended deal time frame helps curb impulsive purchases and having many offers at the same time provides choice.

Currently we have over 70 offers available in Philadelphia growing to over 100 in the next week or two. We aim to have at leas 250 offers available at any one time in each city which should provide an ample supply of merchants to discover. Our goal is to create a one stop shop for locals, travelers etc who might be looking for something new but is unwilling to dive in head first. We allow you to test the water with your toes first.

I appreciate any suggestions of comments that any of you may have in regards to the website or business model.