By Daniel Hunter

A new study of 2,000 UK consumers, by Vision Critical, shows that almost one third (32%) of the public have used daily deals sites and that overall 88% of users are very satisfied with the service.

At the same time, consumers are letting money slip through their fingers with 23% saying they have paid for, but never got round to, using their vouchers. In addition, although satisfaction is high, 26% of people think the promotion of vouchers can taint a brand and damage a company’s reputation.

Key findings:

· 87% of people think that all offers are excellent value for money.
· 60% of people have considered doing new things because of site deals.
· 26% of people feel that company reputations are damaged by over-promotion through deal sites.
· Most people use daily deals for restaurant dining (37%).
· Women are more likely (41%) to buy spa and beauty treatments than men (20%).
· More men (32%) feel like they are treated poorly as a customer with a voucher than women (17%).
· 40% of people believe they have saved over £50.

The most popular site, well ahead of any of the others, is Groupon. 75% of voucher hunters use Groupon, compared to Wowcher (26%), LivingSocial (20%), Amazon Local (19%) and Bespoke Offers (6%).

When looking at levels of satisfaction, though, the less popular sites fare as well as Groupon. LivingSocial tops the ranking for satisfaction at 92%. Amazon Local is next (89%), followed by Groupon (88%), Wowcher (86%) and Bespoke Offers (85%).

More than 40% have saved over £50. A third have saved between £50 and £199 and 9% say that their savings have been £200+. Only 11% say that they have saved less than £10 using daily deal sites.

60% say that they have been tempted to try new things because of the offers. Overall, deals for restaurant dining are the most popular (37%). But there is a significant difference with the take up from men and women. Women are 50% more likely to buy coupons for eating out than men. 32% of all deals purchased are for spas. This is the most popular choice of deal for women, who are more than three times more likely to purchase such deals than men. 28% of deals are for entertainment and here the purchasing is only slightly more likely to be by men. The fourth most popular type of deal is for travel (21%) with men more likely to buy these than women.

More than half of the site users feel that the deal site offers have surprise restrictions and limitations. And almost quarters (23%) of consumers have let their purchased offers expire before using them. Also, 26% say that they think some companies damage their reputation by promoting too much through daily deals services.

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