Well, even if you do it at a loss, it's still marketing. Marketing isn't free, and it usually very costly. A stupid billboard costs $5k a month. Our businesses (and most, I'd imagine), run Groupons at a loss and make it up through marketing, cross sales and up sales.
We were getting $60 for a $169 product that cost us $80-100 to make.
So when you say it's hard not to make money with 2x the customers you actually meant you were losing money... I understand that it's marketing, but it's not making money until you get people coming back without a Groupon.
We were getting $60 for a $169 product that cost us $80-100 to make.