RESTAURANTS.COM

At this time of recession period (difficult economic times) gift certificates/coupons is definitely a good deal especially that this is the time when most consumers are price conscious and would definitely be looking to get a good deal such as this one (coupons).According to the case study it has been stated that the coupons offer 30-50 percent off the menu price which is absolutely a very appealing deal that many buyers wont refuse. In this case or generally gift certificates would be of great help in reducing consumer overspending by cutting costs in the sense that even though customers have to spend $5-$15 to purchase a gift certificate he or she usually gets a better discount than offered in newspapers coupled with a lower price for whatever meal is being offered on the restaurant’s menu.
It was necessary and it was a great opportunity for restaurant.com to purchase City Spree because restaurant.com had even a better strategy or model which is allowing or inviting restaurant owners to place their certificates online for free (free service) while to gain their profit restaurant.com sells the gift certificates to the consumers or buyers. This also came as an opportunity to restaurant.com because it was not necessary for the company to start developing the system from scratch as there was already a foundation of things laid out by the previous owner (City Spree), so all that restaurant.com had to do was to improve the old system into a better one. As a result restaurant.com found an audience of millions of shoppers which maximized their revenue even within the first five months of their operation.
The great motivator for restaurants to participate in the new business model is the fact that restaurant.com offers their service to restaurant owners free of charge. Apart from that it gives restaurant a great opportunity to advertise their products online by allowing them to place their gift certificates, information about their restaurant, menu, parking space availability and many more for free on the internet where there is a broader market as nowadays most people have adapted to the use of internet worldwide which means more customers for restaurants. By providing free service and having the opportunity to advertise their products online, this also helps restaurants to cut advertising costs as it is charge free to place information about their restaurant on restaurant.com compared to when they have to use other media such as print media (newspapers, broachers etc) for advertising, coupled with the fact that their advertisement will most likely not reach a lot of people because nowadays most people read news on the internet (for free) so it is only a few that are willing to buy newspapers.
Restaurant.com must grow or improve its market reach by globalising their company in order to protect its position in the market. They can enhance global reach by inviting other restaurant around the world but not only in the US. Globalising their business would lead to growth in international market, thus increased number of customers and buyers resulting in quite maximized revenue.