Deal or no deal

Apart from at the gray boundary between consumer/SOHO, I don’t think a coupon scheme would ever really take off in B2B. Coupon schemes work as they seek to aggregate the buying power of individuals into a powerful market force. The large corporations already have this buying power and will always demand, and get, value well above the published rates so wouldn’t need any coupon discounts. For the small-mid end, a few factors would work against it. Firstly, why add to the already over-burdened admin for SME by making them jump through hoops. Prospective suppliers should just give them a fair deal in the first place. Secondly, given the relatively small value of the likely market (compared to consumer), suppliers are also unlikely to be interested enough to investigate and invest in such a scheme. The relative penetrations are so low you need a big “universe” to make the maths work. And finally, while price is obviously a key factor in any purchase, businesses are looking for value as well - it’s no use getting a cheap deal if your purchase slows your business down. I can see the case for almost a coupon in reverse (a nopuoc?) where by SMEs use the power of web 2.0 to come together to form buying groups and so get the same level of discount and service as the very biggest companies. Historically, this was always difficult due to the extra admin, lack of commonality and general lack of will but the new social web wipes away many of these barriers.