So were the founders of Yipit, which is one of the fastest growing tech startups in New York and just raised a $6 million Series B round from blue-chip VCs.

Building a successful startup is incredibly challenging and the best way to learn how is to work at one.

We’re offering a rare analyst role that will give you the following skills:

• Domain Expertise: We’re building the Nielsen of the local e-commerce space, which will be a multi-billion – if not a multi-trillion – dollar industry over the next decade as local spending shifts from offline to online. The person who fills this role will become one of the most knowledgeable people in the world on this massive and rapidly growing industry.
• PR: Become a recognized industry expert and develop relationships with reporters from leading publications as you publish data-driven industry reports to raise the visibility of Yipit. Your ability to derive meaningful insights from our large dataset will be critical.
• Sales: Sell into hedge fund and daily deal clients by leveraging your intellect, expertise and Wall Street credibility.
• Customer and Product Development: Work with clients to refine current offerings and develop new product lines to fit their needs. Analyze market demand to determine optimal pricing for new products.
• Operations: Build out Yipit Data’s business operations and financial processes as we scale to a world class operation.

This is an analyst role supporting the buildout of all parts of the Yipit Data business. Yipit Data utilizes Yipit’s proprietary dataset to provide analytics and insights to daily deal space and investor communities. We’re already the leading source of industry data and our current clients include multi-billion dollar hedge funds and leading daily deal sites.

The workload is highly varied and will often be incredibly demanding. Ideal candidates are likely an analyst at a leading investment bank, consultancy (or similar) and can demonstrate they are:

• Intellectually and professionally nimble: able to take on a variety of independent workstreams
• Creative and comfortable with data: leverage the broad and semi-structured universe of daily deal data to derive news and investment worthy conclusions
• An extremely hard worker: ready to make the success of this startup the primary focus of your life

Compensation includes equity, highly competitive salary and excellent benefits (health, vision and dental).

As you can see, the position will appeal to a narrow and exceptional set of individuals. Interested candidates should send their resume or LinkedIn to jobs+analyst@yipit.com. Given the nature of this position, we expect it to be very competitive, but we promise to look at every individual and get back to you quickly.

Groupon benefited from record performance in its travel and consumer products segments early in November, while LivingSocial saw a 5% decline during the month

The Thanksgiving Holiday led to significant declines for all major players towards the end of November

Thanksgiving Holiday Slows Industry Growth

November’s Yipit Data Report reveals the North American Daily Deal industry, adversely affected by seasonal factors related to the Thanksgiving holiday, experienced marginal growth in November – industry gross billings grew an estimated 2% from October. 

Groupon Outperforms Broader Daily Deal Industry

Groupon outpaced the industry in November, growing 6% during the month. Groupon generated $154 million in North American gross billings in November, up from $145 million in October.

Groupon experienced significant weakness due to the Thanksgiving holiday – it was down 46% in gross billings during the fourth week of November, relative to the month’s third week.

Despite this decline, Groupon’s heavy holiday deals push through “Grouponicus,” the company’s holiday deals segment, fueled strong performance earlier in the month. Groupon Getaways, the company’s travel product, and Groupon Goods, the company’s consumer goods product, both increased more than 50% in gross billings in November, each benefiting from its deals being featured through “Grouponicus.”

LivingSocial Declines 5% in November

LivingSocial experienced an estimated 5% decline in North American gross billings in November, dropping from $54 million to $52 million. LivingSocial too saw a double-digit dip during the month’s fourth week, relative to the third week of the month; however, LivingSocial did not see the same level of performance as Groupon did earlier in the month.

Email data@yipit.com to Subscribe to The Yipit Data Report

The Yipit Data Report is provided to subscribers following the end of each month. An excerpt of the November Data Report is provided below. The full report was provided to subscribers in early December and also contains:

• Groupon performance by product (Local Deals, Getaways, Goods, Live, Now!)
• Market share breakdown of the major players
• Detailed performance data for each of the key players, including LivingSocial, AmazonLocal, Travelzoo, Google Offers, and Gilt City
• Key performance indicators, such as number of deals and revenue per deal, for each of the key players
• Industry trends by category and deal price point

Follow @YipitData on Twitter for the latest industry trends and analysis by the Yipit Team.

Unaiz Kabani is an analyst for Yipit Data, which provides estimates of Daily Deal Industry performance based on proprietary deal-tracking technology, rigorous testing of historical data, and industry insight. This analysis does not contain information related to mobile-based deals (i.e. Groupon Now! or LivingSocial Instant).

While Groupon’s stock surged over 50% post-IPO, it has been stumbling as of late – currently, it is off nearly 15% from its IPO price of $20. Since its IPO, Groupon has experienced flattening gross billings growth in North America.

October’s Yipit Data Report reveals Groupon grew 2% in the first month of its fourth quarter. Groupon’s growth was driven by the company’s travel product, Groupon Getaways, which saw nearly 60% of gross billings growth.

Groupon generated $147 million in North American gross billings in October, up from $144 million in September. Getaways now constitues more than 9% of Groupon’s North American business.

Impacted by Groupon’s performance, the overall North American Daily Deal industry showed less than 1% growth in gross billings and 18% in the number of deals offered from September.

LivingSocial’s gross billings declined 8% to $55 million in the month. However, after excluding its Whole Foods deal in September, which generated $10 million of gross billings, LivingSocial’s gross billings would have grown 11% in October.

AmazonLocal jumps to become a top-three player with $6 million in gross billings in October, while Google Offers still represents less than 1% of the overall industry.

Get Access to Yipit’s Proprietary Data

An excerpt of the October Data Report is provided below. The full Monthly Data Report also contains:

• Groupon performance by product (Local Deals, Getaways, Goods, Live, Now!)
• Market share breakdown of the major players
• Detailed performance data for each of the key players, including LivingSocial, AmazonLocal, Travelzoo, Google Offers, and Gilt City
• Key performance indicators, such as number of deals and revenue per deal, for each of the key players
• Industry trends by category and deal price point

To subscribe, please visit yipit.com/data and contact the Yipit Data team at at data@yipit.com.

This post was revised based on new information related to Groupon’s purchase count reporting. For any questions, please reach out to the Yipit Data team at data@yipit.com.

Follow @YipitData on Twitter for the latest industry trends and analysis by the Yipit Team.

Unaiz Kabani is an analyst for Yipit’s Data Product, which provides past offer detail and competitive intelligence to the Daily Deal Industry.

When we first launched Yipit a year and half ago, people always asked us if we had a mobile app.

But, at the time, there were only five active deals in New York. A mobile app for five deals seemed like overkill.

Times have certainly changed for the deal industry and for us at Yipit in the last year and a half.

We recently found our 1 millionth deal, aggregated our 750th deal service and expanded to our 100th city.

In New York, for example, there are currently 203 active deals from 46 sources. You can do almost anything:

• Go out to dinner? 33 offers
• Get a massage? 6 offers
• Try Yoga? 5 offers
• Teeth Whitening? 3 offers
• Learn to play guitar, act, or fly a helicopter? There’s an offer for that

With so many offers, you can now shop your city from your desktop.

And, as of today, you can now shop your city from your phone.

Download the free Yipit iPhone app today.

Groupon’s new products are major components of its growth story. In the third quarter of 2011, Groupon expanded from offering just deals for local services to those for travel, event tickets, and consumer products with the launch of Groupon Getaways, Groupon Live, and Groupon Goods.

Slide from Groupon online roadshow via www.retailroadshow.com

New Products Driving Growth

Although the performance of Groupon Now! has been disappointing, Groupon’s other key products that launched in Q3 have done very well.

• Groupon Getaways: Getaways generated $25 million in gross billings during the quarter, and surpassed LivingSocial Escapes, formerly the leading travel deals product, in just its first full month of operation.
• Groupon Live: Groupon’s partnership with LiveNation to sell event tickets collected $9 million during the quarter.
• Groupon Goods: Groupon quietly launched Goods, offering consumer products, after the success of Groupon Products in several international markets. Goods accumulated over $2 million in gross billings in only one week of operation during the quarter, putting it on pace to be a $100 million business.

In Q3, these products collectively contributed $36 million in gross billings – that is already 9% of Groupon’s total North American gross billings after the products contributed nothing in Q2.

Slide from Groupon online roadshow via www.retailroadshow.com

Groupon highlights the importance of these products in its roadshow presentation. It indicates that while Getaways, Live, and Goods will continue to grow, so will the core local deals product.

Masking Decline in Core Local Deals

However, Groupon’s core local deals business declined in the most recent quarter. Groupon grew 8% in North American from Q2 to Q3 because of these new products, but its core local deals business actually dropped 3%. 

 If Groupon’s growing subscriber base is taken into account, the recent decline of its local deals business is even more troubling. Gross billings per subscriber for the overall business declined 14% during the quarter, while gross billings per subscriber for the core local deals business declined 22%. 

Why is Groupon’s Core Local Deal Business Declining?

There are a few reasons.

• Cannibalization: The new products are often being featured in the same emails and Groupon pages that previously only displayed local deals. There is likely an impact from the new products simply cannibalizing sales from the core local deals product.
• Seasonality: Q3 coincides with the slow summer months, when many potential customers are on vacation and less likely to be checking their email each morning. Groupon’s drop in North American gross billings in July from June was primarily the result of the July 4^th holiday weekend.
• Competition: Google and Amazon recently introduced their local deals offerings and rapidly expanded in Q3. By September, Amazon had already become the fourth-largest daily deal provider, only trailing Groupon, LivingSocial, and Travelzoo.

Can “Smart Deals” Reverse this Trend?

While Groupon initially experimented with personalization of deals late in 2010, it only recently began implementation of its new “smart deals” initiative, which attempts to better match specific deals to specific subscribers. In recent weeks, Groupon updated its user profile interface to better identify the types and locations of deals that most appeal to each specific customer.

Groupon believes that its recent efforts to better match specific subscribers with the deals they are most likely to buy will increase conversion rates and reverse the trend of declining revenue per subscriber.

The launch of Groupon Reserve, which targets higher-end subscribers by offering premium experiences, will further help Groupon segment its customer base and increase its revenue per user.

Successfully implementing such “Smart Deals” should increase Groupon’s overall share of customer wallet and help reverse the recent decline in its core local deals business.

Implications of Product Expansion

CEO Andrew Mason often points to Groupon’s huge local salesforce as one of the company’s greatest competitive advantages over potential rivals, such as Google and Amazon. As Groupon moves into product categories that do not require such an expansive local salesforce, Groupon may have fewer competitive advantages.

• Fewer competitive advantages: While Groupon dominates the local deals market and is able to use its leading position to extract higher margins, it does not yet dominate travel, tickets or general e-commerce. Groupon faces competition in these segments from successful existing companies, such as Amazon and Priceline. Going forward, it appears that Groupon will be generating an increasing percentage of its revenue from products where it faces more established competition.
• Lower commission rates: By partnering with the likes of Expedia, LiveNation, and a host of e-commerce partners, Groupon receives lower commission rates from these new products than it does from local deals. Essentially, lower-commission sales from these new products are replacing higher-commission local sales, which is why Groupon’s average commission rates are falling.
• Better operating margins: Deals from the new products are generally higher priced and, in the case of Getaways and Goods, can be distributed nationally. Groupon’s average gross billings from a Getaways deal is $95k compared to $11k for its average local deal. Therefore, sales costs as a percentage of gross billings per deal are substantially lower for these deals than for core local deals, potentially counteracting the adverse effect of lower commissions on the bottom line.

Given Groupon’s huge existing subscriber base, product and category expansion represent a great opportunity to better monetize each subscriber and increase share-of-wallet.

While Groupon will likely see continued growth from the addition of new products, prospective investors will be looking to see if increased personalization can reverse the decline in Groupon’s core local deals product.

Get Access to Yipit’s Proprietary Data

Yipit tracks the performance of Groupon, LivingSocial, Travelzoo, Google Offers, Amazon Local and hundreds of other daily deal sites. Yipit licenses its data to leading investors and daily deal companies to provide real-time updates of competitor performance. To access Yipit’s data – including information on Groupon’s October performance, please contact data@yipit.com.

Follow @YipitData on Twitter for the latest industry trends and analysis from the Yipit team. 

Unaiz Kabani is an analyst for Yipit Data, which provides past offer detail and competitive intelligence to the daily deal industry and investors.