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Jess Green

Jess Green is a group buying specialist and MD of South Africa’s highest quality social commerce website – UbuntuDeal.co.za. Started in 2010, UbuntuDeal was acquired by bidorbuy and continues to offer businesses and consumers unparalelled online marketing campaigns. Jess loves the social commerce industry, and believes that “wherever we are going, the masses will lead us”.

RECENT POSTS

• 3 reasons NOT to start a group buying site

  The group buying industry sprang to life with very little warning. Groupon began a trend and soon everyone wanted a piece of the action. This phenomenon has been popular in emerging market countries such as South Africa where it began with Wicount in 2010. By January 2011, big names like Groupon and Bidorbuy had bought out smaller South African sites like UbuntuDeal and with a very low barrier to entry, the market exploded.It would seem that it is an ...

• Groupon IPO on shaky legs

  One wonders how this happened -- Groupon being called the fastest growing company in history, and then going for an IPO, only to find almost every single blogger and journalist shooting them down. But that is exactly the answer to how it has transpired. The company has grown too fast and is now listing at the wrong time.It is a good and bad day for group buying. Hopefully people will not lose any interest and faith in the world's busiest ...

• 3 reasons why SEO does mean something to group buying

  In my travels along the social commerce road so far in South Africa, I’ve often been told that SEO plays no role in bringing in traffic to to group buying site.There are generally two kinds of sites, when you look at traffic: those where you want to rank well on SERPs to get the traffic in, and those where you pay through your nose on Google or Facebook to bring visitors. Unless, of course, your website has such an attractive ...

• Group buying in South Africa – all hype?

  The online group buying industry (often called social buying, collective buying or even social commerce) has literally boomed in South Africa, as it has all over the world.Rather interesting, especially when one looks at the fact that other countries have up to six times the internet penetration than South Africa has, and have far more people with a great deal more buying power. So why has it grown so fast -- is it hype?Thus far, Groupon have rushed in ...