Today looks to be a record-breaking day for the daily deal site LivingSocial. It’s offering a nationwide deal: a $20 Amazon gift card for $10. In just the first few hours of the sale, users have already purchased over 243,000 coupons.
Some are predicting the deal is on a course to outperform the previous blockbuster daily deal, when Groupon offered $25 off a $50 purchase at the Gap. That resulted in some $13 million worth of coupons being sold.
The LivingSocial deal still has 22 hours to go and has already sold over $2 million worth of coupons.
Of course, Amazon isn’t simply just another major retailer dabbling in the daily deal business. It’s also a major investor in LivingSocial, having put $175 million into the company in December. Lightspeed Venture Partners’ Jeremy Lew calls today’s deal “the first step of operational integration from that investment.”
If so, this deal may be less about selling Amazon wares than introducing Amazon customers to the daily deal company.
Any predictions on how many $10 off coupons will be sold by the time the deal ends this time tomorrow?