Websites selling daily deals lose luster

— -- Daily-deals sites took a hit this summer, according to three online research companies.

Overall visits to the sites were down 25% last week compared with the second week in June, says Web tracker Experian Hitwise. Research from analytic company Compete showed Groupon had its first month-over-month drop in traffic this year in July, while tracker ComScore said this week that both Groupon and LivingSocial were down last week from their top weeks in June.

"With so many new entrants saturating the daily-deals space, deal fatigue may be setting in with consumers," says Matt Pace, Compete's managing director of retail and consumer products.

The tracking companies' data disagree over how the two daily-deals market leaders fared.

•Experian says Groupon visits were down 50% last week from the second week of June, its peak week this year, and LivingSocial saw a 27% increase in visits.

•Compete says Groupon saw just an 8.9% decline in visits last month. LivingSocial, Compete says, saw a much bigger decline of 28%.

•ComScore's data show that unique visits to Groupon were down 22% last week compared with its peak week beginning June 12, while LivingSocial's visits were off 54% for the same period.

Groupon, which is preparing for an initial public stock offering, would not comment.

LivingSocial spokesman Andrew Weinstein says, "Rather than conflicting third-party traffic measurements, we focus on consumer and merchant adoption and satisfaction, and all of those measures remain strong."

Pace says "seasonality" may be the biggest factor in the traffic declines. But just as people might take a break from deals sites when traveling, some use them more. Christine Helsel of Charleston, Ill., says she uses Groupon only when she visits her daughter in Chicago, as it "almost never has any relevance in my small town."

There are hundreds of daily-deals sites and countless other sites offering coupons and other purported bargains. Experian's Bill Tancer says people are getting "in-box fatigue."

Retail strategist John Long of consulting firm Kurt Salmon says the number of sites "likely exceeds the market for them."

Despite the summer doldrums, the deals sites are still a success. When Experian compared traffic in August with August 2010, U.S. visits to group-buying sites were still up 163%. LivingSocial visits were up 358%. Groupon's increased 179%.

"There's always volatility, but the long-term trend is a pretty clear upward trajectory," ComScore spokesman Andrew Lipsman says of both sites' results.