A real deal for buyers, sellers

Consider Catherine Tabor the peacekeeper between retailers and bargain hunters.

Her mobile-exclusive deals site, SparkQuest.com, launched in Atlanta in March, gives retailers a viable alternative from the pressure to offer half-off coupons while customers get a selection of deals from familiar shops and restaurants. Native apps for the iPhone and Android are in the works, but for now the browser-based mobile website can run on Internet-enabled mobile devices including iPhone, iPad, Android and BlackBerry Torch.

Businesses on SparkQuest can offer any discount they like — $2 off, free drinks or half off — through a series of “quests.” The resulting rewards typically increase with each visit to a business, enticing customers to return.

Contrast that with most deal sites, which can leave merchants struggling to profit from sometimes stingy, one-time shoppers. That, Tabor says, can leave retailers thinking, “Here’s another person with a coupon. They’re never going to come back.”

SparkQuest’s approach — smaller but more-frequent deals for loyal customers — seems a more sustainable business model than the daily deals’ one-shot customer-acquisition method. And the process has the ability to track customers’ buying habits, allowing retailers to offer more personalized deals.

“There’s so much deal fatigue out there,” says Tabor, SparkQuest’s founder and CEO. She’s had positive feedback from restaurants Sun in my Belly, Midtown Tavern and Frogs Cantina, which promotes SparkQuest prominently on its website.

SparkQuest offers customers a list of popular restaurants and stores, many of which aren’t on Groupon.com or LivingSocial.com. And, as with Scoutmob.com, you don’t buy a coupon.

“The idea,” Tabor says, “is you open the app and there’s a deal [for] where you’re actually going to,” instead of an obscure or mediocre restaurant you’ve never heard of.

North Briarcliff resident Kelly Douglas is a skeptical user. “I’m going to have to go through [five] TCBY quests before I can get half off.” She’s also unimpressed with the Sandy Springs Flying Biscuit quest: You must spend $100 over five visits to get a $10 coupon, but get free appetizers, drinks and discounts along the way.

Yet, Douglas says she understands the concept’s goal.

“It definitely looks like, if it’s someplace you frequent, you’re getting rewarded for repeat business, which is going to build you more consumer loyalty.”