The Happy Hours Business

The Happy Hours Business

By: Amit Bhushan Date: 11th Sept. 2015

With a plethora of online food and dine booking services, taxi hailing apps, online goods delivery store sprouting, we are keen to see the next level competition emerge. Such competition is likely to take shape from big data analytics.

This is because soon we will have a lot of companies which would have huge information about the consumer preferences as well as supplier’s conditions.A few of these companies may be tempted to become more consumer centric whereby they soon start advising suppliers to optimize on idle time by having "Happy hours" during off peak.

This would of course help these companies build consumer bases quickly while the suppliers are helped to improve efficiency and consumers gain of prices by ordering/consuming or receiving orders during such off peak periods.Some other companies become supplier focussed helping them with buyer analytics to support them to position their wares attractively and enhance ability to fetch better prices.

Besides the online marketplaces, the Payments service providers may also find niche in this space by leveraging on the data garnered in servicing these enterprises.

 

[Dhruv Bindhani]

The Happy Hours Business

By: Amit Bhushan Date: 11th Sept. 2015

With a plethora of online food and dine booking services, taxi hailing apps, online goods delivery store sprouting, we are keen to see the next level competition emerge. Such competition is likely to take shape from big data analytics.

This is because soon we will have a lot of companies which would have huge information about the consumer preferences as well as supplier’s conditions.A few of these companies may be tempted to become more consumer centric whereby they soon start advising suppliers to optimize on idle time by having "Happy hours" during off peak.

This would of course help these companies build consumer bases quickly while the suppliers are helped to improve efficiency and consumers gain of prices by ordering/consuming or receiving orders during such off peak periods.Some other companies become supplier focussed helping them with buyer analytics to support them to position their wares attractively and enhance ability to fetch better prices.

Besides the online marketplaces, the Payments service providers may also find niche in this space by leveraging on the data garnered in servicing these enterprises.

The article "The Happy Hours Business" by Amit Bhushan, written in 2015, anticipates the evolution of online food, dine booking, taxi, and delivery services, predicting that the next wave of competition will be driven by big data analytics.

The core idea revolves around optimizing "idle time" for suppliers (restaurants, taxis, etc.) through "Happy Hours" during off-peak periods. This strategy, enabled by vast amounts of consumer preference and supplier condition data, offers a win-win scenario:

• For Consumers: They benefit from reduced prices or special offers during these off-peak times.
• For Suppliers: They improve efficiency by utilizing otherwise idle capacity, leading to better revenue streams.
• For Online Marketplaces/Platforms: They rapidly build their consumer base by facilitating these optimized interactions.

The article suggests two main approaches for companies leveraging this data:

1. Consumer-Centric: Some companies will use big data to advise suppliers on implementing "Happy Hours" to attract customers during slow periods.
2. Supplier-Focused: Others will provide buyer analytics to suppliers, helping them strategically position their offerings to fetch better prices.

Finally, the author predicts that Payment Service Providers will also find a niche in this evolving "Happy Hours Business" by leveraging the transactional data they gather from servicing these online platforms and enterprises. This implies that payment data could be used to further refine and optimize these dynamic pricing and demand-matching strategies.