# Best Merchant Marketing Software for Small Business *By [Subhransu Sahu](https://research.g2.com/insights/author/subhransu-sahu)* Products classified in the overall Merchant Marketing category are similar in many regards and help companies of all sizes solve their business problems. However, small business features, pricing, setup, and installation differ from businesses of other sizes, which is why we match buyers to the right Small Business Merchant Marketing to fit their needs. Compare product ratings based on reviews from enterprise users or connect with one of G2's buying advisors to find the right solutions within the Small Business Merchant Marketing category. In addition to qualifying for inclusion in the Merchant Marketing Software category, to qualify for inclusion in the Small Business Merchant Marketing Software category, a product must have at least 10 reviews left by a reviewer from a small business. ## How Many Merchant Marketing Software Products Does G2 Track? **Total Products under this Category:** 27 ### Category Stats (Jul 2026) - **Average Rating**: 4.2/5 The average rating of products in this category, based on all submitted ratings *Last updated: July 01, 2026* ## How Does G2 Rank Merchant Marketing Software Products? **Why You Can Trust G2's Software Rankings:** - 30 Analysts and Data Experts - 600+ Authentic Reviews - 27+ Products - Unbiased Rankings G2's software rankings are built on verified user reviews, rigorous moderation, and a consistent research methodology maintained by a team of analysts and data experts. Each product is measured using the same transparent criteria, with no paid placement or vendor influence. While reviews reflect real user experiences, which can be subjective, they offer valuable insight into how software performs in the hands of professionals. Together, these inputs power the G2 Score, a standardized way to compare tools within every category. ## What Are the Top-Rated Merchant Marketing Software Products in 2026? ### 1. [Groupon](https://www.g2.com/products/groupon/reviews) Groupon provides a global marketplace where people can buy just about anything, anywhere, anytime. **Average Rating:** 4.2/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 90 **How Do G2 Users Rate Groupon?** - **Quality of Support:** 7.9/10 (Category avg: 8.3/10) - **Ease of Use:** 8.9/10 (Category avg: 9.0/10) **Who Is the Company Behind Groupon?** - **Seller:** [Groupon](https://www.g2.com/sellers/groupon-c6f8c779-0f0e-4418-b7a4-4a6d213e19de) - **Year Founded:** 2008 - **HQ Location:** Chicago, IL - **Twitter:** @Groupon (127,793 Twitter followers) - **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/355611/ (10,475 employees on LinkedIn®) - **Ownership:** NASDAQ:GRPN **Who Uses This Product?** - **Top Industries:** Marketing and Advertising, Information Technology and Services - **Company Size:** 70% Small-Business, 18% Mid-Market #### What Are Recent G2 Reviews of Groupon? **"[Great for Discovering Local Deals on Activities and Food](https://www.g2.com/survey_responses/groupon-review-12768306)"** **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars *— Grow M.* [Read full review](https://www.g2.com/survey_responses/groupon-review-12768306) --- **"[Easy-to-Use App for Finding the Best Travel Deals](https://www.g2.com/survey_responses/groupon-review-12487953)"** **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars *— Lorenzo L.* [Read full review](https://www.g2.com/survey_responses/groupon-review-12487953) --- #### What Are G2 Users Discussing About Groupon? - [What are the benefits and drawbacks of using Groupon for local deals, and how has it impacted your business?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-are-the-benefits-and-drawbacks-of-using-groupon-for-local-deals-and-how-has-it-impacted-your-business) - [How do I use Groupon as a merchant?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/how-do-i-use-groupon-as-a-merchant) - [What are Groupon fees?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-are-groupon-fees) - [How do Groupon merchants get paid?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/how-do-groupon-merchants-get-paid) - [What are the benefits of using Groupon?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-are-the-benefits-of-using-groupon) ### 2. [Vagaro](https://www.g2.com/products/vagaro/reviews) Vagaro is the #1 business management software built for professionals in the beauty, wellness, and fitness industries. Whether you're a solo professional, small business, or managing multiple locations, Vagaro provides everything you need to run and grow your business efficiently. Easily manage your schedule with customizable calendars and 24/7 online booking. Reduce no-shows with automated email and text reminders. Accept payments seamlessly using integrated POS tools, manage inventory in real time, and deliver a personalized client experience with detailed profiles, digital intake forms, and notes. Grow your brand with built-in marketing tools, including email and text campaigns, a customizable website, and exposure on the Vagaro Marketplace. Stay on top of performance with advanced reporting and payroll features. Plus, AI-powered tools help you create content, communicate with clients, and automate routine tasks. Join over 220,000 professionals who trust Vagaro to streamline operations, engage clients, and boost revenue—all from one powerful platform. **Average Rating:** 4.6/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 389 **How Do G2 Users Rate Vagaro?** - **Quality of Support:** 7.5/10 (Category avg: 8.3/10) - **Ease of Use:** 8.8/10 (Category avg: 9.0/10) **Who Is the Company Behind Vagaro?** - **Seller:** [Vagaro](https://www.g2.com/sellers/vagaro) - **Company Website:** https://www.vagaro.com - **Year Founded:** 2009 - **HQ Location:** Pleasanton, California - **Twitter:** @Vagaro (3,843 Twitter followers) - **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/680194 (726 employees on LinkedIn®) **Who Uses This Product?** - **Top Industries:** Health, Wellness and Fitness, Consumer Services - **Company Size:** 65% Small-Business, 1% Enterprise #### What Are Vagaro's Pros and Cons? **Pros:** - Ease of Use (166 reviews) - Scheduling (90 reviews) - Features (69 reviews) - Booking Ease (67 reviews) - Booking Management (65 reviews) **Cons:** - Missing Features (47 reviews) - Limited Features (40 reviews) - Poor Usability (40 reviews) - Lack of Features (37 reviews) - App Issues (31 reviews) ### What Do G2 Reviewers Say About Vagaro? *AI-generated summary from verified user reviews* **Pros:** - Users find Vagaro **easy to use** , appreciating the straightforward online booking and customizable service options. - Users appreciate the **efficient scheduling and reminder system** , making client bookings easy and seamless. - Users appreciate the **user-friendly interface and comprehensive resources** of Vagaro for seamless business management. - Users appreciate the **ease of booking** with Vagaro, allowing seamless online scheduling and payment options. - Users love the **easy online booking** and extensive options for managing services and schedules through Vagaro. **Cons:** - Users are frustrated with the **missing features** in Vagaro, requiring add-ons and lacking essential functionalities. - Users find Vagaro's **limited features** frustrating, especially regarding email promotions and booking multiple clients simultaneously. - Users experience **poor usability** due to complexity in setup and the need for clients to create accounts. - Users find the **lack of features** limiting, wishing for improvements in booking, rewards, and a bundled pricing model. - Users report **app issues** like slow performance, glitches in booking, and unexpected logouts affecting usability. #### What Are Recent G2 Reviews of Vagaro? **"[0wner](https://www.g2.com/survey_responses/vagaro-review-11316316)"** **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars [Read full review](https://www.g2.com/survey_responses/vagaro-review-11316316) --- **"[I love the inventory/PO functionality](https://www.g2.com/survey_responses/vagaro-review-12180620)"** **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars *— Patricia D.* [Read full review](https://www.g2.com/survey_responses/vagaro-review-12180620) --- #### What Are G2 Users Discussing About Vagaro? - [What is Vagaro used for?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-vagaro-used-for) - 3 comments - [Is Vagaro app free?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/is-vagaro-app-free) - [How much is Vagaro pro a month?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/how-much-is-vagaro-pro-a-month) - [How do you use Vagaro?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/how-do-you-use-vagaro) ### 3. [Travelzoo](https://www.g2.com/products/travelzoo/reviews) Travelzoo is a global media commerce company. With more than 28 million members in North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific and 25 offices worldwide, Travelzoo publishes offers from more than 2,000 travel, entertainment and local companies. Travelzoo's deal experts review offers to find the best deals and confirm their true value. **Average Rating:** 4.2/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 52 **How Do G2 Users Rate Travelzoo?** - **Quality of Support:** 7.5/10 (Category avg: 8.3/10) - **Ease of Use:** 9.1/10 (Category avg: 9.0/10) **Who Is the Company Behind Travelzoo?** - **Seller:** [Travelzoo](https://www.g2.com/sellers/travelzoo) - **Year Founded:** 1998 - **HQ Location:** New York, NY - **Twitter:** @Travelzoo (485,501 Twitter followers) - **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/16062/ (395 employees on LinkedIn®) - **Ownership:** NASDAQ:TZOO **Who Uses This Product?** - **Top Industries:** Leisure, Travel & Tourism, Hospitality - **Company Size:** 77% Small-Business, 17% Mid-Market #### What Are Recent G2 Reviews of Travelzoo? **"[Great in deals](https://www.g2.com/survey_responses/travelzoo-review-7522238)"** **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars *— Pavan K.* [Read full review](https://www.g2.com/survey_responses/travelzoo-review-7522238) --- **"[source of affordable deals for luxurious hotel, vacation plan around the globe , cruise and resorts](https://www.g2.com/survey_responses/travelzoo-review-8207695)"** **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars *— Abhuday T.* [Read full review](https://www.g2.com/survey_responses/travelzoo-review-8207695) --- ### 4. [Gilt](https://www.g2.com/products/gilt/reviews) Gilt provides instant access to top designer labels, at up to 70% off retail. Find something new every day for women, men, kids and the home as well as exclusive services and experiences and luxury travel. **Average Rating:** 4.1/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 26 **How Do G2 Users Rate Gilt?** - **Quality of Support:** 6.9/10 (Category avg: 8.3/10) - **Ease of Use:** 8.5/10 (Category avg: 9.0/10) **Who Is the Company Behind Gilt?** - **Seller:** [Gilt](https://www.g2.com/sellers/gilt) - **HQ Location:** Boston, US - **Twitter:** @Gilt (407,025 Twitter followers) - **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/167354 **Who Uses This Product?** - **Top Industries:** Apparel & Fashion, Retail - **Company Size:** 77% Small-Business, 15% Mid-Market #### What Are Recent G2 Reviews of Gilt? **"[Gilt Customer Service isn't what it once was...](https://www.g2.com/survey_responses/gilt-review-7539109)"** **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars *— Laura at The CorePoint H.* [Read full review](https://www.g2.com/survey_responses/gilt-review-7539109) --- **"[Great company to partner with](https://www.g2.com/survey_responses/gilt-review-7514475)"** **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars *— Dee B.* [Read full review](https://www.g2.com/survey_responses/gilt-review-7514475) --- ## What Is Merchant Marketing Software? [B2B Marketplaces](https://www.g2.com/categories/b2b-marketplaces) --- ## How Do You Choose the Right Merchant Marketing Software? ### What You Should Know About Merchant Marketing Software ### What is Merchant Marketing Software? Merchant marketing software provides businesses, particularly small businesses, with the ability to market their services to a larger audience than they would otherwise be able to reach. These tools provide these businesses with marketing opportunities at a low cost while leveraging the platform’s large audience to advertise the business’ services. In most cases, these platforms provide a marketplace for a business to advertise a specific discount on a product or a service. Unlike a traditional marketing platform, merchant marketing software provides small businesses with access to marketing services without needing to purchase additional software or dedicating a large amount of time to creating a marketing campaign. The goal is to increase a business’ customer base and customer loyalty while the platform either charges small fees from the business to create a listing or takes a percentage of completed transactions. While the focus on discounts limits a business’ options for marketing, the ease of integration with social media and the option for analytics provides useful tools that may be prohibitively expensive for a very small business. While there is an element of competition that can impede the success of a campaign if there are more attractive deals available from other businesses, the benefits often outweigh the risks. Given that the platform typically takes a portion of completed sales, if no sales are made, there is little risk in creating a listing. However, businesses should be cognizant of their ability to handle increased demand and foot traffic. If a business is unable to handle 500 new customers over the next six months, they should be aware of how many people can purchase the offered deal and when the offer expires and adjust accordingly. Key Benefits of Merchant Marketing Software - Access to a larger customer base - Marketing tools at a low cost - Improvements to customer loyalty - Analytics and data on customer demographics and campaign success ### Why Use Merchant Marketing Software? Merchant marketing software is intended to help small businesses market themselves through small-scale campaigns, leveraging the merchant marketing platform’s user base. These campaigns typically revolve around offering an exclusive discount on a product or service that is available only to users of the platform. Furthermore, the campaigns are often low cost and require little work on the part of the small business. Though some platforms have self-service offerings where businesses can create their own campaign, many have dedicated sales and editorial teams who take the business’ information and craft the campaign for them. Businesses may have access to a merchant dashboard or merchant portal that allows them to see various metrics regarding their campaign as well as customer demographics. For most businesses, marketing is both a requirement and a potentially huge expense. Low-cost options can be extremely valuable for businesses, and small businesses in particular, without a lot of extra funds to spend. While merchant marketing software doesn’t provide marketing in the typical sense, these solutions do provide an element of customer outreach. Tools may offer targeted emails, and the discount page is often shareable via social media so the business can use more traditional marketing methods to get the word out about their campaign. **Low cost and low effort —** Most merchant marketing platforms are easy to use and don’t require up-front payment. This makes them ideal for small businesses and businesses who do not have a large marketing budget. **Increased visibility —** Many merchant marketing platforms have a dedicated user base always on the lookout for a good discount. By creating a campaign, businesses have access to this user base that they would likely not have been able to target before. **Loyalty building —** Not only can a business attract new customers, but they can also bring back lapsed customers who need a bit of enticement to return. With each new and returning customer, there is the opportunity to build loyalty so they return to the business again and again. ### Who Uses Merchant Marketing Software? Merchant marketing is typically used by smaller businesses with smaller marketing budgets, but anyone can use merchant marketing platforms. If creating a campaign will not put undue stress on your business or your workforce, then it can be a viable marketing option. Leveraging an already loyal customer base can only increase the success of a campaign. **Small businesses —** Merchant marketing platforms are low cost and low effort on the part of the business, so they easily fit into a small budget. These platforms can also be effectively used to grow a customer base or increase the loyalty of an existing customer base. **Businesses trying to move excess inventory —** A great way to get rid of excess inventory or unwanted inventory is to discount it. With a merchant marketing platform, businesses can not only discount this inventory but also make it available to customers all over the country or globe. While some platforms may have location restrictions, leveraging their user base to move excess inventory can open up shelves for newer, and better, inventory. **Businesses debuting new services —** Sometimes it can be difficult to get the word out about an exciting new service or product being offered by a business. By leveraging merchant marketing platforms to advertise these new services, businesses can make new and returning customers aware of a new offering without a large advertising campaign. ### Kinds of Merchant Marketing Software There are a few different varieties of merchant marketing platforms. **Discounts —** Most merchant marketing platforms revolve around discounts and coupons. The exclusivity of the discount to the platform attracts users, enabling the business to reach a wider customer base. **Products —** Some platforms exclusively offer products rather than coupons for services. These products may be purchased and shipped via the platform, but some may send users to the vendor’s website to purchase the products at a discount. **Niche —** Some merchant marketing platforms specialize in a specific industry or niche. That may be products and services related to a specific hobby, or that may be beauty deals or fitness deals exclusively. **Location-specific —** Many merchant marketing platforms revolve around specific cities or regions in order to make it easy for residents to find businesses near them to patronize. This often applies to platforms that offer services that are performed either at customers’ homes or in a business’ storefront. ### Merchant Marketing Software Features **Merchant dashboard —** A merchant dashboard allows businesses to access data about their customers and campaigns via the back end of the merchant marketing platform. Users can view important information regarding their campaigns, create a new campaign, or edit, pause, and restart a current campaign. **Credit card processing —** Many merchant marketing platforms allow customers to purchase directly from the platform. This is partially how the platform makes money, but it also makes it easy for both the customer and the business to complete the transaction. **POS integration —** Once a customer has purchased a service or product, they may need to go into the business’ storefront to receive their service. To redeem the customer’s coupon or voucher, the merchant marketing platform may be able to integrate with the merchant’s POS system to easily complete the redemption process. This allows the business to keep track of how many vouchers have been redeemed and also makes it easy to complete the transaction if the customer purchases additional items or services. If the POS system can automatically deduct the appropriate amount, it makes it much easier for the business to maintain accurate records and serve the customer in a timely fashion. **Loyalty programs —** Some merchant marketing platforms have some kind of loyalty program or the option for a business to create their own loyalty program. This helps both attract new customers and retain present customers. **Reports and analytics —** Accurate and expansive data is crucial for a successful business, and many merchant marketing platforms have the ability to create reports or analytics based on the performance of a business’ campaign. Customer demographics, units sold, and units redeemed are all important information that can help a business improve their performance in the future. **Marketplace —** Most merchant marketing platforms use the marketplace model by providing a platform for customers to search for the services they are interested in and choose the service that works best for them. Some platforms may allow users to find the closest service to them, helping businesses find local customers. ### Potential Issues with Merchant Marketing Software **Unsuccessful campaigns —** Given the marketplace setup of many merchant marketing platforms, there is competition among campaigns. Competition means that there is a chance that a campaign may not sell as many units as the business would like. A business should prepare for the possibility that their campaign will not be a huge success, and be able to support their business without the campaign. **Inability to handle increased demand —** Ideally a business’ campaign will be wildly successful and result in increased business for the foreseeable future. However, a small business may not be equipped to handle an exponential increase in business. This can result in slow service or broken appointments, which make customers unhappy. Before running a campaign, ensure that your business can handle the increased foot traffic and appointments with appropriate technology and employee coverage. **Fees —** Each merchant marketing platform has a slightly different fee structure, but they all make money from the campaigns that they run. Some take a percentage of all profits and some require an upfront fee to run the campaign. Make sure you understand the fee structure and are comfortable with it before committing to a platform. **Difficulty redeeming vouchers —** Once a customer participates in a campaign by purchasing a voucher or coupon, that voucher must then be redeemed by the business running the campaign. This can be done a variety of ways, but the easiest is often scanning a barcode into a POS system or directly into the marketplace. However, depending on the technology available to the business and the technology used by the merchant marketing platform, there may be difficulty redeeming vouchers. To ensure a smooth experience for customers, become familiar with the method of redeeming vouchers and ensure that your business can accommodate it. ### Software and Services Related to Merchant Marketing Software [**Digital marketing**](https://www.g2.com/categories/digital-marketing) **—** Digital marketing software enables users to create a variety of online marketing campaigns. In conjunction with merchant marketing tools, campaigns can become more successful. [**Retail POS**](https://www.g2.com/categories/retail-pos) **—** Retail POS systems may be used to redeem merchant marketing platform vouchers, making it easy for businesses to integrate merchant marketing into their business plans.