Dive Brief:
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Two-year-old startup Hukkster has shut down, its site replaced with a simple list of factoids about its brief existence and the words, “Now it’s time for a nap.”
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The site was founded by two J. Crew alums who were privy to some of the retailer’s discounting patterns. Hukkster notified its users of discounts on items they had flagged on a wish list.
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The site was paid referral fees by retailers when a sale went through, and it attracted investment funding, including $750,000 from venture capital firm Winklevoss Capital.
Dive Insight:
Hukkster was one of those useful tools leveraged by savvy shoppers in the discount-hungry retail atmosphere of today. Its fate, though, is a sign of the unsure future of rival coupon and discount sites like RetailMeNot and Groupon.