LivingSocial Data Shows Which Deals Are Hottest

When the clock is ticking, deal hounds prefer yoga to pizza, Botox to the zoo, and massages to pretty much everything.  In a study released by LivingSocial yesterday, the daily deals company gave a snapshot of its U.S. sales data collected during the second quarter of 2011.

“We really wanted to share with everyone the trends which we are seeing,” says LivingSocial Communications Director Maire Griffin about the report. “Even when we first started as an app developer, we’ve always been interested in trends. With daily deals, we are really able to show what Americans are doing with their time.”

Griffin points to the Health and Fitness category as an illustration of the way new trends are affecting how people interact with daily deals: “Boot camp and pole dancing — both of which are becoming really popular deals — are things that did not exist two years ago, but are becoming fun ways for people to stay in shape.”

As a category, Beauty flourished, with massages alone accounting for over 154,000 US vouchers sold in Q2. Manicures/pedicures came in a distant second with 72,500 vouchers sold followed by laser hair removal, waxing, teeth whitening, and botox.

Mexican restaurants beat out pizzerias for the top spot in the Food/Dining Out category with over 107,000 deals sold in Q2. Frozen yogurt was also popular, with 67,195 deals sold.

Although deals for fitness boot camp and pole dancing lessons made an impact with 19,972 and 27,073 vouchers sold respectively, yoga dominated the fitness category with over 90,000 deals sold this spring.   More traditional gym memberships came in fourth place with 16,125 memberships sold.

There was a bit more parity in the entertainment category as boat cruises and theater deals followed closely behind the 60,628 golf deals sold.  Deals for zoos brought up the rear, with 3,740 sold.

Geographically, LivingSocial sold the most deals in the southwest and the least in the southeast.   The regional rankings were identical across the four categories.

While the report is far from a comprehensive, the document will be an interesting barometer of consumer trends in the red-hot daily deals space.