Groupon moves into e-commerce

Internet coupon specialist Groupon is extending its daily deals service to include discounts of more than 80% for products sold online.

Until now the internet coupon firm has focused on offering daily discounts for beauty salons, local restaurants and hotels.

This new service involves customers being given a product deal code which they enter when purchasing an item on a retailer’s website thereby moving the company into closer competition with internet giants such as Amazon and Ebay.

According to Bloomberg, Groupon’s product deals have included mattresses from UK-Bedding, teeth-whitening kits from Whitening Professionals and photo albums from Albelli. In each case, the retailers have sold more than 10,000 of the products.

Groupon has 115 million subscribers who receive news of the discounts via a daily email.

Source: The Retail Bulletin
www.theretailbulletin.com/news/groupon_moves_into_ecommerce_13-09-11/