Groupon – the online giant that sprang to success on the back of a new daily deal promotions model is now pivoting to take on some of the traditional leaders in the online coupon market.
Groupon recently revealed an online coupon space that will likely leverage the brand name it has built over the years to take a serious bite of the market share held by sites such as RetailMeNot and other online coupon platforms.
With its reputation for saving consumers large amounts of money and delivering new customers to businesses, Groupon is in an enviable position and has considerable weight (not to mention programming expertise) to throw behind this new venture. They have partnered with more than 8,600 national retailers to launch a service called Groupon Coupons. It’s a completely free way for shoppers to find thousands of coupons and exclusive promo codes from stores like Macy’s, Nordstrom, Best Buy and Target. If you take pride in saving money at the register and maximizing your discounts, the key takeaway here is the word “exclusive”. This means that those coupons have been negotiated specifically with Groupon and will likely not be available in other places.
Unlike Groupon’s daily deal business model, the new digital coupons are completely free. The website is clean, easily navigable, and very easy to use. My first impression is that they essentially took the concept of some of the larger online coupon sites out there and improved upon the functionality, appearance, and overall aesthetics to give a more polished feel. Features such as automatic synching with your geographic area are a nice touch and can save frustration if you’ve ever had several promo codes in a row rejected or been told that a coupon doesn’t apply at the register. To complement the site Groupon has also released a Groupon Coupons app that you can check out here. This additional platform allows you to access great deals on the go no matter where you are.
I would not be surprised if due to Groupon’s size, brand name, and synergies with its other money-saving capabilities they are able to negotiate some of the best deals available on the market. It will certainly bolster the company’s status as the one-stop shop for consumers looking to keep a little more money in their wallets. Because I hate crowding into malls and box stores any entry into online promo code and coupon space is good for me. I’m more the “Cyber Monday” type than the “Black Friday” kind of shopper, so any deal that allows me to simply click a link and receive a discount is fine by me! It will be interesting to see just what sort of discounts Groupon will be able to garner for people over the long term.
