Groupon goes mobile to make 'daily deal'

“Now a lot more people spend more time online via mobile devices and mobile penetration in Thailand is increasing, while social media are very active in Thailand. Only relying on our website, waiting for customers and doing email marketing, sending deal promotions to targeted customers are not enough,” co-chief executive Bram Clincke said yesterday. 

“Mobile first” is now the key strategy of Groupon Thailand, which features discounted gift certificates, to engage more customers after the new direction succeeded in boosting mobile transactions to some 40 per cent of the total in the global market in September.

Because of the explosive growth of mobile devices, smartphones and tablets in Thailand, the company has reworked its mobile site www.mygroupon.co.th and developed a mobile application for the iOS and Android operating systems to make “browse-buy-redeem” easier anywhere, any time.  Groupon’s daily-deal business needs to be innovative. It needs to adapt innovations for both mobile devices and social media to enhance its business.

Groupon is combining push and pull marketing by offering multi-channel touch points for customers including the website, a daily newsletter sent by e-mail, smartphone and tablet, and social media. 

“We looked for a convenient way for the customer to do only three steps – browse, buy and redeem. The convenient way is not only about the multi-channel touch point, but also about the design that provides customers the ‘look and feel’ in order to offer a good experience for them,” Clincke said.

Also, the quality of deals is the important success factor for the daily-deal business. Groupon has half a million partners worldwide offering discounts of 20-90 per cent, with the average 50 per cent, to its 43 million active customers out of the total of over 200 million subscribers. 

“The key strategy is to keep offering good deals and a good experience. That needs evolution. That’s not just the daily deal business like in the past five years. The challenge is to keep innovating, keep both merchants and customers happy. 

“Experience is very important. That’s why we need to renovate our newsletter via email, website and mobile site as well as apps and social media,” he said.

 

Commissions

Mark Cleaver, the other co-CEO, said the main services of Groupon were offering deals for services, products and travel. Its only source of revenue is commissions. Otherwise, Clincke said, the company provides consulting to merchants on how to create deals effectively and how to design deals’ look and feel.

Since Groupon was launched five years ago, there have been more than 400 million deals. Cleaver said Groupon would enhance its deal offers with big-data analytics and turn big data into business intelligence to offer customised deals. 

“We call it a ‘smart deal’, a deal offer that is personalised for target customers. We learn from their deal-purchase history. This kind of service will be available in Thailand next year,” he said.

About 60 million of Groupon’s apps have been downloaded globally. It is a global app. Customers can purchase any deals worldwide, and customers overseas can buy deals for services from Thai merchants. Thailand is famous for its tourist destinations. 

“We are No 3 in global e-commerce behind Amazon and eBay,” Cleaver said.

Next year, Groupon will bring out an app for merchants that offers an easy way for them to verify a customer’s redemption electronically via a QR (quick response) code. 

“Thailand is a growing and important market for us. The daily-deal business is also growing in an innovative way. It is our job to keep customers and merchants benefiting from our services,” Cleaver said.