It looks like Groupon may have found a way to muffle the criticism that it doesn’t provide long-term value for businesses. The daily deals site is rolling out personalisation features that will help identify subscribers who are most likely to become repeat customers.
Various people have taken up the view that Groupon does not benefit merchants the way it is supposed to, so these new features may help change their minds.
Not-so expired deals
The features include an option that allows some consumers to purchase deals after they have expired, which is a novelty for Groupon users, who previously couldn’t access expired deals.
Although not everyone will be able to access these deals, it is a good strategy for Groupon as introducing this feature will benefit merchants. Only those consumers who best fit the merchant’s criteria, and who Groupon deems to have the right “qualities” of a repeat customer will have access to past deals.
“We wanted to give merchants better info about the people their deals are targeting, and we wanted to really target the people who like a certain type of deal,” Groupon consumer products lead Suneel Gupta said.
“And we wanted to do this without being boring.”
Create your own profile
Groupon’s new features are based on a consumer creating their own profile, where they can choose specific interests and locations that they are interested in seeing deals from. The new system assigns tags, such as Healthy Living, Bring the Kids, DIY and Good for 2, to each deal to categorise them to match consumers’ interests to specific deals.
Users favourite their interests by using the ‘heart’ feature to show which deals they care about while browsing, or they can choose tags from their profile tab. When looking at all of the deals, those which have been marked with a ‘heart’ will be easier to find.
“It’s still about discovery,” added Gupta. “It’s not set categories, but tastes.”
What this really means is that although you can personalise your settings, it’s not possible to search or filter deals, meaning you will still see all of the deals available.
Personally, this is what I would have liked to have seen; daily emails that are only relevant to me.
According to Mashable, the company, which has recently become public, won’t put the future of its daily deals emails at risk, or attempt to change its customers’ browsing habits, by “becoming a database”.
Despite my views, by letting Groupon know what you are interested in, it helps the company highlight the most important deals to you via email.
Further features
The new dashboard design also allows you to easily switch between chosen different cities.
For example, you may want to see deals where you live, and where your boyfriend lives. If you set both locations, Groupon will tell you exactly how far away each deal is.
I think this is definitely a step in the right direction for Groupon, as not only are these new features going to enhance the consumer experience, but more efficient targeting of those who receive deals could help improve the likelihood of repeat customers.
The new exciting features were due to go live in all of Groupon’s 175 North American markets yesterday, so I look forward to them coming to the UK hopefully very soon!
What do you make of Groupon’s new features? Do you think this will help it become more attractive to local businesses?