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Groupon’s Privacy Policy Catches Lawmakers’ Attention

Posted in General News / Technology, Mobile Commerce, tagged , , , , , on July 22, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

Having established itself as the clear-cut leader in the growing daily deal industry with an army of loyal fans and customers as well as an anticipated $3 billion in revenue this year alone, one would be hard pressed to say that Groupon has anything to worry about these days.

Or do they?

Two members of Congress, Rep. Ed Markey (D) of Massachusetts and Joe Barton (R) of Texas, smell something a bit fishy when it comes to Groupon’s privacy practices and have submitted a written inquiry to the company requesting more information, specifically on the issue of possible ‘mobile tracking’ of customers.

Recently, Groupon updated its privacy policies and part of the revision was a clause that allows the company to track the locations of mobile customers, even when the Groupon mobile applications are closed on their mobile devices.  Groupon initially said the change was part of its expansion of Groupon Now, which relies on geo-location technology in order to offer shoppers deals based on their real-time locations.

The policy states:

If you use a Groupon mobile application and your mobile device’s settings allow it, we may collect mobile location information from your device.  Our application may be designed to collect information even if you are not logged into the Groupon application.

Included in the policy is another clause that says Groupon can share similar information with its retail partners that offer the actual deals featured in the service.  This enables those merchants to communicate directly with consumers and target them with advertising as well.

The Markey and Barton inquiry requests an explanation from the company on how exactly it gathers location information when a user’s application is turned off, whether or not Groupon gives its customers an op-out option and whether its mobile data collection policy is consistent across all devices.

The pair, co-chairs of the Congressional Privacy Caucus, also wants more information on how and why Groupon plans to collect, and then use, consumer information.  One passage of the letter references how the policy approaches children:

“Groupon indicated that it omitted a section in its previous privacy policy discussing children’s information because its web site is not geared toward children,” it reads.  “What mechanisms does Groupon have in place to identify the age of its consumers?”

A spokesperson for Groupon says the company has received the inquiry and “looks forward” to explaining its privacy practices and overall business model to the lawmakers.  Groupon has until August 10 to respond.

Thoughts? Leave us a comment!

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Walmart Steps Up E-commerce Presence in China

Posted in Ecommerce, General News / Technology, Retail, tagged , , , , , , , , on June 28, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

What happens when the world’s largest retailer decides to plant an e-commerce flag in the world’s most populous country?  We’re about to find out.

Walmart announced this week that it has finalized an agreement with Shanghai’s government to set up an office in the Chinese commercial city that will serve as headquarters for the retailer’s entire e-commerce operations in China.

As part of the deal, the parties will work hand-in-hand on a training program for e-commerce personnel to accelerate the overall development of online retailing in the country.

“The scale of online sales in China is expanding rapidly and is projected to match U.S. online sales in the next few years,” said Wan Ling Martello, Walmart’s executive vice president of global ecommerce and emerging markets.  “We are very optimistic about China’s e-commerce market and its growth potential. With Shanghai as our Global eCommerce’s China headquarters, we look forward to offering Chinese consumers a wider selection of quality products at good value with a great online shopping experience.”

The new office in Shanghai will report directly to Martello and Walmart Asia’s president and CEO, Scott Price.

Though Walmart has operated physical storefronts in China since 1996, it wasn’t until recently that it set its sights on establishing a stronger online retail presence in the country.  As part of that strategy, the retailer bought a minority stake in the Chinese e-commerce site Yihaodian last month.

Of course, Walmart is hardly the first U.S. retailer or e-commerce group to invest in China’s potentially huge online retail market.  This year alone, Apple, Gap, PayPal and Groupon have all set up shop there, and for good reason, too.

China’s Internet Network Information Center, the arm of the Chinese government that looks after the country’s web infrastructure, estimates that there were 161 million online shoppers in the country at the close of 2010.

Meanwhile, reports from Forrester Research project that online sales in China could reach nearly $160 billion by 2015.  By comparison, e-commerce sales totaled less than $50 billion last year.

That’s a lot of shoppers and a lot of potential revenue, to say the least.

As always, leave us your thoughts and comments!

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In Daily Deal Industry, Everyone Else is Looking up at Groupon

Posted in Ecommerce, General News / Technology, tagged , , , , , on June 27, 2011 | 1 Comment »

While the daily deals market has become increasingly crowded over the course of the past year or so, it would appear that all of the newcomers (and even those companies that have been at it for awhile) have a long way to go before they’re going to catch up with Groupon.

A new report from the customer satisfaction research firm ForeSee Results offers a glimpse of the state of daily deals industry, revealing the Groupon has carved out a dominant position that puts the company head-and-shoulders above its competition and should, for now at least, quell any concerns about the long-term viability of the Groupon business model.

ForeSee based its report on a survey this spring of more than 22,000 shoppers who actively use many of the web’s top retail sites.  Of those polled, nearly two thirds of respondents indicated that they subscribe to at least one daily deal offering.

More than half of those consumers (51 percent) said they subscribe to Groupon, giving the company a commanding two-to-one lead over its next closest rival, Living Social.  Only 24 percent of the respondents said they subscribe to Living Social, while 14 percent use Google Offers and 10 percent rely on Woot.com, which was purchased by Amazon in 2010.

The research seems to counter many in the industry who have questioned the sustainability of Groupon’s business model, particularly from the standpoint of attracting new users.

“I don’t think anyone should be signing any death certificates yet,” ForeSee CEO Larry Freed wrote in a blog post about the report. “Groupon and LivingSocial do bring in new customers, and that should be welcome news to both retailers and daily deal companies alike.”

Indeed, ForeSee’s research shows that 31 percent of the consumers buying daily deals were new customers to the merchant offering the deal itself.  Only slightly more (38 percent) were frequent customers, while 27 percent were infrequent customers and 4 percent were former customers.

And further reinforcing just how popular daily deals have become, the data reveals that more than two-thirds of the respondents have purchased a deal in the past three months and 89 percent of those redeemed their deal in that time as well

So what about you?  Where does your daily deal allegiance lie?  Leave us a comment!

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Survey Data Reveals Pluses, Minuses of Daily Deal Trend

Posted in Ecommerce, Online Shopping, tagged , , , , , on June 20, 2011 | 1 Comment »

We all know just how profound an impact Groupon, Living Social and the daily deal sites that followed them have had on the online shopping world.  But despite the meteoric rise in popularity, is the daily deal model not without some negatives?

According to a new survey, the answer is yes, though the results still resoundingly point to a continued rise in the use of such sites.

PriceGrabber just rolled out its Local Deals Survey, which polled nearly 2,100 online consumers in the U.S. between May 20 and 25 about their daily and local deal shopping activity.  Primarily, the research substantiates the notion that daily deal sites are increasingly becoming a preferred method of shopping online: 44 percent of respondents say they regularly use or search a daily deal website, while 63 percent of consumers admitted they receive offers from two or more deal sites each day.

As we’ve come to expect, the motivation behind the widespread use of daily deal sites is pretty obvious—saving money. More than three-quarters of respondents (78 percent) indicated they buy local deals to do just that, while only 19 percent cited the ability to try out new services that would otherwise be outside their price range.

However, in a telling sign that points towards oversaturation, 52 percent said they feel overwhelmed by the volume of special deal emails they receive each day.  Meanwhile, 60 percent indicated they believe the daily deal industry has become overcrowded with too many sites.

“Whether we are in the depths of a recession or the height of a booming economy, consumers are looking to save money— period,” said Graham Jones, general manager of PriceGrabber.  “The daily deals sector clearly shows promising signs for long-term growth, but the data reinforces the frustration consumers can feel when a new trend explodes so quickly.”

PriceGrabber asserts that frustration underscores the need for a more streamlined approach to the daily deal process, and the company itself believes it has a solution.  It recently launched a new one-stop service that aggregates daily deals from up to 20 local deal websites and gives consumers more control over how many deal emails they receive.

Still, even with some blemishes, the daily deal industry is sitting pretty right now.  In addition to the obvious benefit of saving money, shoppers love daily deal sites for their social networking angle too.  The survey finds that 86 percent of respondents tend to share deals they find with friends and family.  This sharing takes on all forms: 71 percent said they do so via word of mouth, 64 percent chose email and 26 percent share it through Facebook.

What are your thoughts on the current state of daily deal shopping? Leave us a comment!

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Glenn Beck Brings a Whole Different Kind of Values to Daily Deal Shopping

Posted in Ecommerce, General News / Technology, Online Shopping, Retail, tagged , , , , , on May 24, 2011 | 1 Comment »

In what might qualify as the most random piece of news that we’ve ever reported here on Ecommerce Junkie, conservative political commentator Glenn Beck, the bane of the liberals everywhere, has launched a daily deal site called Markdown.com.

The Fox News personality, whose gig as the afternoon talk show host on the conservative network is set to end later this year, started the site through his personal media company Mercury Radio Arts.  Markdown.com will offer limited-time deals from both online and local retailers to consumers much like any other existing daily deal site.  But where Markdown will differ from the likes of Groupon and others is that it will only provide what it calls “honest” offers.  What’s that mean, exactly?

According to Beck, the site’s offers will be ones that fall in line with “a set of principles that transcends money”,  a sentiment that is very clearly underscored by the site’s featured tag line,”Value and Values”.

“Markdown.com is a way for people to connect with companies and products that respect their values and respect their hard-earned dollars,” Beck says in the site’s introductory video.  “We have an opportunity to save people money and unite with each other and create something of real value to help.”

To kick off the new site, Markdown’s first offer is a $20 voucher on Chocolate.com that will cost consumers only 10 bucks.  Included in the description of the deal itself is information on which items shoppers can use their voucher for on the chocolate marketplace and a section detailing how buying from Chocolate.com supports both American values and entrepreneurs.

Markdown’s second promotion, which will run later this week, is for identity theft protection vendor LifeLock.

There’s motivation to spread the word about Markdown.com as well – any shopper that refers friends to a specific deal automatically gets 10 percent off their own purchase price for every referral to a shopper who also takes advantage of the deal.

Frankly, we’re not quite sure what to make of all this.  The biggest reasons why daily deal sites have become so popular is that they target wide segments of the population and offer an enormous variety of promotions for those shoppers to choose from.

At least from what we can tell, Beck’s site does neither and actually goes in the complete opposite direction.  It seems to be catering to a very specific audience (those consumers who will, presumably, only buy from companies that share their particular socio-political ideas) with a very narrow range of offers.  By the Beck’s own admission, the site may only be able to offer one or two deals a week as a result of partnering only with select companies and retailers.  And can you really say with any confidence that left-leaning shoppers, even those who put a high value on buying from reputable and ethical companies, will be rushing to support an e-commerce venture by Glenn Beck?

Then again, Beck’s got a loyal following of his own that he can tap into and may have enough numbers to make this variation of the daily deal work.  Only time will tell.

But what do you think?  Is Markdown the next “it” thing in daily deal offerings or will it flame out even before Beck signs off Fox news for the final time?  Leave us your thoughts and comments below.

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Google Offers Arrives

Posted in Ecommerce, Online Shopping, tagged , , , , on April 22, 2011 | 1 Comment »

Shoppers in Portland will be the first to get a crack at trying out Google’s long-awaited entry into the daily deal arena, as the search giant this week has launched a sign-up page on its site for Google Offers.

As part of the service’s beta testing phase, Google Offers will soon also be expanded to include New York City and the San Francisco Bay Area as well.  But for now, the City of Roses gets to enjoy guinea pig status for a program that promises daily deal discounts of at least 50 percent.

“We picked Portland because it’s a city known for its unique local businesses, great restaurants, interesting places and a thriving, active community,” according to the help page for Offers.

While shoppers in all three metropolitan areas can now sign up to receive Google Offers, it’s not clear when Google  will actually begin emailing the deals to those who do sign up, even in Portland.

As the help section goes on to say:  “We’re working hard to get Google Offers up and running in Portland.  Soon you’ll  start receiving e-mails with great local offers if you have signed up with Google Offers.”

So technically speaking, at least to us, this is the very softest of soft launches.

Nevertheless, the introduction of Offers is a clear signal of intent by Google that it’s serious about jumping into the growing daily deal business, one that some have estimated could generate up to $2.67 billion in sales this year alone.

It also shows that Google’s failed attempt to buy Groupon last year for somewhere around $6 billion was a mere  hiccup in the broader plan to bring daily deals into its package of e-commerce services that already includes Google  Product Search.

If we’ve got any readers out in Portland, we’d love to hear from you and find out if you’ve already signed up for  Google Offers as well as what you think so far.  Feel free to leave us a comment!

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Leadership Change Coming at Groupon

Posted in Ecommerce, Online Shopping, People, tagged , , , , , , on March 23, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

Looking for an exciting, executive-level e-commerce job? Polish up your resume folks and keep your eyes on those want ads because Groupon is ditching its president and chief operating officer in the next few weeks.

The daily deal site announced this week that Rob Solomon, who’s held the post at Groupon for just over a year, will be stepping down.   No specific reason was reported for Soloman’s departure, though he will be retained as a company advisor after he leaves.

“Rob Solomon joined Groupon just over a year ago, doing what he once considered unimaginable and relocating his family from ‘God’s Country’ in Woodside, CA, to Chicago, bringing his experience as a seasoned Internet executive to help us turn Groupon into the next great technology company,” said Groupon CEO Andrew Mason “Now, Rob is moving on, taking his family back to God’s Country.”

(Editor’s Note: one of us has been to Woodside and unless something’s changed, hearing it called God’s Country is truly baffling. Anyway, we digress…)

In all seriousness, Soloman’s departure is pretty baffling as well, at least on the surface.

In the 12-plus months that he was on the job, Groupon saw enormous growth, to say the least.   The company expanded  from about 200 employees to nearly 6,500, expanding its daily deal offerings to 44 different countries after initially only running a U.S.-based operation and becoming the preferred daily deal resource among most shoppers.

“Rob has added enormous value to Groupon and we’ll miss having him around,” Mason continued.

Enormous value indeed, but the leadership change comes at a crucial time for Groupon.  The company hasn’t exactly had the best year thus far thanks to some glitches with a few of their discount offers that caused a couple of public relations headaches.

Meanwhile, both Groupon’s main competitor (LivingSocial) and an increasing number of internet players like Google and Facebook are either building up their own daily deal offerings or starting their own deal programs to compete directly with Groupon and grab a share of the top spot in the industry.   It’s an industry that could generate upwards of $6.1 billion in sales over the next 3-4 years, according to recent studies.

We’ll let you know who replaces Soloman as soon as we find out about it. In the meantime, we welcome your thoughts and comments!

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Facebook Becomes the Latest Daily Deal Player

Posted in Ecommerce, Facebook Commerce, Online Shopping, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 15, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

You almost have to feel a bit sorry for the folks over at Groupon.  We certainly wouldn’t blame them for feeling like there’s a bulls-eye on their collective backs.

After all, since November of last year (a mere 6 months ago), a number of tech heavy hitters like Yahoo, eBay, and Bing have all pledged to get into the daily deal business and to take a slice of the pie from Groupon.  And that’s not even counting Google’s own aggressive daily deal aspirations, which have accelerated quickly since Groupon turned down a hefty purchase offer from Google during that time as well.

Well, now you can add another big name to that list of companies:  Facebook.

Continuing its gradual expansion into all things e-commerce, Facebook has announced that it will be expanding its current Deals program to start offering consumers exclusive online deals.  Shoppers will be able to buy daily-deal vouchers on Facebook itself and share them with their Facebook friends under the new program.

Facebook will use its own in-house sales team to solicit special offers from merchants and retailers.  But the social networking behemoth has brought on some partners and will be aggregating special offers from nine other sites as well: Gilt City, Home Run, KGB Deals, OpenTable, Plum District, Pop Sugar City, Tippr, Reach Local and Zozi.

By integrating its own special deals with that of the 9 partner groups, Facebook should be able to ensure a pretty regular selection of daily deals that can compete with the likes of Groupon and Living Social.  If you’re wondering why the competition in the daily deal arena has amped up as much as it has in recent months, consider a recent report from media researchers BIA/Kelsey that predicts the industry could be generate as much as $6.1 billion in U.S. sales alone by 2015.

Facebook will initially roll out the new service in only 5 cities – Dallas, Austin, Atlanta, San Francisco and San Diego.

“Local businesses (there) will be able to sign up to use this feature soon, and people will be able to find Deals in the coming weeks,” said a Facebook spokesperson.

The current version of Facebook Deals already lets businesses offer incentives and discounts to consumers, but only those who check-in through the Facebook Places service.

So there you have it.  Yet another entrant into the daily deal rat race.   Leave us your thoughts and comments below!

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Bing Jumps into Daily Deal Business

Posted in Ecommerce, Online Shopping, Retail, tagged , , , , , , on March 7, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em!

That seems to be the thinking over at Microsoft at least, which late last week decided to throw its hat into the daily deal ring with a new feature that adds daily specials to search results on Bing.

Bing Deals will weave more than 200,000 different offers into search results for consumers, including gift certificates and discounts, as well as daily and local deals from sites such as Groupon, LivingSocial and Restaurant.com.  Microsoft teamed with The Dealmap, which consolidates local deals on its own web site, to build the new service.

The new feature certainly seems like an attempt by Microsoft to capitalize on the buzz and potential that daily deal sites have come to represent in the last 12-18 months but Bing Deals also falls in line with the search engine’s broader goals of search simplicity and effectiveness.

“Bing’s mission is to help you cut through the clutter of the Web to make decisions more quickly,” says Andy Chu, director of product management in a post on Bing.   “Once you find the deal you like, you can save it, share it with a friend via e-mail or claim the deal directly with the deal provider.”

Bing Deals will be accessible for mobile shoppers as well as traditional computer users.  When a shopper runs a search for a specific product or even a restaurant on Bing, a green icon will now appear below the search listing, indicating that the business is currently offering users a special offer.  Clicking on the link opens up the deal to the user, and links will continue to feature a host of information on the particular business, from reviews to images to maps.

iPhone and Android users will get a more substantive version of the feature when they use their devices—Bing’s mobile home page will include a direct link to deals for those consumers and clicking on the link opens up all of the daily deals available in that particular consumer’s immediate geographical region or metropolitan area.

Analysts seem to think that the new feature won’t do much to help Bing close the gap on Google for search dominance. Since Groupon rejected its’ substantially offer to buy late last year, Google has started developing its own daily deal service that will compete directly with Groupon and others.  Microsoft’s approach, however, appears to be one of partnering with the daily deal giant rather than going after it directly.

Got some feedback?  Leave us a comment below.

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ShopSavvy and Groupon Team Up

Posted in Ecommerce, General News / Technology, tagged , , , , on February 24, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

Daily deal giant Groupon has partnered with bar code-scanning application developer ShopSavvy on a new program that will deliver local and personalized Groupon offers exclusively to the more than 10 million consumers who currently use the ShopSavvy application.

The move further enhances Groupon’s ever-expanding lineup of mobile applications and email-able offers that has rocketed the company to the top of the daily deal industry.

“We are pleased to be partnering with ShopSavvy, one of the leading mobile shopping platforms,” says Mihir Shah, Groupon’s mobile vice president and general manager. “This partnership brings exciting opportunities for mobile shoppers looking for offers relevant to their buying interests.”

ShopSavvy’s app, which is available to both iPhone and Android users, will now include a special Deals tab that will operate a bit like Twitter—providing a steady stream of special deals, coupons and promotions to users.  The app personalizes offers based on a user’s geographical location, as well as their own shopping history and user ratings.

Groupon plans to add additional specific targeting measures in the coming months.

“ShopSavvy plans to enhance Groupon’s value for our users by sending them only the deals we know they will be interested in, based on their shopping history, location and preferences,”  says ShopSavvy co-founder Alexander Muse.

The Groupon component is just one of several upgrades on the newest version of the ShopSavvy 4 application, which now includes a price-matching function that informs a shopper if another retailer would match a competitor’s listed price, as well as a detailed inventory feature and expanded review/ratings content capabilities.

ShopSavvy boasts that the application was downloaded more than two million times back in November before the big holiday shopping push, marking the most robust month for the app since it was originally launched.  Teaming up with Groupon, however, could result in an even higher number of new users in the future.

For Groupon, the partnership adds to its own mobile app library and the 50-plus million consumers who receive deals via email.

Leave us your thoughts and comments on this new alliance below!

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