Groupon to Become a Local Deals Search Engine

Nov. 22, 2012 - PRLog -- Groupon has been struggling to convince investors that they have a viable long-term business model given the increased rate at which people are becoming tired of their deals and their email marketing strategy, and the questionable research surrounding whether Groupon is effective for small businesses or simply a loss-making exercise.

With this difficult climate Groupon has announced a bold strategy to convince investors that they have a profitable long-term business. This week Groupon announced that they would be aiming to become a local deals search engine, the place where consumers would start a search if they're looking for a local service.

Groupon has more than 27,000 active local deals at any one time and this week they've decided to open up that inventory to consumers via a search facility. In Groupon's own words, "Just type in an address, a neighborhood, or a city, and we'll instantly find the closest, most relevant deals for that location."

It's a bold move and one which, if successful, could dramatically turn around the company's fortunes. Since their IPO in 2011 Groupon has lost over 80% of its value. However, over the past couple of days the stock price has rebounded as investors give the thumbs up to this new strategy. It certainly moves Groupon into direct competition with the likes of Google, competing as a point of destination when it comes to people searching for local services.

Despite the doom and gloom surrounding the daily deals industry it is still incredibly popular with hundreds of business now offering daily deals. Aggregator websites are also now becoming more popular, with http://www.lovingthatdeal.com in the UK being one of the most recent sites to launch, offering an advantage over others in the industry by allowing consumers to subscribe to individual product categories, meaning that they'll only ever receive deals which they're actively interested in.