Groupon Launches A Free Scheduler App for Merchants
Groupon (NASDAQ:GRPN), which leads the global daily deals space, has been trying to expand rapidly since its IPO, and has acquired a series of new start-ups like Uptake, Hyperpublic and Campfire Labs to fuel the expansion. It also launched other offerings like Groupon Now and Groupon Live, in a bid to diversify its revenue stream from its core deals business that has seen revenue growth decline following the possible market saturation and increasing competition. This week it launched yet another service – Groupon Scheduler – an online calendar which enables small businesses to book customer appointments online. [1]
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Groupon Scheduler is targeted at businesses, such as spas, salons and other service-based businesses, where sales are driven by appointments. It allows them to accept online bookings easily and integrates with the Groupon deals process. Merchants can use Scheduler to manage all their appointments, in addition to the ones booked through Groupon. The Scheduler comes with features like detailed analytics, automated reminders, email confirmations and tracking support, which helps businesses manage their inventory and improve the customer experience. The Scheduler is based on a technology from Groupon’s acquisition of OpenCal in 2011.
The company is offering the Scheduler as a free beta product to all businesses, whether or not they run Groupon deals. It may eventually charge them a percentage fee based on the sales, in order to generate additional revenue. Groupon could also use the new product to attract more merchants to its daily deals offering and improve its targeted deals using the data generated by the Scheduler app.
Groupon leads the daily deals space where it competes with LivingSocial backed by Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) Offers, Yelp (NYSE:YELP) and countless clones. We currently have a $14 Trefis price estimate for Groupon, which stands nearly 20% below its current market price.
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Notes:- Groupon Offers Small Businesses Free Version of Groupon Scheduler, Press Release [↩]