Mobile World Congress: Groupon intends to put mobile at the centre of its growth strategy, including possible further acquisitions, as it sees over a quarter of its US sales performed on mobile devices.
Speaking to new media age at Mobile World Congress, Shim said, “We’ll continue to grow through aggressive hiring and, if it makes sense, that could include acquisitions. Mobile will play a big part in that [future expansion plans].”The group-buying company, which raised $400m through its IPO and recently acquired two mobile start-ups, believes having a comprehensive mobile presence is necessary if it is to further its “real-time redemptions” offering, according to Michael Shim, Groupon’s VP of mobile partnerships.
Shim explained that 8% of UK Groupon purchases are performed on mobile devices and that the company’s location-based Groupon Now (pictured) is scheduled to be piloted in areas outside of the US within the first half of 2012.
Shim explained that the relatively short duration of merchant offerings on the platform meant that users would increasingly access deals on their phones.
As part of the location-based push, Groupon is also promoting its merchant-facing mobile app, which lets businesses scan barcodes when a user redeems an offer in-store using their smartphones.
“Functions such as this help users [merchants] to facilitate real-time deals and it means Groupon can share its analytics back with to the business in real time”, he said.
