Question

1) List four to five major things the firm "Groupon" does well?

2) Additionally, Explain how they are connected with each other?

3) Add in several supporting activities in use by the firm?

Answer 1

1) List four to five major things the firm "Groupon" does well?

Groupon merchants

Groupon merchants are a suite of products and tools for merchants running with Groupon. The suite includes Groupon Rewards, Groupon Scheduler, and Groupon Payments.

Groupon Rewards

On May 10, 2012, Groupon announced the launch of Groupon Rewards in the United States. Rewards is a loyalty program for merchants to reward customers for repeat visits with a Reward of their choosing. Unlike "buy 9 and get the 10th free" punchcards, a consumer earns Rewards by using any major credit card saved in their Groupon account when they visit their favorite local merchants. When a customer spends an amount pre-determined by the merchant, the customer unlocks a Reward to use on a future visit. The rewards program was later removed due to a lack of engineering support.

Groupon Scheduler Groupon Scheduler is an online booking tool for merchants, allowing their consumers to seamlessly book appointments for services at the time of purchasing their Groupon deal. This tool is targeted at merchants running deals where appointments are required, for example, in the health and beauty industry or for classes and activities.

Groupon Payments The newest addition to merchant-facing products' suite is Groupon Payments, which was launched in September 2012. Groupon Payments offers merchants an infrastructure for accepting credit card payments at a low cost.

2) Additionally, Explain how they are connected with each other?

The idea that would eventually become Groupon was born out of founder Andrew Mason's frustration trying to cancel a cell phone contract in 2006. Mason thought that there must be some way to leverage a large number of people's collective bargaining power. In 2007 Mason launched The Point, a web platform based on the "tipping point" principle that would utilize social media to get people together to accomplish a goal. The Point was intended to organize people around some sort of cause or goal. It gained only modest traction in Chicago until a group of users decided their cause would be saving money. They wanted to round up people to buy the same product in order to receive a group discount. Founder Eric Lefkofsky wanted the company to pivot in order to focus entirely on group buying. Born from The Point, Groupon was launched in November 2008.

The name for the E-Commerce platform is a portmanteau of "group" and "coupon." Groupon's first deal was a two-pizzas-for-the-price-of-one offer at Motel Bar, a restaurant on the first floor of its building in Chicago. The decision to focus on group buying proved wise. In just a year and a half, Groupon grew from a staff of a few dozen to over 350. Revenue and Booking also grew swiftly, and the company was valued at over $1 billion after just 16 months in business, the fastest company ever to reach this milestone.

3) Add in several supporting activities in use by the firm?

Groupon owns numerous international operations, all of which were originally deal-of-the-day services similar to it, but most of which was subsequently re-branded under the Groupon name after the acquisition, including the European-based MyCityDeal (May 17, 2010), the South American ClanDescuento (June 22, 2010), the Japanese service Qpod.jp and Russian Darberry.ru (both acquired on August 17, 2010), and the Singaporean Beeconomic.com (November 30, 2010), which was founded by brothers Karl Chong and Christopher Chong.

Groupon bought the Indian deal-of-the-day website SoSasta.com in January 2011 and re-branded it as "Crazeal by Groupon Inc."The Groupon acquisitions of uBuyiBuy launched services under the Groupon name in Hong Kong.In addition, Groupon acquired GroupsMore.com to expand its business in Malaysia.

Prior to these acquisitions, Groupon had bought out the mobile technology company Mob.ly, while The Point, Inc., the predecessor to Groupon, bought the trademark.

On August 4, 2011, the company acquired Obtiva, a large Chicago, Illinois-based Ruby on Rails and Agile Software Development consulting firm for an undisclosed amount, in order to boost its technology recruiting capabilities.

In January 2012, the company acquired Mertado, a social shopping service based on the Facebook platform.In May 2012, Groupon acquired Breadcrumb, a point of sale system and iPad app that targets local restaurants.Based on the May acquisition, Groupon launched Breadcrumb PRO and Breadcrumb POS, expanding its target beyond restaurants to include all types of local businesses.

On September 24, 2012, Groupon acquired restaurant reservation and discount site Savored for an undisclosed amount, providing Groupon with an inlet to higher-end restaurants. Groupon also announced that it would continue to operate Savored independently from the main Groupon website.

In December 2013, Groupon acquired Boomerang, a Lightbank-backed startup that allows people to share gift cards and other deals from local merchants with their friends. Boomerang's two cofounders, Zachary Smith and Matthew Williams, along with eight employees, went on to build a new digital-coupon offering, called Groupon Coupons.

On January 11, 2013, Groupon acquired real-time location-sharing mobile app and small business service provider Glassman, which was founded and led by Geoffrey Woo, Jon Zhang, and Jonathan Chang. On September 9, 2013, Groupon announced the acquisition of a European last-minute travel app Blink (founded by Rebeca Minguela), which provides same-day hotel reservations.

In January 2014, Groupon bought ideeli, a fashion company, for $43 million. On October 2, 2014, Groupon unveiled Snap, a new app specifically for giving customers cashback when they buy certain items at the grocery store. Snap asks shoppers to upload photos of their receipts after they have gone to the supermarket to buy groceries. Certain items are then eligible for discounts, which shoppers receive in the form of a cash-back deal. The new app comes from Groupon's previous acquisition of SnapSaves, a Canadian start-up that works much like Snap. In November 2014, Groupon acquired In-Store Analytics And Marketing Startup Swarm Mobile, a startup that helps businesses connect with and track their customers while in stores.

On July 16, 2015, Groupon announced its acquisition of food-delivery service OrderUp.[65] Two weeks later, Groupon announced its own Food Delivery Business, Groupon To Go.

In February 2016, Chinese online retailer Alibaba Group Holding Ltd disclosed that it acquired a 5.6% stake in Groupon Inc. In April 2016, Groupon Inc. announced it received a $250 million investment from a private investment firm, Atairos Management LP, which has ties to Comcast Corp. The firm was founded by former Comcast Chief Financial Officer Michael Angelakis, who launched the firm earlier this year with more than $4 billion in committed capital from Comcast. In late October 2016, Groupon announced that it is acquiring daily-deals provider LivingSocial.

In April 2018, Groupon partnered with Universal Orlando theme parks. In May 2018, Groupon acquired Bristol, UK-based Cloud Savings company for $65million.