Groupon Gets Up On the Localization Game. Finally!? As part of its 5th birthday redesign, the mobile application for the daily-deal site will automatically send you offers in whatever town you happen to be in at the time.
By Catherine Clifford •
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For a company that is built on local, it's seems a bit late for the daily-deal company Groupon to be brushing up on its localization services.
Better late than never.
Chicago-based Groupon turns five this year -- and what a tumultuous first few years it's been. To celebrate its birthday, the daily deal site is rolling out a redesigned website and mobile experience. Now, as you travel with your mobile device, Groupon's app will automatically send you daily deals for wherever you happen to be. If you live in New York City, for example, but travel to Atlanta, the Groupon app will track your travel and then send you deals for Atlanta. The app will follow you internationally, too.
Related: When a Groupon Promotion Went Wrong
Prior to today's rollout, Groupon users would have to manually enter their location to pull up local deals, says Nick Halliwell, spokesperson for Groupon. Alternatively, users would have had to manually click over to the "nearby" icon on their screen when they changed locations. "Generally, all of these changes are intended to make Groupon an even more personalized and searchable experience for shoppers," he says.
Should any user fret about having Groupon know his or her location at all times, there is an option in the profile settings of the app to turn off the geo-location tracking, says Halliwell.
Also as part of the website redesign, your Groupon computer homepage will be personalized and curated with deals based on your own interests. Groupon will take note of what you have purchased in the past and what other similar users have purchased to make recommendations.
It's been a volatile few years for Groupon, with the stock price swinging from $26 a share to below $3 a share and the company ousting founder, Andrew Mason. But the daily-deal site has a new CEO, Eric Lefkofsky, and Groupon, despite its challenges, has a pretty impressive reach: The apps have been downloaded in 43 countries by more than 50 million people.
