Groupon And Snapchat Partner To Provide Real-time Deals

The announcement of a partnership between Snapchat and Groupon opens up a multitude of possibilities for integrating the popular services of these two companies into new marketing ideas.

Snapchat has grown popular due to its disappearing messaging feature, wherein messages get deleted as soon as they are read and can no longer be retrieved from the Snapchat servers.  Marketers can use this functionality to send time-sensitive deals to their customers, which can increase the sense of excitement in a campaign.  Groupon has now announced its partnership with Snapchat to broadcast exclusive offers to its massive number of followers.

The idea for the partnership arose when Groupon wanted to offer a first-come, first-serve deal for a concert.   Snapchat users were able to follow the link to the deal that they received on the Snapchat interface.  Groupon appears to be attempting to redefine itself as more of on e-commerce platform through these initiatives, along the lines of mega brands such as Amazon.  By utilizing Snapchat, Groupon is able to add an element of urgency to its daily deals, where users must act quickly to get the upper hand in redeeming an offer.  Groupon may also use Snapchat to personalize its offers as a way to more effectively target individual consumers.

Esha Shah, manager of mobile strategy and innovation at Global Mobile Strategy and App Marketing Creative Agency, Fetch, explained further.  “The delivery of deals is becoming more real-time.  Users are already looking for deals around them as well as deals related to the things they are interested in.  Time-sensitive deals are the assumed next step in the evolution of daily mobile deals,” said Shah.

Recent reports show that more than half of Groupon’s transactions are now coming through its mobile platform, which has greatly increased the company’s revenue.  Snapchat is also growing at an exponential rate, with many large retailers such as Wet Seal and Taco Bell choosing to embrace the app for its potential to broaden the reach of their brands.  Snapchat is said to be in discussions with China’s Alibaba as a potential funder for future initiatives.

“Brands benefit more from this quality rather than users, as they are able to capture a user’s attention and efforts during that range of time if a user is truly interested in making the purchase,” Shah explained.

Finding deals online is becoming a more and more popular pastime, and having these deals delivered in real-time increases usability greatly.  In this latest partnership with Snapchat, Groupon is pushing the envelope to grow in scope and to add value to its merchant solutions, and may eventually help to redefine the way that businesses interact with consumers.