What Value Can Groupon Add To Groceries?

The news is out, yesterday Groupon started partnering with a grocery chain to start a test program. But what value can this kind of partnership bring to groceries, supermarket and hypermarkets?

In my opinion, it will not add any value.

Why? Because food retailers all over the world and in partnership with brands, are into the “group buying” business without declaring it with these words, way before Groupon and all the rest and without any minimum quantity restrictions.

Supermarkets and hypermarkets, on any given day, have an average of 100 promotions and discounted products on their shelves, websites, printed leaflets, …

Brand owners, depending on the category, fight every 7 or 14 days to find a free space in the catalog of a retailer and most of these leaflets are showing only promoted products, price discounted items, buy1get1, value packs, etc… the promotion formats can be endless as brand owners can be very creative to push their sales.

Not forgetting that also some food retailers, keep on always offering loyal consumers who are part of their loyalty programs, additional discounts and promotions, to make them feel more special.

No matter what kind of promotion format Groupon or other group buying sites will use or offer their consumers, but surely it going to be déjà vu, specially that some retailers also started showing a countdown clock for promotions on their websites.