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Groupon’s service of heavily-discounted local deals proved to be initially popular and profitable — but as the company continues to struggle with customer retention and declining consumer interest, it is looking to make changes to its business model to keep customers coming back, according to a May 21 Forbes article.
Forbes reported Groupon plans to incorporate several different tactics to improve its customer retention numbers. These tactics include promoting its online marketplace, reducing reliance on emails and making them more relevant to subscribers, expanding onto mobile platforms and creating a universal operating system for merchants.
By utilizing Gnome, a tablet platform intended to act as a common operating system for merchants, Groupon can standardize and simplify the way local merchants hoping to offer deals through the site do so. According to Forbes, Gnome lets Groupon merchants “better manage their transactions and keep track of customers to launch specific marketing campaigns.”
Forbes also reported that Groupon intends to continue touting its “pull” strategy in regards to marketing itself to customers, encouraging them to search through all the deals the Groupon site offers rather than the “push” strategy of sending out excessive numbers of email alerts to customers. Customers who search for deals themselves have been known to spend more and have shorter redemption cycles — making this a good move for Groupon’s customer retention hopes.