Groupon’s Merchant Centre provides companies with analytics to help them see the ROI from using Groupon in real time.
This allows merchants to understand how they are performing across deals they offer through Groupon’s platform.
"Groupon is taking steps to really keep the merchant in mind as we become the platform for local commerce," said Roy Blanga, Groupon’s UK Managing Director. "In the UK, merchants are constantly telling us they want more data about their Groupon features. We’re excited to be able to give them more information to show the progress of their deals."
The online dashboard also allows Merchants to evaluate customer acquisition and feedback.
Groupon now surveys consumers about their experiences when they redeem a deal to to give merchants insight on how they’re performing with customers and repeat business potential.
Groupon suffered a net loss of $3m in Q3 2012 and its growth rate has steadily declined.
The company had a growth rate of 89% year-on-year in Q1 2012, which fell to 45% in Q2 2012 and 32% in Q3 2012.
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Groupon’s CEO said "continued challenges in Europe" offset its strong performance in North America.
However, ecommerce leaders say that as more retailer’s develop their own daily deal projects Groupon’s platform is becoming less needed.
"A lot of Groupon’s deals which were ground-breaking two years ago are now no longer great and they’re having to try and push the boundaries to find new deal and products," Stuart Fuller, head of communications at NetNames told CBR.
"Retailers don’t necessarily need Groupon’s buying power anymore. They’ve been able to develop their own business models and social interactions and that’s helped them survive and flourish without needing to use Groupon."
Even though Groupon stocks continue to fall, the daily deal industry is expected to remain strong.
"Groupon’s stocks may be down, but the sector remains resilient and as lucrative as ever," Gerard Doyle, CEO of DiscountVouchers told CBR. "As with any emerging industry there will be teething problems but no one can question the massive impact daily deal sites have, and will continue to have, on the general e-commerce industry. Within the last few months alone we’ve seen big brands like Nectar and Amazon as well as niche start-ups such as MumsAndMe and DailyPetDeals kick-start their own daily deal sites."
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