Yesterday, I wrote a post after I noticed that Groupon had registered groupongoods.com, groupongoods.info and other related domain names, hypothesizing that the fast-growing daily deals startup might be plotting a dedicated website (section) for selling tangible products such as household items, consumer electronics or even groceries at a discount.
I speculated that ‘Groupon Goods’ would be a way for the company to try and rival ecommerce giant Amazon, but of course, domain name registrations are just that and don’t necessarily mean Groupon is planning anything of the sort. A Groupon spokesperson declined to comment on my speculation, understandably, but I’d be interested to know how they explain the existence of a brand nuevo ‘Productos’ section currently live on the Groupon Chile website.
Indeed, Groupon Chile is featuring goods like kerosene stoves, kitchen robots and even motorcycles at discounts ranging from 40% to 50% off the retail price.
Obviously, this isn’t the first time Groupon has put tangible products up for discounted sale, but it’s definitely the first time we’ve noticed a dedicated ‘products’ (or ‘goods’) section on any Groupon site.
Groupon entered Latin America over a year ago by acquiring Chilean deal site ClanDescuento and opening a new site called ClubeUrbano in Brazil. According to a recent comScore study, Brazil, Argentina and Chile demonstrate the highest penetration of coupons site visitors with more than 10 percent of Internet populations in these markets visiting the category in March 2011.
ComScore also found that Groupon led as the top coupon site in those regions – trumping Groupalia – with a reach of roughly 5 million visitors.
In the past, Groupon has forged partnerships with juggernauts Expedia and Livenation to offer online deals on travel (Groupon Getaways) and event tickets (GrouponLive), respectively.
Groupon Goods could be their next experiment, although as far as the Groupon Chile site goes the company appears to be working with merchants directly rather than teaming up with others.
We’ve asked Groupon for further comment.
Groupon recently announced that it took a net loss of $102.7 million in the second quarter of 2011 on $878 million of revenue (and lost roughly $205 million in the first half of the year). The company currently employs some 10,000 people all over the globe.
(Thanks to the anonymous tipster who clued us in on the Groupon Chile website)