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Groupon Self-Service Deals Open For Business

  • Mashable, Friday, October 29, 2010 1:26 AM
Groupon has released a Merchant Center for Groupon Stores, its new self-service platform for businesses to set up virtual storefronts to promote and run their own deals. "What's interesting," as Mashable notes, "is that the implementation of the product indicates that this will compete with the likes of Facebook, Foursquare, Gowalla and Google when it comes to attracting small business attention."

While there are no up front fees, Groupon plans to take a 10% commission for non-promoted deals, and 30% for promoted deals -- compared to its standard commission of at least 50%. Of note, merchants only get paid upon deal redemption, so Groupon keeps what is known as the "breakage." Promoted deals, meanwhile, have additional fees that will be matched with members and delivered via e-mail or displayed on a user's homepage. According to Mashable, some are calling self-service the "future of Groupon," which critics suggest that the company is essentially turning itself in a suped-up coupon provider.

Read the whole story at Mashable »

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