• TechCrunch, Wednesday, September 28, 2011 12:31 PM

Dubbed Rewards, Google is about to introduce a new product designed to help merchants increase customer loyalty by giving said customers a good reason to keep coming back. "Up until now, Groupon has built a billion-dollar business by getting local merchants to offer great one-time deals to consumers," TechCrunch writes, adding: "Those daily deals are all about attracting new customers." Rewards, however, is all about bringing back -- and nurturing relationships with -- existing customers.

"With a Groupon Reward, a business that offers a regular Groupon deal will be able to follow up with another reward that gets unlocked after the customer spends a certain amount of money," TechCrunch reports. Customer will only need to pay with the same credit card, which is already on file with Groupon, to participate in the new program. Notes TechCrunch: "One of the biggest advantages of the product for Groupon is that it finally closes the redemption loop in local commerce."

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