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Ecommerce Competes Locally

It's ironic that Groupon and Amazon are now using local commerce to set their services apart. Yet, Amazon recently offered customers discounts if they used its price-comparing smartphone app in a physical retail store. “During the one-day promotion, shoppers could have gotten a 5% discount, up to $5 each, on up to three qualifying items,” The Wall Street Journal reports.

In response, Groupon this week announced a “Buy Local” promotion that gives customers $10 in Groupon “bucks” if they purchase any of the site’s daily deals in a physical store. To receive the promotion, as WSJ notes, customers must sign up for Groupon. As such, “That promotion will help build the company’s email subscriber list, which is how it targets and markets deals to customers,” WSJ remarks.

Not to be left out of the fun, eBay last week offered its own brick-and-mortar promotion -- asking participating retailers, including Toys ‘R’ Us, Dick’s Sporting Goods and Aeropostale to give customers $10 in in-store credit if they bought $100 worth of merchandise from the respective retailer’s websites.

Read the whole story at The Wall Street Journal »

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