Groupon Sees Half of All Sales Coming From Mobile in Two Years

Mobile, along with social and local, will be one of the largest drivers for Groupon’s deals business over the next few years.


Groupon VP Mobile Partnerships Michael Shim said: “Mobile is huge for Groupon…I believe we could see us doing 50 percent of deals sold/purchased in the next couple of years.”

Shim made the statements this morning at Mobile Northwest, an all-day event in Seattle sponsored by Miller Nash, where a good portion of the day’s discussions are focused on the intersection of mobile and commerce and payments.

The opening morning keynote was delivered by K.C. MacLaren, Starbucks’ director of mobile and emerging platforms. MacLaren said the coffee retailer is the largest mobile payments company, with 8,000 outlets. In January, it rolled out an iPhone app nationwide that allows people to scan their phone to pay for a drink.

MacLaren said so far usage of the application has exceeded expectations, with millions of users. Three months after the app launched, the company revealed that more than three million people had paid using Starbucks Card Mobile.

Right now the application isn’t about incremental revenue, he said, but about driving loyalty. Other iterations in the pipeline include an Android application and the ability to order a coffee for pick-up in the store.

Shim talked about a new service launched last Tuesday called Groupon Now, which allows users in the Chicago area to make a timely purchase decision on when and where they want to eat lunch or dinner–or maybe even go see a movie.

Shim said the service has also exceeded expectations, with more than 1,000 merchants already signed up to offer real-time deals. “We’ve been inundated with demand. Groupon Now is about local discovery. What can I find around me?…We are just getting going on where we think it will take our business.”

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