Groupon has been working to bust out of the limited inventory that seems inherent in its “deal a day” space. First, it added a “side” deal in many markets. Then it started breaking out some of the larger markets into urban and suburban areas –something that Living Social has pushed even harder on. Separately, it has started adding additional revenue via a banner ad, which its been selling for $10 CPM.
Now Groupon has announced a personalization program that allows users to designate the type of offers that they want to receive. By personalizing offers, instead of bombarding with multiple unrelated offers, Groupon hopes to preserve its excellent 66 percent open rate.
The program also enables Groupon advertisers to “stagger” offers over several months, instead of being limited to one offer every six or seven months. And finally, Groupon can begin targeting vertical interests that among users that go beyond the interests of its current base college-educated young women,. The personalization program is initially rolling out in Chicago, LA, New York, San Francisco, San Jose and Seattle.
Yipit, a deal a day aggregator, already personalizes offers, pinpointing interest among more than 100 deals a day. It enables users to choose subsets within macro categories such as Dining and Nightlife; Health and Beauty and Fitness. Within “fitness,” for instance, I could choose offers for Pilates, Yoga, Gym or Bootcamp. Maybe that’s how it will look with Groupon’s program.