Mobile Groupon users purchase more frequently and spend more than Web-only consumers, per Groupon. Additionally, 55 percent of North American transactions were completed on mobile devices over the opening four-day weekend of the 2013 holiday shopping season.

“Groupon is a natural fit for mobile because the platform fits right in with our mission to make it easy for people around the world to conveniently search and discover great businesses at unbeatable prices,” said Nicholas Halliwell, manager of public relations at Groupon, Chicago.

“We think of local commerce in a broad context,” he said. “We think of it as a marketplace that has evolved by virtue of the fact that people are increasingly using mobile devices as a means of interacting with their local surroundings.

“And in this marketplace, Groupon has inherent advantages such as the fact that we’re highly curated, we cover a wide array of local categories and buying and using a Groupon is both easy and instant.”

Mobile users
Mr. Halliwell admits that it takes almost 30 percent more time to activate an application-only user versus a multi-screen user, but consumers continue to engage via mobile.

Groupon also had a record number of app downloads in the third quarter of 2013, with more than 9 million people downloading the Groupon app. The company now boasts more 60 million downloads.

According to Mr. Halliwell, Groupon’s iOS app is one of the top 25 most-downloaded free apps of all time.

Groupon recently announced the expansion of its iPad app to 12 new markets: Argentina, Denmark, Finland, Greece, India, Israel, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.

This brings the iPad app’s market presence up to 43, matching the iPhone app presence.

The company is also working on expanding its travel-related sector via Groupon Getaways.

Groupon 2013
It is possible that mobile is one of the main reasons for Groupon’s overall success in 2013. Groupon’s stock rose 142 percent this past year, with Daily Deals remaining the biggest part of its business.

As Groupon focuses more on its apps, it is also reducing the emphasis on “push” marketing.

Direct email accounted for less than 40 percent of Groupon’s North American transactions in both the second and third quarters of 2013. Groupon is edging closer to replacing email with mobile as the key driver of its sales (see story).

Additionally, more than three-fourths of merchant contracts that Groupon signed in June 2013 in North America chose to feature in the company’s “pull” marketplace with monthly recurring deals.

Groupon has also made a few acquisitions in the past year to ramp up its mobile efforts.

For instance, it acquired travel app Blink in September to help expand its Getaways category (see story).

Groupon has also entered the mPOS sector, the restaurant reservations arena and the coupon world.

“Our Groupon mobile app is the tool that fosters discovery, is seamless and easy to use and is a powerful reflection of what’s available to consumers in their local communities,” Mr. Halliwell said.

“The latest versions of the apps make it simple for customers to search and browse Groupon’s more than 65,000 active deals in North America to find the exact offer they want, when they want it,” he said.

Final Take
Rebecca Borison is editorial assistant on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York