Group buying is not new for online buyers anymore. Sometimes, with certain amount of people buying certain products, online seller will offer discount or eliminate the shipping fees. While the concept of group buying applied on the intangible goods, such as service, the idea of group coupon came up. Sellers, such as restaurants, beauty salons, hotels, exhibitions, trips, will offer certain amount of group coupons in limited time, and consumers will collect money for the coupons. For instance, my friend and I collected ten people in total within a week to get 30% discount for an art exhibition.

Groupon is an online platform gathering all these group coupons. It was found at 2008 in Chicago and soon enlarged its business territory into 49 countries. Groupon offer APP for consumers to update latest discount and download these coupons on phone. With high mobility, Groupon is creating a new marketing strategy. Many startup stores offer coupons to increase customers and fames. Some sellers offer coupons to gain customers in three weeks beforehand, gaining steady amount of customers, while other sellers offer last minute coupons to earn maximum profit.

The advantages of this marketing strategy are high exposure and high attention. On the other hand, its mobility and high exposure also bring disadvantages. Firstly, customers will be disgusted with overload advertisement or public comments. If these stores cannot reach certain quality or make one careless fault, they will get merciless criticisms. Secondly, customers will get used to this marketing strategy and have expectation for discount. These stores will result in losing loyal customers or losing profit.