Groupon launches DealBuilder

Published February 5, 2014 at 10:26 am

Looking to leverage deal website Groupon to boost your small business? Now, you have to vault over one fewer hurdle.

Today, Groupon is launching DealBuilder, a platform through which businesses can establish their own deals, like those that the company has become known for. Instead of the website reaching out to particular merchants and designing their incentive plans for them, the retailers themselves can set the parameters for those sorts of discounts.

This shift eases some of the pressure on Groupon as well. While in the past, there were markets where it was prohibitively difficult to reach out to small businesses, those companies can now be proactive about joining the deal network: all they have to do is fill in some basic information, choose a structure and then digitally sign a simple contract. A human operator will review the quality of the proposed offer, and then it will go live shortly afterwards.

Dan Roarty, vice president of product development at Groupon, was effusive in discussing the potential benefits.

“With the launch of Deal Builder, we now have a customizable solution for the thousands of merchants that contact us directly every month wanting to run a deal,” said Roarty in a press release. “By expanding the number of ways that merchants can work with Groupon, we’re providing our customers with even more great local business options when they want to do or buy just about anything, anywhere, anytime.”

This new initiative will be a valuable way for small businesses to offer consumers a customized marketing effort. If successful, it will benefit not just the companies but also the customers, who will realize savings.