That being said, since former CEO Andrew Mason left the company on Feb. 28, 2013 (one day after the company missed analysts’ expectations for sales), the stock has clearly been experiencing upward momentum, which motivated me to study this stock not only from a trading perspective, but while taking a one year investment horizon.
Groupon: The Good
To begin with, nobody can deny the ability Groupon Inc (NASDAQ:GRPN) has to bring clients en masse to businesses. Furthermore, Groupon users seem to be more and more engaged. The time an average user spends on the site has been increasing steadily. And, even better, Groupon Inc (NASDAQ:GRPN) has dramatically increased its mobile exposure. According to the latest earnings call, 45% of revenue now comes from mobile (compared with a 20% in 2011), and in the latest quarter alone Groupon’s mobile app was downloaded about 7 million times.
Graphic based on Alexa metrics
Also, Groupon Inc (NASDAQ:GRPN) is constantly making improvements to its site in order to keep engagement metrics high. Just recently, the company made it possible for users to access ongoing deals instead of just one-time deals (Deal Bank Inventory), and the company is now working on building a single operating platform (One Playbook) which will bring a customer personalization algorithm and several tools (like return-on-investment tool) to merchants. Considering that Groupon is all about finding interesting deals, we can be sure that Groupon users will remain well engaged in the next quarters–but how about merchants?
The Bad
The bad thing about Groupon Inc (NASDAQ:GRPN) is that the more attractive the product looks to users, the less attractive it may look to merchants. That’s because there may be a huge trade off between the welfare of Groupon’s users and its retailers. This was brilliantly proved in a working paper by Harvard Business School Professor Benjamin G. Edelman entitled “To Groupon or Not to Groupon.” Groupon affects its retailers in two ways. First, it has the ability of sending users to merchants en masse, which is both a curse and a blessing. As Prof. Edelman mentioned in an interview last year, “The day after a Groupon Inc (NASDAQ:GRPN) is released, hundreds of buyers tend to swamp a small business unprepared for the rush. That barrage of customers can disrupt service to full-price customers, who may end up waiting for service.” Second, discounts always create price asymmetries, and this may not be good for full-price loyal customers, who will obviously get upset when they realize others are getting large discounts.
Add to this the fact that it is relatively easy for someone to make a Groupon-similar website (perhaps a localized version) for a particular city. It does not take any advanced programming skill to create a system that posts and promotes coupons; and with some basic marketing and data mining skills, it is possible to spam your users everyday, offering them similar coupons. Add some gamification and seed-money for the SEO and you have your mini-Groupon Inc (NASDAQ:GRPN) running! There are low barriers to entry, and if Groupon wants to keep succeeding in this business, it needs to take care of its most precious asset: its merchants database. If competitors continue increasing in number, Groupon may find it harder and harder to attract merchants.
