Groupon Aims to Be a Mobile-Commerce Giant, but Is That a Good Idea?

Groupon, which is in the midst of a mini-comeback, is making it known to investors and analysts that it has its eyes on a prize that’s bigger than daily deals: mobile commerce. According to John Pietz at Crain’s Chicago Business, the company is going to highlight this goal at its June 13 annual meeting in downtown Chicago.

In its first-quarter earnings report, Groupon shared that vouchers sold on mobile devices accounted for 45 percent of all transactions in North America in March, reflecting a significant uptick from the 30 percent mark for these mobile transactions in the same period last year. “Mobile is the key story in North America,” said CFO Jason Child, who noted that this increase in mobile activity is attributed to improvements in mobile search and the bigger pool of local deals offered via mobile devices.

That said, Groupon will have to sell itself, as well as back up its big talk. Mobile commerce is expected to account for only 9 percent of retail spending by 2017, and there are already big, established players in the mobile-commerce space (e.g., Amazon, eBay, Sears, Best Buy).

Earlier this year, Zacks Investment Research said that the daily-deals company is “well positioned to gain from rising e-commerce spending on mobile devices, a profitable domestic market and an under-penetrated international market.”