Groupon fights for its life

BEYOND THE DAILY DEAL

Groupon cites an array of new services and features that it hopes will make the company a crucial partner for many types of merchants over the long run.

Groupon Goods, a more traditional discount online retail operation, already accounts for much of the company's revenue growth.

We're investing in the development of products and technology that help our merchants run their businesses more effectively, from payments and POS services to our evolving suite of marketing services including the daily deal, said Kal Raman, Groupon's senior vice president of international operations, in an email.

By this combination we become a true merchant partner, serving the yin and the yang, both the operational and marketing pieces of each business.

A key part of that is the massive sales force that Groupon has built to market its daily deals to small businesses. The relationships it has built with merchants and a retail subscriber base that recently hit 200 million could help it beat back competition in daily deals and broaden its offerings, some analysts say.

Groupon controls about 50 percent of the daily deals market share in North America, according to Yipit, a New York City-based daily deal industry tracking firm.

I don't think the industry it is completely going away, though it will settle, said Arvind Bhatia, analyst with Sterne, Agee & Leach. There may be some market share shift to the benefit of Groupon.

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