Mashable : Groupon’s Ambitious Plan to Change How & When We Eat With Its New Groupon Now App

The application, known as Groupon Now, is remarkably and elegantly simple, yet it’s a radical departure from Groupon’s current deal-a-day business model. When a user opens up the smartphone app, he or she will be presented with just two buttons: “I’m hungry” and “I’m bored.” Clicking either button will open up a list of time-specific daily deals, based on his or her location.

The familiar $10 coupons for $20 worth of food are still there, but they’re not one-time offers. Instead, businesses can choose when they want these deals to be available. Say a restaurant is incredibly busy on Saturdays but could use more business on Wednesdays. With Groupon Now, that business can fill its seats during slow business days using time-specific deals.

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Biz Report : 54% of retailers to put m-coupon systems in place in next 12 months

Half of all the retailers surveyed reported that, within the year, they will have systems in place to allow coupons to be dispatched to customers' mobile phone and scanned at point-of-sale.

Recent research in the U.K. and U.S. by mobile transaction network mBlox found that British shoppers use mobile coupons more than their American counterparts - 29% vs. 15%.

However, these figures are destined to rise as 71% of British and 42% of American consumers expressed an interest in having coupons delivered to their mobile handsets.

"2011 is poised to be a huge year in the advancement of mobile for retail," said Sean M. Alexander, technology analyst at IHL Group.

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Valpak announces coupon app for Windows® Phone 7

Valpak, the savings giant, has launched a new mobile application for Windows^® Phone 7.  The app became available on Windows^® Phone Marketplace on November 8th.

As the trusted leader in neighborhood value, Valpak now delivers ultra-convenient electronic coupons right to your Windows Phone 7 device. This new, free app offers quality content with more than 37,000 offers and social sharing, so wherever you go, savings will follow you.

“We’re thrilled to be a part of Windows Phone Marketplace at launch,” said Jim Sampey, chief operating officer of Cox Target Media, providers of Valpak. “Our apps have been tremendously successful and consumers are excited about accessing savings on the go from their smart phones.”

Windows Phone 7 customers can get exclusive, coupons for restaurants, auto care, entertainment, beauty, home and garden, health and medical, professional services and retail shops right in their own neighborhoods — and even when they travel out of town.

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Groupon Releases Merchant Redemption Application

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Groupon has debuted a mobile redemption-tracking app to enhance and streamline the merchant experience. Available as a free download in the Android Marketplace and soon in the Apple App Store, the Merchant App allows staff to scan and verify Groupons using their device’s camera. In coming months, Groupon will ship Android phones and iPod Touches with the app preloaded to thousands of businesses as part of their featured promotion on the popular site.

“The Merchant App makes it dead simple for merchants to track their Groupons, which is especially helpful for businesses that have sold thousands of Groupons or span multiple locations,” said Andrew Mason, founder and chief executive officer of Groupon. “We’ve worked closely with our merchants, and their feedback has shaped a robust arsenal of services that we’re excited to roll out.”

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Cellfire Adds Mobestream to Growing List of QMobile Coupons Partnerships

SAN JOSE, Calif., Oct. 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Cellfire Inc. today announced the expansion of its QMobile Coupons program with Mobestream Media Inc. QMobile Coupons, the first electronic coupon syndication platform for mobile applications, is now available on Mobestream's Key Ring Rewards Cards 2.0 application and allows users to instantly browse and upload grocery coupons to their savings cards and redeem savings at more than 30 grocery banners across nearly 5,000 stores nationwide.

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Google Poised to Make Major Play in Mobile Coupon Business with Google Offers

A recent Mobile Marketer article quotes Google executive Mike Steib talikng about the location based coupon business it plans to build, Google Offers:

Mobile-coupon spending is projected to reach $1 billion by 2011, per Google.

Mr. Steib said that mobile coupons drive business. To take mobile couponing to the next level, various players must agree on a technology that makes the redemption process work better, whether it is 2D bar codes or near field communication and RFID.

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ScreenTicket and McDonald’s in Denmark Launch Mobile Coupon Campaign Targeting Students

According to ScreenTicket's Helle Thomsen, ScreenTicket and McDonald’s in Denmark have just launched a national mobile coupon campaign that is running the next three years, where 69 of 84 restaurants are participating. McDonald’s wants to acquire members for their Student Club, where students can benefit from special offers and savings.

The offers are exclusive to members and only available via web based mobile coupons. Web based mobile coupons are far more advanced than the regular SMS coupons and require that the end user has a data connection. The campaign has been running effectively since the beginning of October and so far, the results have been impressing with a 36% redeeming rate exceeded a whopping 28% redemption rate of Sprite earlier this year. We are expecting even greater results in the time coming.

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Cellfire Launches First Electronic Grocery Coupon Syndication Program for Smartphone Applications

Leading consumer brands and retailers come to Cellfire to deliver mobile and digital promotions.Cellfire Inc. today launched QMobile Coupons, the first electronic coupon syndication platform developed for iPhone™ and Android™ mobile applications. QMobile Coupons is a new way for mobile application developers and brands to provide valuable grocery coupon offers to the rapidly expanding mobile audience.  Consumers can easily discover and save coupons to their grocery store savings card anytime and anywhere within the convenience of their popular mobile applications.

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ReadWrite : Success for Mobile Coupons Begins at the Register

This article by Read Write's Chris Cameron provides a good summary of the challenges still facing mobile coupons. Highlights are:

• "Point of sale redemption is key to mobile vouchers/codes." As he points out, mobile coupons have been a common idea for startups over the last decade, but it hasn't been until now with current smart-phone technology that the idea has seemed relatively viable. The other factor that he says is pushing the mobile voucher market is support from major vendors.

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Netnewscheck.com : Mobile Coupons Category To Watch

“Coupons are the category to watch - at least initially,” said Gordon Borrell of Borrell Associates in releasing a new report predicting huge growth in mobile ads. “There’s something dramatic going on, and heavy implications for direct mail, yellow pages, newspapers and anyone else in the coupon-distribution business.”

Borrell Associates officially released its outlook for local and national mobile marketing Thursday, calling mobile “the new disruptor” that has emerged on the scene faster than any other new medium over the past 90 years.

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