Groupon poaches on RetailMeNot's turf with Freebies

Groupon gets in on the big brand discount curation game

Well this is an interesting development for Groupon: the company is getting into big brand deals. Groupon announced Wednesday the addition of its newest category, Freebies: a collection of deals and discounts on big brands.

To be clear, this wouldn’t be the first time Groupon has ever offered a deal for a big brand-name item—earlier this month it was offering a $5 for $10 Starbucks deal. It also previously offered a daily deal for Barnes & Noble merchandise.

What makes the Freebies category different is the fact that it’s a largish collection of brands offering discounts such as $25 off any $100 order, or free shipping on an order of $49 or higher, etc. Brands include Macy’s, Nordstrom, Best Buy, Sephora, American Eagle, Crate & Barrel, Target, Tommy Hilfiger, and more.

The Macy’s category alone comes with 266 deals, including $25 off a $100 Tommy Hilfiger order, free shipping on any Clinique order, 30% off Carlos Santana handbags, and more. Clicking on the deal will give you a shopping code and take you directly to the site, or it will take you to the sale site where the discount is already applied.

It looks like Freebies is a combination of deals designed exclusively for Groupon—like Best Buy and Toys R Us, which come with coupon codes—and a curation of sales going on at other big retailers—like Macy’s, whose sales you could also just access by going directly to the site.

“We want to save customers money everywhere they shop — whether it’s their local coffee shop or a large department store,” said SVP of global marketing Rich Williams, in a statement. “With top brands, a huge selection and exclusive offers, Freebies is another reason to always check Groupon first.”

Freebies is a pretty stark departure from Groupon’s traditional holiday store, Grouponicus, which has typically focused more on local commerce with a few exceptions, such as the 2010 store, which featured a $5 for $10 download of Rihanna’s then-new album LOUD. Back then, deals included things like $125 for a three-month wine and food club membership, $22 for an assorted 24-cookie gift box from Insomnia Cookies, $50 for $110 worth of services from Salon Rouge, and more. Or $35 for $70 worth of holiday merchandise at Tree Classics and $125 for a $209 skydiving jump.

Curating big brand sales seems kind of…cheap. RetailMeNot is already doing a pretty solid job at curating sales. But it could be part of Groupon’s “pull” strategy to draw customers in and encourage them to search for deals, rather than pushing deals through email. 

Groupon did channel its snark of yore with a couple of deals that remind us all why we fell in love with Groupon in the first place: one Groupon deal for free tap water, and one deal for a brisk walk (but not too brisk, just brisk enough).