Groupon Redesigns Website for First Time in Five-Year History
By Seth Fiegerman 2013-11-01 04:05:52 UTC
Groupon is getting a facelift just in time for its fifth birthday.
The daily deals service announced Friday that it has overhauled the look and functionality of its website for the first time since it launched in November 2008. The site, which has received the occasional tweak over the years, has now been rebuilt from the ground up with entirely new code, new search and browse options and perhaps most noticeably at first, a new color. Groupon green is out, replaced by a plain white background.
"The original site was designed for a deal of the day and the new site is designed for a marketplace," Jeff Holden, Groupon's SVP of product management, told Mashable in a recent interview. The web redesign has been in the works for about a year.
See also: Groupon Pivots Further From Daily Deals With Upscale Restaurant Reservations
When users visit Groupon now, they will see a spotlighted deal followed by personalized collections of deals and a left-hand navigation menu, which lets users browse deals by category. There is now a search option featured prominently at the top — long overdue — which finally lets users search for keywords across categories. For example, someone looking for sushi would be shown restaurant deals, as well as deals for sushi classes and merchandise.
Groupon is also rolling out a set of new features across its mobile apps with the goal of improving deal discovery on the go. Groupon is introducing geofencing, which means users can opt to receive push notifications about deals when they enter a new city. Users now also have the option to favorite deals on mobile, though not yet on the web.
These improvements to the browsing experience are largely a response to the changing habits of users who rely less and less on emails to discover deals and more on direct visits to the website and apps.
Images: Mashable, Christina Ascani, Groupon
Topics: Apps, Apps and Software, Business, Groupon