Groupon Smart Kiosk Experiment Brings On-The-Spot Deals For Chicago Users

For those who felt that the daily deal market was limited to just a daily email or app, Groupon have come up with a new way to entice non-users to avail of their services and convince them to sign up.

The Chicago Sun Times report that the company has teamed up with SmartDigital LLC, a Chicago startup which specialises in installing web-connected kiosks around the city, to add daily deals to their machines.

The devices, which feature 32- and 46-inch touchscreens, will offer Groupon daily deals, the time and location specific Groupon Now!, and Groupon Getaways travel deals. Groupon will be offering deals relating to the kiosk’s location so theoretically one located beside a basketball stadium may offer a discount on tickets for the next game while one located in the major shopping district could have deals for shoppers.

The deals would be added to the content already appearing on their machines, which include information on entertainment, tourist destinations, news, and weather. The kiosks will feature Groupon ads alongside other ads and content on some kiosks while other machines will be dedicated to featuring only Groupon related content. Users have the option of paying for the deals through credit card or email or Facebook message the deals to themselves for later consideration.

Neither company disclosed financial terms, but so far SmartDigital currently has 30 different kiosks dotted around the city. They are planning to expand this number to 100 by the end of March as well as branch out their service to Miami and New York over the coming months.

The kiosks are designed to help those visiting the city to make their way around and Groupon’s deals could help not only tourists enjoy the city a bit more, but also convince them to sign up to their daily deals. Since it’s the tourism market they’re aiming for, being repetitive with certain deals won’t be as large a concern since the audience will only be in the city for a few days so impressing them with different deals could be the factor that would gain them more users, especially if it’s later rolled out to other U.S. cities.

It’s an experiment that looks like both sides will benefit from: SmartDigital now have a new source of (temporary) revenue that adds to their existing content while Groupon get to experiment with different ways of connecting with a new audience.