Groupon Offers $10 Incentive for Mobile App Use

Groupon hopes to accelerate uptake of its mobile applications by offering customers a financial incentive to install and use them. Subscribers who purchase a deal through any of the company’s mobile applications before May 25 will receive $10 worth of credit, which can be redeemed against a future Groupon purchase.

Recently Groupon made steps into the real-time location-based deals market by introducing “Groupon Now” to its smartphone applications. The location aware feature offers users a pair of choices – “I’m hungry” and “I’m bored” – which serve up deals based on the time of day and their location when selected. Following the launch of Groupon Now the company also purchased Pelago, makers of location-based service Whrrl, further demonstrating its interest in on-demand location-based deals.

“Given the local nature of our offers and new products like Groupon Now, our service is especially appealing to mobile users. We’re using this credit to induce the trial of our mobile products,” a spokesperson for the company told ClickZ.

Groupon’s mobile app is available across a range of platforms, including the iPhone and iPod Touch, the iPad, BlackBerry and Android devices, and now for the Windows Phone 7 platform.

The fact that the company feels the need to offer users incentives to use its mobile products may suggest it’s unhappy with the rate at which they’re being adopted. On the other hand, the majority of Groupon’s deals are priced above $10 dollars, perhaps affording to opportunity to attract spend consumers might otherwise have withheld.

The incentive could also help Groupon stand out in an increasingly competitive marketplace. A $10 credit could be enough to sway users towards Groupon and away from competitors such as Living Social, for example.