Groupon's New Deal: Direct E-commerce

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Groupon launched a direct selling e-commerce initiative today called Groupon Goods. In a commercial email received by ClickZ News, the Chicago-based daily deals player offered four discounted consumer electronics products, as well as an exercise machine. The lead item was an Altec Lansing iPhone/iPod speaker dock for $40, regularly priced at $100. The email was designed like an e-catalog.

According to Groupon spokesperson Julie Mossler, the initiative rolled out nationally in the U.S. after a successful run in the U.K. Each of the handful of products is being offered by a different merchant or manufacturer that will take care of order fulfillment, Mossler explained via an email.

She gave the following prepared statement on Groupon Goods: "Consumers are jumping all over our Goods deals, from Ray Bans that sold out in just a few hours to a huge video game kiosk you'd typically see in an arcade, not someone's home. There's an element of surprise and excitement that's inherently Groupon, and we're having a lot of fun with it."