eBay and Groupon partner to bring you deals

By Laura Khalil October 26, 2010

groupon — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Groupon, a deals site that offers a daily deals on the local goods, services and cultural events in more than 250 markets around the world has announced a national affiliate incentive agreement with eBay .

Visitors to eBay’s Groupon page, will find daily updated deals from Groupon featured throughout the site. Members of the eBay Bucks Rewards Program who purchase Groupon deals from the eBay site earn 5% of the purchase price back in eBay Bucks. Groupon is currently live in more than 100 North American markets and running nearly 200 deals per day; eBay will use geolocation to determine the closest deal for each user.

This is a win-win deal for both companies, giving Groupon access to eBay’s customer base as well as helping eBay create more incentives for its customers to hang around.

Using the principles of collective buying, Groupon negotiates steep discounts with popular businesses and has come out of nowhere to achieve huge growth, with a recent valuation of $1.3 billion for the 2-year old company. Groupon subscribers get free daily emails alerting them to the deals. The deals are activated only when a minimum number of people agree to buy, encouraging subscribers to share the promotion with family and friends. By guaranteeing a large number of new customers, Groupon has created a powerful new marketing vehicle for local merchants. This innovative approach to e-commerce has brought millions of dollars in new revenue to local businesses.

This move is part of eBay’s larger plan to turn its ailing auction site into more of a “one stop shop” for finding deals around the Wweb. Along those lines eBay recently launched a new Deal Finder page which compares the prices of good sold in eBay to others on the Net to find the best deal. In fact, visiting the eBay homepage, you might not realize you were even on an auction site, with a cornucopia of deals and offers being assured to prospective buyers.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Web

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Laura is a tech reporter for Digital Trends, the editor of Dorkbyte and a science blogger for PBS. She's been named one of…

Deals

5 early Prime Day deals you can’t afford to miss at Walmart today

Walmart Prime Day graphic with a screen from Walmart.com.

Amazon's Prime Day deals are set to roll out, but before the retailer officially launches its annual shopping event, competitors like Walmart are trying to draw attention to themselves with their own discounts for all kinds of products. It's highly recommended that you look around, because there's a chance that what you're planning to buy from Amazon on Prime Day is already cheaper elsewhere.

There's no shortage of early Walmart Prime Day deals that you can take advantage of right now -- and you're recommended to do so as there's little chance that the prices will go even lower once Prime Day starts. Whether you're searching for something specific or you're just on the hunt for the best bargains, we've rounded up some of the top offers from Walmart that you won't want to miss. You have to push through with the purchase right away if something catches your eye though, as we're not sure how long these discounts will be online.

Smart Home

Remember Essential? An eBay listing shows shelved speaker prototype

The oft-forgotten Essential Home never officially saw the light of day following Essential's 2020 closure, however, a prototype for the smart device has surfaced on eBay. The Essential Home was a part of the company's planned products that, like Project GEM, were scrapped before Essential eventually shut its doors. Apparently, the smart home speaker got decently far into production as the eBay listing's prototype seems to turn on and work to some degree.

It's unclear just how "finished" the Essential Home prototype is as the listing doesn't clarify if the speaker works or can even connect to a phone, but its value as a functioning speaker isn't exactly why anyone would want to buy it. It serves more as an odd piece of the mobile industry's history than anything else as a monument to the failed company and its controversial leadership.

Deals

You can’t afford to miss this Nest Thermostat Cyber Monday deal

The Nest Learning Thermostat mounted on the wall.

If you want only a single smart home device that will have the most impact on your home, this Nest Thermostat Cyber Monday deal could be the one. It's currently $70 off its normal price
, which means you can grab it for just $180. It's one of the single best Cyber Monday deals in the smart home sphere

Today's best Nest Thermostat Cyber Monday deal