Groupon Clone Plugin for WordPress Now in Beta

The Instinct team over at GetShopped.org has got something interesting cooking. They’ve written a plugin that essentially clones Groupon functionality for WordPress websites. In case you’re not familiar with the concept, Groupon is a hugely successful deal-of-the-day website that offers localized specials for consumers in major geographic markets around the world.

WordPress Group Deals works with the WP E-commerce plugin and comes with a Group Deals 2010 Child Theme. It will be offered as a premium plugin when the first stable release is ready – projected for the end of January.

WordPress Group Deals features include:

• Tight integration to WP 3.0 (and 3.1) and WPEC 3.8
• New user roles and capabilities for Daily Deal Subscribers
• Custom Post Types used for Vendors, Group Deal Purchases and of course the deal itself.
• AJAX User Registration
• Packaged with a 2010 child theme that is a great starting place for any site (Currently, the basic “Groupon” design)
• Automatically emails site owner, business and consumer when a deal “tips”.

The first stable release will come with a child theme that looks a little less like the Groupon website. The current theme is simply for demonstration purposes.

With this Groupon-styled group deals plugin, you can start promoting your business or your clients with the same kind of functionality that has made Groupon such a huge success. Let your fans know about time sensitive discounts, deals and specials and help to drive your word of mouth exposure.

Why would you want this? Because this is a business model that works and has worked so well that Groupon was able to turn down a $6 billion buyout offer from Google last month. That’s worth looking into. Get the Group Deals plugin right now in beta while it’s still free and give it a test.

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