Daily deals market leader Groupon (NASDAQ:GRPN) has a new CEO sitting at the helm. CEO Rich Williams has come in firing on all cylinders. Mr. Williams believes the investing world at large does not understand Groupon, and he has an elaborate turnaround plan laid out. He talked about some of the biggest issues dogging Groupon, which have resulted in its stock falling out of favor with investors–Groupon stock is down a stupendous 65% YTD. Williams talked to GeekWire saying:
“We’re misunderstood by analysts. We’re misunderstood by media. We’re misunderstood by consumers — both those who haven’t visited our site in awhile and those who’ve never purchased from us.”
Williams observed that Groupon “scaled too far, too fast, ” and has promised to streamline the company’s international operations. Groupon recently exited Scandinavia, having previously exited India, South Korea, Turkey, Greece and other international markets.
Williams certainly has a point regarding streamlining Groupon’s international operations. Groupon’s EMEA operations have continued to badly lag the company’s North America operations. During Q3 2015, Groupon’s North America market realized a healthy 12% Y/Y growth in billings to $869 million while revenue grew 11% to $464 million. In contrast, billings in the EMEA region were down 1% Y/Y to $414 million while revenue was up a mere 2% to $199 million. The company’s Rest of the World segment fared even worse, with billings growing an anemic 0.1% to $184 million while revenue was down 5% to $50 million. The Rest of the World segment was responsible for 21% of Groupon’s ($31) million net loss for the quarter despite contributing just 7% to the top line.
The CEO also talked about the need for Groupon to stop chasing low-margin empty calorie e-commerce businesses including the high-revenue low-profit consumer electronics business. Groupon pioneered the daily deals business before other online retailers such as Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) stepped in and placed the company under a lot of pressure. With its daily deals business faltering, Groupon entered the e-commerce marketplace in a bid to keep growing. But the goods business is fraught with many challenges including intense competition and thin margins due to handling large inventories and fulfilling customer orders. It therefore makes sense for Groupon to at least scale down on its goods business in order to allow its razor thin profit margin to improve.
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