Amazon Local – Groupon Killer?

I pay a lot of attention to things my wife says about business and shopping.  She has a great knack for seeing things in a way that I could never have seen.  She was the one that told me about Birchbox with all of the excitement of a kid on Christmas morning.

Yesterday I walked into the kitchen and was greeted with an enthusiastic pronouncement from her about having just purchased a deal through Amazon Local.  In this case it was a facial or something, I don’t remember the exact item purchased.

It wasn’t the fact that she had found a great deal that had her most excited however.  It was the fact that she was able to buy it through Amazon.  There was no additional account to set up (because we already buy way too much from Amazon), no other hoops to jump through.  It was just simple, and from an already trusted source.

There are people that buy because things are cheap, and they are willing to scour the internet for the best deal.  However, most of the people I know buy on convenience.  The company that creates the least friction wins, in many cases.

With Groupon in potentially serious trouble, Amazon Local has the feel of a real winner in the local deals space.  If history is any indication, when Amazon enters a space they frequently end up on top.

Is Groupon on the way out?  What site do you use most for local deals, if any?  Please leave a comment!