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.