The announcement came as LiveDeal said it finished integrating the ecommerce platform of ModernEveryday onto the LiveDeal.com platform. The move, which will allow LiveDeal to offer a wide variety of consumer products, including many currently found on ModernEveryday, points to how mobile is driving a broadening of services by many sectors.

“Flash deals made a comeback during the holiday season, according to BDO,” said Jeff Hasen, CEO of Gotta Mobilize, a Seattle marketing consulting firm. “I’m surprised given that we’re moving toward more personalization and flash deals generally cater to the masses. But mobile is the place for these type of offers given the more impulse buying on mobile and the ability to gauge inventory and fire up a quick deal,” he said.

LiveDeal did not respond to media inquiries.

Sales opportunities
In a press release, LiveDeal said carrying much of ModernEveryday’s inventory would allow for multiple exposure, increased visibility and multi-channel sales opportunities.

ModernEveryday home page on mobile Web site.

The integration of inventory would help increase sales as the move capitalizes on the loyalty of customers from both sites, Jon Isaac, LiveDeal’s CEO, was quoted in the release.

Providing multiple savings opportunities on LiveDeal.com will serve to increase its customer base and competitiveness in the market, he said.

LiveDeal’s deal engine connects merchants and consumers via a platform that uses geo-location, enabling businesses to communicate real-time and instant offers to nearby consumers.

In July, LiveDeal sped up its discount-serving engine to meet consumers’ growing demand for fast restaurant offers.

The company re-engineered its iOS application to enable it to serve deals in many cases in only a few milliseconds.

The update was in line with research showing that mobile has increased the public’s expectations from service industries such as restaurants.

The app upgrade reflects how mobile has given smaller restaurants and merchants a powerful tool to help them compete with big chains who are investing in digital ordering.

LiveDeal recently expanded its reach to offer real-time restaurant deals online and on mobile devices in 50 U.S. cities, up from its original campaign of 35 cities.

With a number of different online coupon and offer services already available to consumers and restaurants, LiveDeal hopes to cut through the clutter by eliminating the voucher that is traditionally needed to redeem deals.

LiveDeal is part of a growing number of online delivery services available to both consumers and merchants. Research from xAd and Telmetrics last year found that mobile represents 50 percent of restaurant searches.

As more big chains look to leverage mobile and digital ordering, these kinds of online ordering services are becoming more appealing to local restaurants and merchants to stay competitive.

Another option
LiveDeal’s growth has implications for geo-location mobile marketing as the lifeblood for restaurants and how best for them to communicate offers to local consumers.

LiveDeal app.

“The more content LiveDeal can manage the more consumer traffic it will generate,” said Sheryl Kingstone, Toronto-based research director for Yankee Group. “LiveDeal is trying to differentiate themselves in the marketplace by easing friction to purchase.

“However, if they don’t have the content then they will not maintain relevance in the eyes of the consumer,” she said. “The question will be how different will the merchandise be on LiveDeal versus going direct to ModernEveryday?”

Final Take
Michael Barris is staff reporter on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York.