Groupon grapples with soaring shipping costs as it enters Amazon’s turf

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By Gavin van Marle

19/05/2014

Here’s the paradox – the volume of online retail sales is growing at an astonishing pace, and as a result so are the transport and logistics costs of fulfilling those orders; but the rub is that free delivery remains a key determinant in whether a consumer will complete an online purchase. So, if retailers want to grow market share, they have to soak up those escalating costs and margins get hit. This was the message from Groupon’s first quarter results.

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