Dive Brief:

• Groupon has launched Groupon Stores, marketplace storefronts run by other brands that promise to offer their goods through Groupon at a minimum 5% discount compared to anywhere else online.

• The move resembles the company’s year-old self-serve tool for local businesses to offer Groupon deals without a Groupon representative in between.

• The company is seeing more of its growth increasingly come from its $2 billion Groupon Goods business, a marketplace directly selling a number of consumer goods.

Dive Insight:

Groupon seems to be slowly — but steadily — inching away from its original deal-by-email approach to face customers directly. It does remain dedicated to the lowest-price-anywhere approach, and that’s a differentiator at a time when Amazon isn’t that guy anymore. At least, that is, until Jet.com, which has similarly said it would have the lowest prices on the web, launches later this year.

“Their focus on the value-oriented buyer and having the best price on the Internet is an interesting approach that fits their brand,” e-commerce solutions company ChannelAdvisor CEO Scot Wingo told Re/Code. “While we don’t support the new Groupon Stores, we are keeping a close eye on it to see if it gets traction with buyers and merchants.”