Groupon has a revealed its new face of the health, beauty and wellness category, Favin the Beauty Maven, pointing to the company making a bigger effort in the category, partly with mobile and social.

Consumers can check out Favin?s blog and follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. To celebrate the new maven, consumers can win $50 in Groupon Bucks if they tweet at Favin with a health and beauty trend they want to try in 2014 and include #Favin2014.

?With more than 25 million health, beauty and wellness deals sold on Groupon, we have a strong commitment to the category,? said Julie Szudarek, general manager of Groupon Local, North America. ?So, giving this part of our business a face made perfect sense. 

?Favin is a Groupon employee and understands the Groupon mission, our customers and our merchants,? she said. ?Favin will be the voice of Groupon for the health, beauty and wellness category through her blog and her social presence, and we hope to create an even closer connection to our customers.

?As with every initiative at Groupon, mobile is an integral part of our strategy. Health, beauty and wellness activities are inherently on-the-go activities, and our mobile approach lets customers learn about the latest options wherever they are."
 
Beauty maven
Favin the Maven will share beauty tips and tricks for maintaining health, beauty and wellness without breaking the bank. She will explore trends and treatments and share those on YouTube as well as other social media channels.

In honor of the new maven, Groupon is giving away prizes to consumers that follow @FavintheMaven on Twitter and tweet at her.

Groupon has also established its own Health, Beauty and Wellness Merchant Advisory Board on top of Favin. The advisory board is made up of health, beauty and wellness merchant partners and consultants from across the United States.

The board will provide insight into regional and seasonal trends as well as industry knowledge. The board will both inform Groupon consumers as well as affect what deals Groupon offers on its own site and app.

Groupon?s advisory board currently includes professionals from BLU Salon Aveda, ABQ Hair Studio, Total Med Solutions, Solé Salon & Spa Aveda, Asanda Aveda Spa Lounge, Lux Aveda Salon/Spa, Namaste Pure Designs Salons, Phoenix Management Associates, HeavenGroup and Gary Manuel Aveda Institute.

Health and beauty
It seems that Groupon is making a bigger push into the health and beauty category. Not surprisingly the company is leveraging both mobile and social to forward its efforts in the category.

The company recently expanded its restaurant efforts, updating its app to allow consumers to make, modify and share reservations (see story).

With its beauty maven and advisory board, Groupon will be better stacked in the health and beauty category, allowing it to move forward in a new vertical.

?This year alone, we?ve sold more than 700,000 facials, so we feel there?s an opportunity to serve our customers even more with an expert they can interact with, learn from and share experiences,? Ms. Szudarek said.

Mobile has always played a big role for Groupon since its consumers want to be able to find a deal on-the-go and redeem it easily from their phone.

The company?s stock saw a lot of positive activity this summer, and a lot of that can be attributed to mobile (see story).

?We believe Groupon is one of the first companies of scale to become predominantly mobile in North America,? Ms. Szudarek said. ?We?ve seen tremendous penetration in this space, and we?re a natural fit for this medium. 

?As a result, our mobile business grown to more than 50 percent of North American transactions in September of this year,? she said. ?Over the four-day Black Friday holiday weekend last month, about 55 percent of transactions in North America came from mobile. 

?In addition, we have a five-star mobile app that?s easy to use. It is the perfect solution for the busy on-the-go Groupon customer. We also have easy-to-use merchant mobile applications for serving Groupon customers and for tracking ROI on these customers.?

Final Take
Rebecca Borison is editorial assistant on Mobile Marketer, New York