While it might seem innocuous that Groupon is offering a deal on seafood in Massachusetts, it’s actually the first time the daily deal giant is letting shoppers use supermarket loyalty cards to conduct the transaction, writes Advertising Age’s Jack Neff. Groupon has partnered with two Boston marketing and analytics firms on the test with grocer Big Y, which is offering the deal.

Neff says the move puts Groupon in more direct competition with traditional coupon players in the multi-billion dollar packaged goods marketing space. It also could result in big chains such as Kroger, Safeway and Walgreens driving promotion and acting as conduits for deal syndication across multiple supplier brands and categories.

Neff quotes Tom Schneider, president of Boston marketing firm HaloEffect ^[1]–one of the firms partnering with Groupon, as saying that U.S. consumers spend $550 billion annually on groceries and consumer packaged goods companies spend $35 billion annually on marketing and promotion.

We liked how VentureBeat’s Anthony Ha put it, “Groupon’s plans for world domination seem to be rolling along smoothly.”

Read more at Advertising Age ^[2] and VentureBeat ^[3].