What is Group Buying?

Said to be a trend setter and 2011 top technology prediction, group buying is something to look out for during the course of the year.

The premise behind group buying is the purchasing of goods online where consumers band together to get better deals. So effectively, a number consumers would stand together and “bid” to order a number of copies of a specific product (bulk purchase) in hopes that the seller would offer a discount or reduced rate because of the bulk purchase. It’s very much an offline world action turned to online and it’s going to be massive.

The whole social trend online has grown in leaps and bounds over the past several years. Before this, we’d buy something online by reading about the product, now with a quick message, we can find out what our friends think about the product and make a more calculated decision. Imagine this scenario: you’re on a shopping site, looking at a specific product and the site shows you all your Facebook friends who have bought the product as well – you can then consult these friends quickly to find out whether it’s worth buying the product. That’s awesome, isn’t it? Buying online will become “safer” than buying offline, because of the ease of getting opinions.

Now, combine the scenario that I’ve just explained with group purchasing and you’ll be getting products you literally know you’ll enjoy and you’ll be getting them at a lower rate – bonus!

Groupon is a company founded during November 2008 and is now valued at over a billion dollars. Groupon was the first (I think) and is the biggest group buying website on the Internet – it does the whole deal-a-day approach, where each day a product is sold at a highly reduced rate and thousands of consumers can purchase it. There are a number of other websites doing the same thing and we’ll be sure to see many many more in the year ahead.