Why Online group buying is working?

The online group buy phenomenon is hard to miss. As the economy continues to challenge consumers, shoppers are started to feel depression. Society still want to spend and still want the good quality's items, but not in a high cost. Value – not to be confused with cheap product or low prices – has become extremely important.  Value-driven online group buys have changed the way we purchase, the value-driven economy is unavoidable. Here is a online group buying info graphic to show that why online group buying is working.

A successful group buying experience does not end once it’s published online. The discounted pricing is the essence of online group buying sites provides strong motivation for consumers to actively seek out such cheap deals. Besides that, smart marketers who control the power of group deals, use the promotion as an opportunity to create new customers, gain loyal regular customers and eventually bring people back to the store or online in the future. And they might be spend more money or maybe even at full price. This is a win-win situation between both sides.

Why Buyers Win

Save money

Most sellers offer deep discounts if they can sell in mass. By starting a group buying, buyers can enjoy near wholesale prices without having to buy more than what they need.

No need to wait for sales

Unlike traditional sales, you can simply ask for a discount when you want one. With group buying, sellers are more likely and willingly to cut prices since they’re selling in high mass.

Why Sellers Win

Customers helps advertise business

Group buying gives buyers a huge motivation to spread the word so others can join in. This word-of-mouth advertising is like icing on the cake for your business.

Be able capture  more new customers

Group buying can potentially pull in new customers. Instead of acquiring one customer at a time, group buying let sellers get an entire group of customers.

Adrian,N. (2011, November 10). Group Buying – The Latest Trend Online. Retrieved February 28, 2012, From Access: http://www.wazua.co.ke/inner.aspx?sec=groups&aid=74

The Pros of Online Group Buying for Businesses

There are benefits of Online Group Buying for businesses people. As in the businesses people will get advantages of doing Online Group Buying. Else, what is the purpose of the businesses people doing that?

By using the technique of online group buying, businesses people can push away their old stocks or old models stocks from their company. Some of the old stocks will not have people purchase because there is new models to replace it and people tend to look for the latest product but not old version product. So, businesses people can use the technique of online group buying to push away their old stocks by having some discounts and promotions, or vouchers. For example, few outlets of Secret Recipe has not much businesses during 6pm to 10pm and the cakes in their refrigerator cannot store for more than a day. Secret Recipe can come out with a voucher or promotion that only valid for 6pm to 10pm and only for cake, maybe buy one free one? Or maybe buy one and the second one has 30% discount offer? Depends on the company. Then, Secret Recipe can fill the seats and at the same time, Secret Recipe can clear the cakes during the cold timing.

Besides that, by using the technique of online group buying, it is still profitable for businesses. Why said so? Let's say maybe Tenji has promotion on online group buying and the price is only RM40 and the normal price is RM66. The company is still earning because consumer probably can eat for RM20 plus only. Therefore, online group buying is a smart choice. Other than that, another example is Tenji, they gave consumer 20% discount offer, and when consumer bring the first friend to dine in, then the consumer will get 30% discount offer and the friend will get 20% discount. Then the flow comes like that, a person bring a person and another person bring another person. That's the benefits for the businesses by using the technique of online group buying.

Poll analysis 3

There are a lot of benefits of online shopping, you can better compare product features, retailer prices, and read product reviews from other customers, instead of only hearing of a sales clerk. However some of the people will think online buying is troublesome. Due to gain a better understanding how our readers think about online group buying, so we thought of asking our readers what is their opinion and how they think about online group buying.

The pie chart above shows that there are 25 readers who participated in our poll question.  The result shows that 20 people response that online group buying is convenient. One of our reader response that she absolutely love shopping online. She really likes to take advantage of discounts and items that aren't available in store. Plus, she is kind of an awkward person who can be easily swayed by sales associates, so she will prefer more to buy things in online. Besides that, 4 people out of 25 people response that online group buying is troublesome. They think if they purchase item in online, it will be a long delivery and they didn’t trust online group buying sites. Other than that, only one of them response he doesn’t like cheap deals.

马来西亚人民最爱的团购网(podcast)

Transcript
             想要得到只需付20令吉就能得到价值40令吉的寿司礼券，还有一张超过50%折扣的洗车礼券吗？现在许多网站都有这些优惠。消费者往往在网站选购物品时都拿不定主意，所以在此为消费者推荐在全马最值得信赖的网站。以下就是为大家分析在大马最出名的团购网。


             首先，为大家介绍的团购网是高朋。高朋是在美国以及马来西亚团购网的首领。高朋的集体购买力，利用其庞大的用户群，通过日常电子邮件发送购买优惠组，对当地的服务和产品提供巨大的折扣。一个读者在我的文章发表评论说，高朋的服务是很好的，他们给了很好的和即时的回应，非常有效率和信息答复。比其他的团购网站，高朋只需几秒钟的时间就能够把整个网页打开。


              第二受欢迎的团购网站，是买和我。虽然买和我仍然只在马来西亚的有限存在，但这个网站是独一无二的，它通过社会网络促进其日常交易，如面子书和推特。接下来是的社会购买，它依赖于电子邮件营销，以促进他们的日常交易，展示当地的产品和服务，从食品，保健品的特殊优惠。这个网站还有一个优点，那就是和朋友提到此网站的用户，就可得到十令吉的socialbucks。


               另一个团购网站是生活社交。它与高朋非常类似，它也对当地的服务和产品提供巨大的折扣以便吸引用户去购买其产品。最后一个团购网站是价格皇，它是网上流行的群体之一。价格皇与其它团购网站都大同小异。它可能是流行和著名的其他团购网站，但它提供了一些非常有用的推荐和评论每天的交易，使消费者能作出明智的购买决策。


Original Translation

Do you want to get RM40 worth of sushi for only RM20 today and a voucher of more than 

50% discount for car washing tomorrow? Maybe you would like to ask where it is and 

how to enjoy the deal. Nowadays many new online group buying sites are springing up every day. Consumer are often confuse over their decision on purchasing goods in which online group websites. Thus, I provide you the best website Malaysian trust. Here is the short list of some of the top grossing online group buying websites.

The firstly online group buying site i want to talk about is Groupon. It is the leader of online group buying site in US and Malaysia now.Groupon harnesses the collective buying power of its large user base to offer huge discounts on local services and products via their daily email delivered group buying deals. One of the reader commented in my article and said that Groupon servicing is good, they gave very good and immediate respond, very efficient and informative reply. And it takes only few seconds to load the websites which it's very much faster than other online group buying websites.

The second popular site is Buy with me. Although BuyWithMe still only has a limited presence in Malaysia, but this site is unique in that it promotes its daily deals through the social web like in Facebook and Twitter. Next is the SocialBuy, it relying more on email marketing to promote their daily deals, showcases special deals on local products and services from food to health products. A nice added bonus that this website offers is a $10 credit in SocialBucks for every friend referred to the service.

Another sites that Malaysian usually will visit is Livingsocial. It very similar to Groupon, it also offer huge discounts on local services and products. Lastly Pricebunch also is the one of the popular online group buying site.Much like the other group buying websites, Pricebunch offers some fantastic deals. It might be not popular and famous as others group buying website but it offers up some very useful testimonials and reviews for each daily deal so that consumers can make an informed purchasing decision.

團購的程序 (podcast)

Transcript:

大家好！今天我要在這和你們分享團購的程序。有一部分的人應該還不是很了解團購的意思，所以我相信他們也可能不知道該如何團購。以下是我終結起來的步驟，聼了之後你們就會明白該如何購買超值的物品和服務。

第一： 瀏覽一些團購的網站。

尋找你們所要的物品或者是服務以滿足你的需求。此外，你也必須注意該公司的條款和條件。

第二：註冊一個屬於你的戶口

這個是方便該公司記錄下你的個人資料如姓名，地址，電話等等。

第三：付款方法

團購公司都是以網上付款來交易。這是因爲要方便大衆，讓他們可以舒舒服服的在家裏享受購物的樂趣。這不像傳統的購物方式以一手交錢，一手交貨來進行了。大家可以使用網上轉帳或者是信用卡來進行交易。是不是很方便？

最後大家只需要把所購買的優惠卷給打印出來，然後就可以享用其優惠。簡單吧！

祝大家購物愉快！

Translation:
Hello everyone! I'm here to share with you about the procedures of online group buying today. Minority of you don't know what is online group buying, so i believe that they might not knowing how to shop for online group buying. The following are the steps that I have conclude, you will be clear to get the valuable goods and services  after hearing this from me.


1. Surf some of the online group buying sites
Search for the goods or services to satisfy your need. Other than that, you need to look at the company's rules and regulation too. 


2. Sign up your own account
This helps the company to save your personal details like your name, address, contact etc.


3. Payment method
Those online group buying company deal via online payment. This is convenient to all the people out there, because they can relax at home and enjoy shopping. It is not like the tradition way of doing business by cash on delivery. Everyone can use online transaction or even credit card to make the payment. Isn't it convenient? 


Lastly, you guys just need to print out the coupon and enjoy the deal. That simple!


Happy Shopping to everyone!

网上团购的好处

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Transcript:

大家好！今天我要讲的题目是网上团购的好处。比起一个人出外购物，现在的人都会选择网上团购。为什么呢？一定有什么背后的原因是我们不知道的。其实，网上团购带了很多好处给消费者。

第一，  方便。消费者只要坐在电脑前面，再用滑鼠按按几个按钮，就可以得到自己想要的东西了，多方便！根本就不需要担心没有位子停车，天气很热，下雨等等。消费者就坐在电脑前面，风扇就在那头顶上，再按按几个按钮。此外，购买了过后，你还可以印出优惠传票，然后再用传票购买更便宜的东西。

第二，  便宜。消费者能够以便宜且合理的价钱购买到自己想要拥有的东西。由于那些存货都是直接从发展商得来的，所以价钱很便宜。

第三，  可以避免人群。有些人很害怕拥挤的人群，或者一些人不喜欢在拥挤人群的情况下购物，那么网上购物就是他们的救星了。网上购物可以避免人群，消费者只需要躲在家里，舒舒服服的对着电脑就可以购物了。

第四，  品种很多。网上购物不只是物品，也有时尚的，例如彩妆，理发，修甲。还可以有课程的，例如烹饪班，瑜伽班等等。

第五，  有明确的资料。消费者从网上团购可以知道很多明确的资料。此外，还有图片附上。另外，还有公司的电话号码，公司的分行等等。

第六，  场合礼品。从网上团购，消费者可以很简单的购买礼品，因为人们总是想不通要买什么礼物给周围的亲戚朋友。但是在网上团购总是有场合礼品的优惠，消费者就很轻松的买到礼品，例如新年就会卖礼篮，情人节就会卖巧克力和玫瑰花等等。这一些，都会以合理的价钱来卖。

你看，网上团购是不是很多好处呢？出街？不需要了！


Original Translation:

Hi everyone! Today the topic I want to talk about is online group buying. Comparing with going out for shopping, people nowadays will choose to shop by online group buying. Why? There must be a reason hidden which we don’t know. Actually, online group buying brings a lot of advantages to the consumer.

First, convenient. Consumer just need to sit in front of computer, click few clicks with the mouse then they can get what they wish to have, how convenient! Don’t have to worry about no place for parking, the weather is hot or raining. Consumers just need to sit in front of computer, with the ceiling fan on top, with a few clicks. Besides, after they purchase, consumer still can print out the vouchers to purchase cheaper things.

Second, cheap. Consumer can buy things that they wish to buy with cheap price.  Due to the reason of direct getting stock from the manufacturer, so the price is cheaper.

Third, can avoid of crowd. Some of the people are afraid of crowd, or some of the people don’t like to shop in the crowd. Then, online group buying is their savior. Online group buying can avoid of crowd. Consumers only have to stay at home, facing the computer stay comfort to make purchase.

Forth, varieties. Online group buying not only selling product but there is also fashions such as make up, hair styling, manicure. There is also classes such as cooking class or yoga class.

Fifth, details information. Consumer has a lot of details information from online group buying. Other than that, there is also some photos to show. Other than that, there is also the telephone number of company, company’s outlet and many more.

Sixth, occasion gift. From online group buying, consumer can buy gift easily because people always don’t know what to buy for their friends and family. But from online group buying, there is some occasion gift and seasonal promotion for example they will sell hamper during Chinese New Year and they will sell roses and chocolate during Valentine’s Day. These will also sell with a reasonable price.

Look! Is there a lot of advantages of online group buying? Walking out the street? You don’t have to.

Poll analysis (week 2)

As for the result of our poll question this week, we've come out with a pie chart. The poll question is How do you know the latest deals in online group buying websites and there are 4 options for them to choose. The options are through email, through visit the site, through phone and through social networking sites. The reason why we prepare this poll question because we wanted to know how and where the readers get to know about the latest deals from online group buying sites. 

The results show that there are only 10 readers who participated in our poll. According to the pie chart shown above, most of them know the deals through email because 4 out of 10 readers vote for this. The remaining 6 readers are equally vote for visit the site and social networking sites. For those who choose to visit the sites to get updated deals means they might be the regular customers of online group buying. Other than that, the rest of them might looking around to search for good deals. 

The procedures of online group buying

When we are buying any stuff out there, it is just require simple steps which you can just pay and go. As for online group buying, the buying process might be slightly different when compare to normal buying process.


1. View the deals that  you are interested from any online group buying sites.
- This is the time when you get to know what you will get from the good deals with the affordable price. Other than that, you need to know how long do the deals is going on and the redemption period. Do check the requirements and rules carefully.


2. Sign up an account.
- You need to sign up an account for yourself in order to purchase deals from any of the online group buying sites. This step is pretty simple because you just need to fill in your personal details and get started to buy!


3. Proceed to the payment.
- At this stage, you need to choose your payment method. For online group buying, you need to make sure that your bank account can do online transfer or you may have credit card and debit card to make the payment.Moreover, you need to make sure the details of your bank must be correct. 


4. Print the coupon out.
- The final step of the buying process is print out the coupon of the deal and you can now enjoy the deals that you have purchase. 


HAPPY SHOPPING!

The Future of Online Group Buying

Now, people used to shop online. What about the future? Nobody walk on the department stall? Everyone will just staying at home and facing computers? Who knows? If it is, what about the future of online group buying? Will it be the future for retail?

Online group buying might just be a trend for now or it might be the way that consumers come to expect retailers to sell their services. Anyhow, that has proven to be effective and cheap. Therefore, it is worth to try out for now. Maybe it will producing a much return higher than your traditional print marketing or even your search engine marketing efforts, who knows?

According to a news report on website, it says about the group buying backflash is in full force, heightened recently by skepticism around Groupon's IPO and Facebook's decision to exit part of the deals business. However, this is only the short-sighted, it is still not confirm.

In future, what will be the future of online group buying? It is still under a riddle.

Analysis of the poll question (week 1)

The trend of online group buying with the online coupon business has really trending up in Malaysia nowadays. Most of Malaysian consumers have started to purchase online coupons after being attracted on the discounts offered. Due to this, our group thought it would be great to list out some of the more popular online shopping platforms in the Malaysia and provide readers with a good overview of Malaysia’s online group buying shopping platforms.

There are 15 people vote for the poll question. The result shows that there are 11 people usually visit Groupon when they want to buy stuff in online. Most of them response Groupon is a free online group buying website that offers a different deal on something fun to do, good food, a new experience. It’s basically a gift certificate at a discount. Besides that, Groupon also available in 42 cities so people will choose Groupon as their first preference. There are 3 people prefer Livingsocial and 2 people choose Daily Deals. The people choose Livingsocial and Daily Deals response that Groupon will only make the deal official if a certain number of people purchase it, while LivingSocial and Daily Deals offer the deal regardless of how many people buy it. Compare with Groupon, Livingsocial and Daily Deals, there are no one choose MilkADeal and other sites. We had been asked some of the responders and they response that MilkADeal is not famous and popular as other sites. They couldn't trust the site so they rather choose the popular group buying sites to purchase their goods.

Top 5 online group buying websites

Online group buying (tuangou), became popular in China as early as 2005. China consumers formed groups that would bargain for goods ranging from household supplies to automobiles. At that time, more than 2,000 online group buying sites were already competing aggressively in a highly saturated market so in this week i had analysis some of the popular online group buying websites to help consumer have a mutual understanding of the viral nature of this coupon phenomenon. I thought it would be helpful to provide a short list of some of the top online group buying websites.

Groupon


This is the original group buying and coupon website that sparked it all. Due to its fantastic funding, Groupon offers the most local deals in the most cities across the US, thus making it the most popular option. An added plus of Groupon is that someone can purchase Groupons for their friends or buy gift certificates as well turning this service into a very nice gift option.

BuyWithMe


Although BuyWithMe still only has a limited presence in the US, this site is unique in that it promotes its daily deals through the social web. In addition, and to the advantage of local merchants, this service cancels any deals if the business promoting it does not obtain the sales volume or numbers that it requires.

SocialBuy


SocialBuy, relying more on email marketing to promote their daily deals, showcases special deals on local products and services from food to health products. A nice added bonus that this website offers is a $10 credit in SocialBucks for every friend referred to the service.

Living social


Very similar to Groupon, Livingsocial assembles large online groups of people to leverage the collective bargaining power to obtain unbeatable deals and discounts on local products and services.

PriceBunch


Much like the other group buying websites, Pricebunch offers some fantastic deals. It might be not popular and famous as others group buying website but it offers up some very useful testimonials and reviews for each daily deal so that consumers can make an informed purchasing decision.

The Tips of Online Group Buying

Why people used to shop online with a group of people? There must be reasons. It might be some people who just shop without thinking rationally. Maybe they just buy because they think it is worth. Or maybe they just buy the product following the popularity.

Now, we're here to share the tips of online group buying. Shop rationally, think twice before you buy the product.

1. Think carefully, count smartly.
Think twice and calculate, is that really a good deal? Consumer can do some research by asking friends and family around or went somewhere to find out. Because we won't know the actual price of the product. But just because they stated there 50% offer, people believes it. But it might be the seller purposely raise up the actual price and says that it was a promotion, so that people believe it and they are earning. It is not possible that the seller do this but they are losing money. It might be possible they do this way for advertising their product, who knows? Therefore, consumer has to find out the truth and the actual price of the product before they decide to purchase.


2. Read the find print carefully and contact the merchant.
Some of the deal has terms and conditions on their fine print such as "only valid on weekdays" or "3 days in advance is required for appointments". Every different deal has different terms. Consumer has to read carefully then only decide wants to deal or not. Some of the deal does not written the information correctly or does not written information on their fine print. Therefore consumer has to take action to contact the merchant to find out whether how it actually works.


3. Beware of the numbers of buyers and be flexible with redemption dates.
Some of the company will set the limited numbers of buyers so that they would not be over purchase and they can handle they job. Imagine if there are 1000 consumer have bought the voucher and they voucher are only valid for 3 months. The company might be full of booking everyday and the voucher will be useless. Hence, consumer has to beware of the numbers of buyers and also the date of expires.


4. Beware of phishing sites.
Be careful with phishing or fake websites that  looks like a real group buying website. The phishing sites might cash out your money indirectly through paying transaction.