What is Group Buying?
The underlying principle of group buying is "consumers can get better deals if they purchase a certain product / service in large numbers". Group buying is also known as collective bargaining, where 'consumers' form a member base / group through a group buying website and then this bulk group buying power is used to get good bargain / discounted deals from merchants for bulk customers and the benefit of these discounted deals is passed back to the group members.
Some leading group buying websites in India
In India, there are several group buying websites that offers discounted deals to customers in different product and services categories. Below are some of the leading ones:
Category – Products and services deals
Snapdeal.com is the largest and most popular group buying site in India which offers discounted deals in lifestyle products, apparels, dining, health and beauty, salons and spas, luxury products, cameras, recreation, entertainment, mobiles, apparel, electronics, books, movies, computers, sports, travel, cosmetics, kitchen and other home appliances etc. where the discounts offered range from around 25% to 90%. The subscription process is very simple and you just need to enter your email, mobile and select your city and you are done. You can register by clicking here. Based on the city you live in they send you a daily email with new deals in that city. The registration for all group buying websites is free. Infact some websites also give you incentives like Rs 100 off on first deal or 1st deal free to join them.
Dealsandyou.com is headquartered in Gurgaon and is a part of Group Buying Global AG. They operate in India as well as in the international market. Like Snapdeal, Dealsandyou.com also brings you discounted deals on various products and services on a daily basis through email based on the city that you live in. The registration process for this website is also very simple and its free. You can subscribe by clicking here.
Timesdeal.com is a group buying portal of the Times of India Group. Timesdeal also brings you discounted deals on various products and services.
Crazeal.com is a part of GROUPON Inc and was formerly known as SoSasta.com. Groupon is the world leader in group buying websites category. It offers products, services and travel deals at discounted rates to its customers.
Mydala.com is one of the very early entrants in the group buying space and started in 2009. The company is based in Delhi. Among other prominent investors in the company one of them is Infoedge India (owners of naukri.com). Mydala brings you daily discounted deals on products and services through email based on the city that you live in. Registration requires email, mobile, password, city etc.
Dealhojaye.rediff.com is a group buying portal of Rediff.com that offers daily deals to its customers. It offers daily deals on dinning, beauty care and other lifestyle products and services.
Category – Travel deals
Lushtrip.com also offers discounted deals to its customers like the above mentioned group buying websites. But Lushtrip.com is an online travel deal specialist portal that offers regular discounted travel deals to its customers. Travel categories include – luxury hotels, resorts, weekend getaways and short vacations for locations all across India.
Category – Home Buying
Homebuyerscombine.com or HBS helps people who are interested in purchasing a home in Pune city. The interested buyers have to provide their requirements on the website such as – location, number of rooms, area in sq feet and price range etc. These requirements are compiled and collated for creating buyers clusters. HBC then approaches the respective developer with these clusters and negotiates on behalf of the buyers for substantial price discount which could be in the range of 10-20% of the market price of the flat. The benefit to developers is that they get a onetime booking of large number of units.
How does a group buying website works?
A group buying website promotes certain products or services on behalf of merchants at a discounted price. The customers in order to avail these discounted deals need to first register themselves on these websites. In case of most of the websites the registration requires very minimal information like name, city, email address and mobile number and the registration process can be completed within a minute.
You can then choose to 'buy' these deals and make payments via a debit card / credit card / net banking / cash on delivery based on the options available. The group buying website then sends the vouchers to you through e-mail and SMS. The deal needs to be availed within a specific period which is generally 1 to 3 months.
Conclusion
Group buying is a win-win for all the three parties involved – customers, merchants and group buying website. These group buying sites are user friendly and once the user registers himself, he gets daily updates on new deals being offered through email. These sites are extremely useful for the individuals who want to avail best of services but at lower than market prices.
Thank you for giving details about group buying, it is very interesting............
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