A new deal website has launched aiming to give massive discounts on a range of items, provided enough people agree to take up the deal.
Groupola says that “group buying power” will enable it to offer huge savings on certain items, and claims to be revolutionary, although the idea of getting lots of buyers together to drive down prices has been done on the internet in the past (although interestingly it doesn’t appear to have hit the mainstream in the past).
Here’s how Groupola will work:
- Every day, Groupola.com will feature a fantastic deal in each of the eight cities it is launching in. The deals will occasionally be national in terms of reach, but predominantly regional and city-specific, to really harness the community saving aspect
- If enough people commit to the deal, the company offering it will honour the deal, which will be anything from 50-90% off full price
The website is offering huge exclusive discounts to people in eight cities across the UK, namely London, Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, Brighton, Bristol, Cardiff and Edinburgh.
Virgin
Groupola.com has partnered with Virgin Balloon Flights to offer users more than 50% off a four hour hot-air balloon experience, including a Champagne toast and merchandise including Sir Richard Branson’s ‘Losing My Virginity’ autobiography. Virgin Balloon Flights would normally cost £299 each – but with Groupola.com’s Group Buying Power, as long as 25 people commit to the deal, consumers pay just £149. If less than 25 people commit, the deal does not go ahead, and no money passes hands.
Group buying power is definitely an interesting concept, but does of course require several people to be interested in the same product you’re looking for for it to work – so Groupola will have to ensure that a large enough number of people are seeing each deal to generate the necessary numbers.
Viral
It has been suggested that these type of sites are one big marketing ploy to get the deals to go viral – with a low number of users required to sign up to deals, they rarely get dropped, but if it’s a good deal it will be emailed / Tweeted / Facebooked around friends, family and followers to ensure it gets taken up, and before you know it the retailer has generated hundreds of sales rather than just the 50 they say is necessary for the deal to go through.
Geography
London seems to be popular for other group buying sites, with several popping up recently, such as Wowcher, VouchTogether and MyPiggyBack, along with LikeBees which is due to launch soon. All seem to centre around London with deals promised in other cities “coming soon”, presumably when they work out whether they’re going to get enough interest in each city.
The website is the brainchild of retail expert Mark Pearson, whose discount voucher code website www.MyVoucherCodes.co.uk is a leading discount site in the UK. More than 11 million people currently use MyVoucherCodes.co.uk to save money every month, with Brits saving £52m throughout 2009 alone thanks to the online and printable discounts available through the site.
Actually the idea comes from http://www.groupon.co.uk which launched 2 years ago in north america.
So its not the brainchild of retail expert Mark Pearson….he copied the concept like many others are currently doing.
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I have had some truly great deals from group buying sites, including Groupola! I stumbled upon this site yesterday, loads of group buying deal here http://www.dealromeo.co.uk
This is great news! the more sites we have available the better for the consumers!
Just noticed UK Daily Deals as well – http://www.ukdailydeals.co.uk
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I’m not so sure about those group buying sites as the sites often oversell the offers they have and then it becomes a problem to even secure an appointment.
I prefer general voucher code and special offer sites such as http://www.mrbestdeal that hand select deals to offer the public.
I’m not so sure about those group buying sites as the sites often oversell the offers they have and then it becomes a problem to even secure an appointment.
I prefer general voucher code and special offer sites such as http://www.mrbestdeal.com that hand select deals to offer the public.
I’ve already made a formal complaint to ASA and they will investigate Groupola, 10 Yatis PR&MKT company and Mark Pearson. Mark Pearson posed as one of winning buyers of the iphone on the fan page in the Facebook- when questioned by other FB users – his profile was deleted from the Groupola fan page minutes later. I denounced 10 Yatis and Mark Pearson in the Groupola’s Facebook page and they blocked my comments. ASA is very good to investigate scam and fraud cases within days. Groupola needs to prove that they have 200 definite buyers. I’m now blocked from Groupola’s Facebook page – so much for freedom of speech and shopping!
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Hi Rob,
Thought you might be interested in a new site we’ve set up to track all these sites and more! We’re a bit different to other aggregators as we list both group buying sites like Groupon and Living Social; along side “traditional” daily deals sites like GrabItNow and HereForADay.
We’ve been operating a similar site in Australia for the last year and get plenty of positive feedback.
Hope some of your readers find it useful too. You can find us at .. allthedeals.co.uk
Also check out other websites lke WorldofDeals who hand picks the deals rather than being an aggregator that automatically selects the best deals.
Wonder how many of these companies will still be around in 5 years time? Many spend a fortune on marketing trying to build the brand but as the marketplace becomes more and more cluttered with clones only a few will ultimately ever produce a positive return.
What’s the point of messing around with all these aggregation and affiliate sites so that they get a commission?
Just sign up to Groupon and get the deals directly from them.
To the post above the answer is easy as the aggregators i use dont have really annoying pop ups on their website like groupon and are also profitable giving me peace of mind when buying from them, unlike groupon that lost $147 million in the last 3 months.
Groupon still stands out far in front as the leading of these daily deal sites that’s why most of the other sites mentioned here are nothing but clones and affiliates!
It is obvious recently that Groupon arent niche and dont cater for the smaller retailers who need to limit the deal a bit.
The smaller niche companies like http://www.savvymummys.co.uk are springing up to take advantage of these companies. They work in the local business environment really trying to help market smaller businesses and are constantly striving to save money for families everywhere.
There is still an incredible amount of room to grow!
If you are interested in the latest information about the group buying industry, join the first European Daily Deal Event http://ddsummiteurope.co.uk. You will find out the latest industry forecasts and will see top executives of the industry on stage.
It can be hard to find the niche sites but there are lots out there. From sites targeted at Startups and travel to families.
One site you must take a look at is http://www.littlebird.co.uk who offer premium deals for families across the UK.