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.