The OfferMe Community: Voting for Group Buy

Nadim Sharbean discusses the results from Week 1 of the Summer Selection.

 

Summer Selection Week 1: Group Buying Gaming & Accessories

Well, a week has passed and our Group Buy Summer Selection has found its first victor. Nearly two hundred people cast their vote, making their voices heard. With the wide range of games and gaming equipment, it was a tough selection. Yet in the end one item stood far ahead of the rest.

Here's how the Group Buy Summer Selection medal table ended up:

 

See Full Details

I'll admit, I'm a tad disappointed. I voted for the item that came in fourth; the game Borderlands on Playstation 3. However I'm also keen on getting FIFA 2010, so I may redirect the Borderlands money to that.

In the end even our suppliers were stunned by the huge demand for the White PS3 Controller. With only 20 in stock, they had to race out and scrounge together whatever other controllers they have available. Luckily for them, most didn't mind the colour. They just wanted the great price on the device! The sale went live yesterday and (at time of posting) 50 had already been sold.

Summer Selection Week 2: Group Buying Household Appliances

This week five new products will go to the polls, all in the household appliance category. Here is a brief run-down of each candidate:

Group Buy – 2 x Bleach Pen Stain Removers:

These bleach pens will make your whites shine again! These pens are great for getting tough stains out of white clothing and off household surfaces. Simply dab with either the pinpoint end or the wide end and rinse it off. Great for those really nasty stains like red wine, coffee rings, mildew and more.

Group Buy – The GoDuster:

This is an electric duster that uses electro-magnetics to help catch dust. Now, I can't quite comment on the GoDuster, but I have used an item exactly like this myself. And I'll say this, they're brilliant! Just point it at the dust and it'll whip it away. The best aspect is you can get this thing into hard-to-reach areas and get to the dust without having to do too much.

Group Buy – Portable Dual Purpose Mini Steam Iron:

This little take-anywhere device is a must have for any frequent traveller. This iron not only does the job of more traditional irons, but it also has a steam 'n brush feature that'll help you clean your garments on the go. Remove the creases from folded up luggage and get that suit or dress ready for a night out!

Group Buy – The Swivel Sweeper:

This is a nifty item that'll make cleaning up little messes even easier. This Sweeper is essentially a powerless vacuum cleaner with 360-degree cleaning movement. What this means is it cleans no matter which way to push it so you never miss a speck of a dust.

Group Buy – Digital Bathroom Scales:

Want to know how harsh Christmas was on you? Well this scale is just the right item. No one likes to step on the scales, but with New Years' resolutions about to take effect, there's no time as the present to start measuring your success. Designed in chic black and taking up to 180kg in weight, these scales are a smart addition to any bathroom.

Seen something you'd like to Group Buy? Then you better make sure you vote for it!

This vote runs 'til midnight Sunday, January 17th, with the winner going on sale the following Tuesday. To see more product details and cast your vote, click here.

Remember: OfferMe is built to cater to the Buyer's voice... So make your voice heard!

The OfferMe Community: Group Buy goes to the Polls

Community Manager, Nadim Sharbean tells you how you'll be getting more control over Group Buy deals.

The People's Choice...
Group Buy Assassin's Creed II

Two Thursday's ago we held a vote for Christmas to tell us which PS3 game you wanted most on Group Buy. On our end there wasn't a big push. A small banner in the daily newsletters and a few mentions on Facebook. And yet the results were massive, with Assassin's Creed II and Tekken 6 going neck-to-neck right down to the wire. Near 150 users chimed in to give us their thoughts and, when it seemed that Tekken had taken the race, a huge surge for Assassin's Creed pushed it over the line.

Here are the final results for the Group Buy vote:

Assassin's Creed II – 56 votes (37%)
Tekken 6 – 46 votes (30%)
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves – 28 votes (18%)
Dragon Age: Origins – 17 votes (11%)
The Saboteur – 6 votes (4%)

Everyone's a Winner with Group Buy...

Well, almost everyone. In the end, the three top games went on sale through Group Buy at the ridiculously cheap price of $49.95. This was even cheaper than a certain gaming companies 'Insider Online 24-hour Discount Bonanza', who advertised at about $10 more. In fact, over 30 people have already joined the Group Buys for Assassin's Creed and Tekken, with Uncharted 2 going live today. I, myself, have joined the Assassin's Creed Group Buy and am seriously thinking about Uncharted as well.

At those prices I can afford two games for Christmas!

The Group Buy Voting will live on...

2010 is going to be a bigger year for OfferMe. There's a lot in the pipeline set to make your experience on our site even more enjoyable. My favourite is our Summer promotion, the Summer Selection. Similar to the past PS3 game vote, we'll be hosting polls on a wide range of categories, allowing you to choose the best products you want on OfferMe. The aim is to keep ensuring we have the Group Buy deals that you're after. Obviously, the most important thing will be your vote! Sure, picking politicians can be tough... But knowing what you want or need for the house etc is easy enough.

So keep your eyes peeled for the Summer Selection, there are bound to be some sizzling deals to start the new year with a bargain!

Make Your Group Buy Voice Heard...

Did you know that OfferMe's Request It service is similar to these Group Buy votes? Simply user the OfferMe search bar to find the product you're after and click 'Register Interest'. When a product has enough interest behind it, our Deal Detectives will do their best to turn it into a Group Buy!

If you don't find the product you're after, list it. Then, whoever else is looking for the product, can also add their support to it.

The OfferMe Community: Group Buy versus the World

Nadim Sharbean compares the Group Buying revolution to the rest of the eRetail world.

Fair's fair: we harp on a bit about our Group Buy service. So today I've decided to look at some of our so called competitors and the things they're offering you...

Billy Corrigan was speaking from a well-wizened view when he penned the lyrics:

“The World is a vampire... Set to drain.”

Dash away thoughts of Twilight and instead focus on the Nosferatu type, with horribly long fangs and sucking the blood of anything that crosses it's path. Then you start to see the type of horrible image Corrigan, the Smashing Pumpkin's frontman, was getting at.

Group Buy Guaranteed

The truth is, the world is full of blood-sucking beasties that'd happily drain our livelihood. And A LOT of them can be found on the 'net. Gone are the days of chain letters received by post, threatening to burn your house if you failed to send $5 and forward the letter. Gone are the days of door-to-door salespersons, just asking for 5 minutes of your time. Gone are the fly-by-night vendors that set up stalls in village malls to pawn off their wares before disappearing with the dusk.

Where'd they go to? The worldwide web; where everything is for sale and every seller's as credible as their pretty flashy images.

Thankfully services like PayPal and Verified by VISA have come along to help offer you some assurance. At OfferMe, we have aligned ourselves with one of the country's biggest banking corporations, Westpac, so you know that we're legit and properly handling all funds. Additionally, all non-Group Buy purchases can be made via PayPal, adding to our credibility. With Group Buy, although PayPal isn't available for the feature, we offer a complete Money Back Guarantee, meaning if you don't get the product you're after, we'll fully refund you!

Group Buy vs Auction Sites

Nowadays though, these steps aren't enough for everyone. Web browsers are smart enough to look out for the score. So what is the score? How does Group Buy match up to other services, such as 'net auctions and penny-bids?

Well, I believe Group Buy stacks up favourably. Don't just take my word for it, let's compare them!

To start off we need understand the basic principle of economics: supply vs demand. For those of us that did some form of Business Studies, Commerce or Economics in high school, we'll all remember that graph our teachers introduced us to on Day 1:



Quite simply, the more that products are supplied, the lower the demand becomes. The inverted relation between the two is the basics of every economic design. It's why our government has done their best to ban monopolies and promote small businesses. In the end, higher competition leads to better benefits for all consumers.

So how does this relate to the 'net?

As the old saying goes: the more things change, the more they stay the same. The supply vs demand module is constantly in practice within online retail world. Yet sometimes it becomes so skewed that we fail to see what's going on.

Take, for example, online auctions. A BluRay Player supplier comes onto one of these sites to sell his item. It's one device and he lists it at a low, low price. Users start to bid and compete against one another for the device. Demand starts to rocket and, because there's technically only one of the device supplied, the price rockets up. In the end the supplier makes a decent enough sale for the item to still be profitable in his book. Also, he's generated interest in his wares, attracting other buyers to his eStore. Most buyers are usually so depressed at missing out on the auction deal, that they'll sate their desire through buying the device at the normal market price. Sound stupid to you? Yeah, well it actually happens. That's why eRetailers all have 'shopfronts' on these auction sites.

With OfferMe's Group Buy though, the supply vs demand module works in economic harmony. The more of our users that want the device, the lower the cost becomes. This price setting process begins before the Group Buy deal is advertised. Through OfferMe's original platform our Deal Detectives see the type of demand our users have for certain items. Then the negotiate prices based around that demand. As most of our users can attest, this usually leads to some favourable savings, up to 85% off the recommended retail prices.

Group Buy vs Penny-Bid Sites

Similar to online auctions, penny-bids are a one product pony; everyone fights it out for a single object. With these sites, users buy credit from the server and then bid the equivalent of one cent on an item. Every time a new bid is made, the price of the item rises. At the end of the auction period, the highest bidder wins. You'll see ads for these sites promoting things like Nintendo Wii's going for a mere $11.32. Which, on the surface, sounds great. What they fail to also openly advertise is that every bid that has been placed is collected! So, if you were second last to bid on that Wii, you spent $11.31 for nothing! Does it still sound that great? If the site feature 20,000 users and each bids up to a mere 10c for a $400 Wii pack, that penny-bid sit just made over five time the cost. Sure, one user got a massive saving, he 'won' the Wii. But 19,000 other users were definitely losers.

OfferMe's Group Buy though isn't about one lucky user. Group Buy ensures multiple users get the same savings. Yeah, so perhaps the Wii won't go for $11.32. Yet, if you spend money on OfferMe you get what you pay for! In fact, the products are ALL you pay for with OfferMe. There are no user fees or registration charges. It's simply the price of the product and delivery. Further, we hope to see between 10-20 people taking advantage of our prices. It means we've found something else that you like. We even encourage you to tell your mates about it. There's no 'one-off-special-discount-for-you-only' deal going on here. As we say, with Group Buy everybody wins!



So do you see why we harp on about Group Buy? To us it signifies a revolution on the 'net; instead of allowing faceless merchants from around the world to dictate terms to you, OfferMe gives you the power to demand better prices on the products you're after. And right now the site's still growing! Get behind this eRetail revolution now and take back the control. After all, it's what you're demanding.

The OfferMe Community: Working Together for Group Buy Savings

Online Content Manager, Nadim C Sharbean, explains why Community is key to OfferMe's Group Buy.

If you're reading this blog because you've come from the link on the OfferMe site or our Facebook fan page, then I'm doing my job well. My name is Nadim and in my role as the Online Content Manager for OfferMe.com.au, it's my responsibility to communicate and interact with the OfferMe community.
Now, granted, most companies in today's virtual world have blogs and Facebook pages. 'Social Media' and 'Social Marketing' are two chic terms in business right now. Yet with OfferMe it's so much more than simply having an online presence. You see, to us here, OfferMe is built on and built for our Community. Our mission is to create a social shopping platform that focuses on gaining benefits for buyers.

That sounds like more marketing shtick. So let me whittle it down to basics. Essentially we exist so that OfferMe users can get the best deals on products they want. As most of our users know, the biggest way we do that is our Group Buy feature. This innovative concept allows users from all across the 'net to join together and get bulk buying prices on... well, anything really. As most people know, go into any store with two mates to buy the same product and the Sales Person will be more than happy to negotiate a better price. OfferMe's Group Buy takes out the hassles of that process. You simply say whether or not you want in on the Group Buy deal.

(On the Right: The highly requested Kingston 4GB DataTraveller sold for a mere $9.95 last week!)

How Group Buy products get chosen...

Currently, the OfferMe BDM, Erick Teresa, handles all the Group Buy product searches and negotiations. He bases his searches on the higher requested items on OfferMe (for more on requesting items, check out this page). What this means is that some of you are getting what you want, while others have to wait. So, if you are a user that's waiting, how do you get Erick onto your item? It's pretty simple really. First you request the item on OfferMe. Then you get people to click the 'Register Interest' button on your listed item.
And that's where the OfferMe community comes in. Want a PS3? Get on the Facebook page and get the votes behind it. Or try out OfferMe's InTouch social platform. It's like a Facebook for our users. In the end, all you need is a handful of people hunting for your product to get Erick on the job.

Group Buy your Christmas cheer...

Right now we're trying to stock up on cool things for Christmas. Yes, the 'Time for Giving' is right around the corner and we're looking at sorting out all your Kris Kringle needs and Christmas gift ideas in one hit. Got an item you think EVERYONE needs for Chrissie? Well, go on and tell us about it. We're like Santa... But with credit card access.