Shopping 2.0: It's Raining Deals!

Social shopping is gaining immense popularity and the reasons are numerous – better deals, bargains, ease, convenience etc. We find ourselves being bombarded by emails and SMS’ trying to lure us into setting up an account to make a transaction. If you are not tempted by the 500 points that would be credited in your account on joining, perhaps a chance to purchase Rs 10,000 worth of merchandise for just Rs 1,500 might work for you. The bottom line is it’s hard to resist such deals, and more often than not, it leads into impulsive buying.

Snapdeal, Taggle, BuythePrice, SoSasta, Fashion & You, Deals & You, 20North, etc. are just a few of the social shopping sites that have been creating a buzz. While people get good discounts, the merchants benefit from e-commerce as it provides them with marketing opportunities at a relatively lower cost. They are able to reach out to a wider audience, which helps them create brand awareness and leads to increased business. Take for instance Carnation, a one-stop-shop for cars, who acquired 5,000 + customers through SnapDeal in a span of three days.

SnapDeal for great bargains

On some of these sites, you can directly buy the deal, while on others; you will have to wait till the deal goes live. It works on the principle that higher the number of buyers interested in the product, the better the deal. This springs from the group buying phenomenon that you observe in the real world, where a group of people interested in a product persuade the manufacturer and bargain for a better price. However, its online avatar doesn’t give that kind of choice to people. Instead shoppers are required to choose from the products featured on the website and there are fixed slabs of discounts depending upon the number of people at each level. Here, the deal would go live only when the minimum required number of people show interest in the deal, thus making it profitable for the site.

One such website that allows group buying is Buytheprice.com. It was started by Ranjith Boyanapalli, who was inspired by the informal bulletin board when at Infosys, where employees shared information, asked for advice, etc. His idea was that technology can help various people with similar shopping needs to benefit from each other's purchase.

Stay in India, shop in the US

While Buytheprice.com deals mostly in consumer durables, electronic appliances, etc. SoSasta.com, which was recently acquired by US giant Groupon, works on a similar concept, but offers city-based lifestyle deals on restaurants, spas, fashion accessories, travel, etc.