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It has been suggested that Collective buying power be merged into this article or section. (Discuss) |
| Tuángòu | |||||||
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| Traditional Chinese | 團購 | ||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 团购 | ||||||
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Tuángòu, which loosely translates as team buying or group buying (also known as store mobbing), is a recently developed shopping strategy originating in the People's Republic of China. Several people - sometimes friends, but possibly strangers connected over the internet - agree to approach a vendor of a specific product in order to haggle with the proprietor as a group in order to get discounts. The entire group agrees to purchase the same item. The shoppers benefit by paying less, and the business benefits by selling multiple items at once.[1]
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In China
The tuangou phenomenon has been most successful in mainland China, where buyers have leveraged the power of group buying, which has led to English language media, such as msn.com, profiling the tuangou buying process.[2] The popularity of the strategy in China is often attributed to the Chinese tradition of bargaining for the purchase of goods of all types. Tuangou buying also ameliorates a traditional distrust of goods purchased from unknown sellers as individual members of the buying group can vouch for a particular seller's quality to the rest of the group.
Group buys are a variation of tuangou buying that also occurs in China, in which an item must be bought in a minimum quantity or dollar amount, otherwise, the seller will not allow the purchase. Since individuals typically do not need multiples of one item or do not have the resources to buy in bulk, tuangou group buys allow people to invite others to purchase in bulk jointly. These group buys often result in better prices for the individual buyers or ensure that a scarce or obscure item is available for sale. Group buys usually happen when dealing with industrial items, such as single-board computers.[3] Group buys are often organized by like-minded people through Internet forums. There have also been recent attempts at creating more focused online forums such as GroupBuyCenter.com.[4] The vast majority of the users tend to focus on after market autoparts and have now also started to leverage the group buying model for purposes of buying other consumer durables.
See also
References
- ^ "How a store mob works". http://storemob.com/how-a-store-mob-works/. Retrieved 2008-09-17.
- ^ Montlake, Simon (2007-12-05). "China's new shopping craze: 'team buying'". MSN.com. http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/SavingandDebt/FindDealsOnline/ChinasNewShoppingCrazeTeamBuying.aspx. Retrieved 2007-12-26.
- ^ Gottlieb, Bruce (2000-07-26). "Does Group-Shopping Work?". Slate. http://www.slate.com/id/86925/. Retrieved 2007-12-26.
- ^ "GroupBuyCenter Help". 1999-06-15. http://www.groupbuycenter.com/Help.aspx. Retrieved 2009-09-15.
External links
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