E-Sourcing Forum » They’re baaack

They’re baaack

August 3rd, 2007 at 08:17am David Bush - Iasta

I ran into this blog recently which highlighted a “new” concept - online group buying. Sounds like this has been tried before, remember Mercata? (And, yes, when reading that aloud, you should think of Davey Crockett).

eSwarm certainly has a better chance now, hopefully, due to the lessons learned of failed historical business models but consumers like to feel and examine products, otherwise they just use Amazon. It will be tough to retrain that thought and clearly show that you can get a significantly better pricing by banding together with Bubba of Pigs Knuckle, Arkansas.

I will need to some day pool my thoughts on consortiums in general, especially for professional procurement. Frankly, I am not sold on it and have only ever seen Corporate United succeed.

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Entry Filed under: Technology / SaaS, e-Sourcing Marketplace

1 Comment Add your own

1. Page Wanderer | August 6th, 2007 at 10:46 pm

I definitely think this idea has a better chance this time round. I don’t think eSwarm has got it right yet though. The whole charging sellers thing is going to work against them… as will the battle to the bottom line (bid battle). I think the model used by SwarmBuy.com has a better opportunity to succeed since it doesn’t play sellers off against sellers but rather allows buyers to choose the best available offers by sellers. Also sellers don’t get charged a commission which allows them to either take home more money or reduce the price further.

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