Shoppers team up for better deals – Update

Last month, we wrote about the Chinese phenomenon known as tuangou, or team buying. In a nutshell, people interested in buying a certain product get together online, and then storm into a physical store at a coordinated time to negotiate a bulk discount. Tuangou is a prime example of crowd clout: consumers using their collective power to get what they want. A new website in Malaysia does something similar, but sticks to buying and selling online. Like tuangou, Tumpang, which is Malay for pooling, makes it easy for buyers to pool their resources to get a bulk discount on everything from fabric freshener to flat screen televisions. However, Tumpang has added an interesting twist on the seller’s side. Much like eBay, anyone can post an item for sale, paying Tumpang a listing fee. The seller states what the discounted price will be and how many buyers are needed. Sellers can be regular retailers who want to offload stock, but Tumpang’s blog also lists advice for incidental bulk dealers. Which could be anyone hoping to make an extra ringgit by gathering a group of buyers on Tumpang, and then placing an order directly with a manufacturer in China or Korea. Securing buyers before buying merchandise creates a low-risk form of alternative retail. Which should be music to any minipreneur‘s ears 😉 Spotted by: Webwatch Malaysia