The recent introduction of group buying to South Africa has got me so excited, that I just had to write something about it.

According to trusty Wikipedia, group buying is the process whereby goods & services are sold to the public, at discounted rates, on the condition that a certain number of people make the purchase. What this article refers to, is group buying online, and is a proving to be a popular development in ecommerce.

There are groups around the world that have been offering online group buying for a while now, but this is a very recent development for South African online buying – and a lot of people are very happily taking part in this new spending frenzy. Everyone loves a bargain, right?

Players worth mentioning here in SA are Groupon, Twangoo and Wicount, although quite naturally, a few other group buying sites have cropped up in recent months. Groupon, an American company, launched Groupon South Africa late last year, alongside Groupon Israel & India. Groupon has merged with Twangoo, a South African run company founded by Wesley Gosling, and launched MyCityDeal.

MyCityDeal happens to be my personal favourite. I subscribed to MyCityDeal’s feed shortly after the site was launched & I enjoy receiving notifications of their daily deals. Wicount’s & Twangoo’s deals are also quite impressive.

For the consumer, this really is something worthwhile to be in the know about. For the service provider, there are 2 sides to the coin. On the one hand, this is a fantastic way for service providers to market their services, to a large audience. Especially if they are small start-ups in need of new customers.

On the other hand, if not enough people buy into a particular deal by its cut-off time, then the deal is off & that service provider loses out on all that potential clientele.

However, group buying has taken off all around the world, and many people, who have never previously made online purchases before, are now getting into it & handing their credit card details over without blinking.

Does this mean that we will see a shift in the way in which consumers behave online? Most probably.  Just be as careful as always when making purchases online!

Online shopping was really able to start with the beginning of online banking in 1994. The Stanford Federal Union was the first bank to allow online internet banking, while other banks had been experimenting with other types of home banking for about a decade before this.

Surprisingly enough, it was the popular pizza restaurant Pizza Hut that was the first company to offer online shopping. Their restaurant in Santa Cruz, California allowed people to order pizzas online, and it was not long before this option was available for Pizza Huts throughout the USA.

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So, the other day I am online and surfing for items for a nursery (my little boy is due in 5 weeks and time is running out. I am still working, so it is hard to get to the shops, and now that I am rather round and somewhat heavier, it is a little hard to walk around the shops for very long when I do actually get there). But back to the story… and there I see the most beautiful linen for the cot. It is perfect, so where can I buy it from… the USA… aargh online shopping – my worst nightmare. Not only am I afraid of handing over my banking details, but with postal delays, my boy will arrive first. (more…)