“@#$%! Why is everybody waiting ‘till the last minute to join this group buy?!”
Since starting GotoGroupBuy back in ‘06, we’ve heard both buyers and sellers utter those words all too often. Its not that the price is too high, or that the product’s a piece of junk. Why does this happen then? The answer’s simple…
For many reasons, people just don’t like being the first to do something. This attitude has been the downfall of many group buys. Those who do decide to join the group buy first are left extremely frustrated. The list never gets enough people because everybody is waiting for someone else to join first!
Sellers feel the pain too. They’ve put a great deal together, only to see it never have a chance to get off the ground. After this happens a few times, most people just give up on group buys altogether.
We decided to do something about it. The solution we came up with is called the Limbo List. The Limbo List allows people to commit only when the group buy falls to their target price. Once that happens, the system automatically places them on the Committed list. This makes it a lot less ‘scary’ for people to be the first to sign up. In the end, the list fills up sooner, and the chances of the group buy ending successfully increase significantly.
Since releasing the Limbo List feature earlier this year, we’ve seen a lot of improvement in the number of people signing up for group buys. The most successful case we’ve seen was for a circuit board group buy, which had over 60 people buy more than 160 units in 30 days.
The great thing is that nothing in the system has really changed all that much. With a slight tweak, we just made it more convenient for buyers to Commit only if the price reaches their budget.
The reason why the Limbo List is so effective is because it takes away much of the risk of being the first one to join. Since you’re committing only if the price falls to your target, you aren’t obligated to buy anything if it never reaches that point.
Since this problem is a potential deal killer for all group buys, we’ve made the Limbo List a standard feature that’s free for all of our users. We think that group buying is something that should be easier and more rewarding for everyone involved.
The Limbo List feature is available now for anybody to try out. Simply post a group buy on GotoGroupBuy, select variable pricing (i.e. price gets cheaper as more people join), and enable the Limbo List feature. It’s that simple. When joining your group buy, all buyers have to do is choose the option to Commit at a certain price.
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Please, let us know what you think. Just leave a question or comment in the Comments section below.
Keep posting stuff like this i really like it