Groupon has really been the company to pioneer the crowd-sourcing/saving retail model. If you’re unfamiliar with the concept, Groupon makes a deal with a local retailer. If they can sell X number of discount coupons for their business, then that discount deal is on. For example, GAP recently advertised a $50 gift card for $25 on Groupon. Once 1,000 were sold, the deal would be on. Groupon sold 445,000 of these coupons, and has become a real player in the retail partnership market.
But the concept isn’t propreitary, so WalMart is jumping on board. On WalMart’s Facebook page, they now offer a “Crowdsaver” deal. WalMart announces some possible deals, and if any of the deals reach a certain pre-set number of “likes” (Facebook’s social currency), then the deal is on.
The retailer achieves the economies of scale necessary to make these heavily discounted deals profitable. And consumers get the low prices they’ve been craving. Groupon may have pushed the concept mainstream. But, crowdsaving is about to be commonplace.