Sunday 22 July 2012

The Rise of Collective Buying


Do you seriously think that the collective buying industry in Malaysia will fade off? Read the following article and you would want to rethink it!


Article taken from: thestar.com.my

Friday May 18, 2012

More Malaysians shopping online

CONSUMERS in Malaysia are shopping online more and have become more confident about online security, according to the latest MasterCard Worldwide Online Shopping Survey.
The number of people in Malaysia shopping online has grown by 12% compared to the year before (55% in 2010). This increase is partly attributed to the Malaysian consumer’s increased confidence level in online shopping — 36% in 2011 were concerned about security versus 39% in 2010.
With the cumulative growth in confidence to make purchases online, the survey also showed an increase in spending across various categories.
Airline websites saw further growth (86% in 2011 compared to 71% in 2010) in online spending compared to offline. There was also an increase in online purchase for books/CDs/DVDs (49% in 2011 versus 40% in 2010), music downloads (82% in 2011 compared to 53% in 2010) and products/services in online gaming (77% in 2011 compared to 60% in 2010). The top five purchases online include, in their respective order — airlines, music downloads, coupon/deal sites, products/services in online gaming/virtual world and apps.
MasterCard Worldwide Malaysia and Brunei vice-president and senior country manager Jim Cheah said, “Consumers in Malaysia are increasingly getting more sophisticated and savvy in making online purchases, and the Internet has also become a vital part of the lives of the consumers — together this holds very strong growth potential for the online shopping segment. Along with the growth of this space, we have rolled out value added benefits for online shoppers through tie-ups with top-tier online retailers to build and sustain MasterCard led online purchases.”
In terms of online shopping and purchase intent, the results show that the gap is closing for online shopping in Asia Pacific markets between the “mature” and “emerging” markets.
Thailand leads the pack both in terms of online shopping (80%) and likelihood to make an online purchase in the next six months (93%), alongside China. South Korea (84%) and Malaysia (79%) also show high intent to purchase over the next six months, with Vietnam also showing similarly high intent to purchase (87%) despite a low percentage of people using the Internet for online shopping (61%). This survey and its accompanying reports do not represent MasterCard’s financial performance.
Although a majority (71%) of respondents said they would use their laptop for shopping, the mobile phone is rising rapidly as the device of choice for Asian shoppers in emerging markets, with respondents in Thailand (59%), China (37%), Vietnam (32%) and India (32%) all leading more established markets.
Mobile shopping is also slowly gaining traction in Malaysia with 25% of Malaysian respondents carrying out transactions through their mobile phone in the past three months.
Among the reasons given for using the mobile for shopping, most said it was more convenient (57%) and also cited the growing availability of apps that make it easier to do (46%). Music (24%) and apps (31%) topped the list among those who have made purchases through their mobile phones, followed by coupon deal sites (17%), retailers for clothing and accessories (17%), and cinema (16%).
END


As stated in the article, coupon deal sites / group buying industry are among the top 3 reasons for consumers to do mobile shopping.

With that said, having technology to continuously evolve would provide group buying sites more opportunities to expand their business and make it a profitable one soon.  

What the freak says


Welcome to the blog of deal freaks. As the title says it all, topics revolving cheap deals in town offered by local group buying sites will be discussed here.

Are these deals cheap or cheat? Have you come across any con deals? Or your experience with these group buying sites and deals are extremely well that you are a strong supporter of online vouchers?

While we save money, we also want quality right?

Let us explore the different group buying sites and share our views with our dear readers here. After all, sharing is caring!