Walmart recently introduced a new feature on its Facebook fanpage, called the Crowdsaver. This new Walmart’s Facebook initiative basically follows Groupon’s model.
For example, Walmart will slash the price of its Plasma TV by 18 percent if there were more than 5,000 fans ‘liking’ the deal. So far, the idea seems to be working well. All the deals introduced so far hit the ‘like’ quota.
One thing that differs from Groupon’s model is that the deal isn’t just restricted to those who have participated. It’s available for everyone.
Walmart’s effort set me thinking if Groupon’s model can be applied across any businesses. Surely, any brand with huge Facebook likers base can make this model work like a breeze. 5,000 likes out of 1 or 2 million fans isn’t that hard to achieve. Would big brands organize their own group buying after seeing Walmart’s success? Probably a yes since Groupon isn’t providing any value. Cutting the middleman in this scenario is only sensible.
However, small businesses would still have to rely on Groupon though. That’s probably where Groupon earns most of its revenue too.
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