Social Shopping

I put up a quick post yesterday to tell you about the offer on Nails Inc Magnetic Nail Polish at more than 40% off but I wanted to go in to more detail about the shopping revolution that is BuyaPowa.

I'd like to point out this is not a sponsored post. I'm a genuine fan of this site and that's the last time I'm going to say it! It works for us social media freaks better than anyone else, it has elements of other retail sites we all already use but they have been combined to create something totally new.

Big retailers receive huge discounts from beauty brands when they buy in bulk. The basic premise of BuyaPowa is if enough of us show an interest in a product then we should be able to demand the same price cuts. It doesn't seem unreasonable I was approached by a BuyaPowa rep who likened it to 100 of us going in to Boots together and buying a lipstick, we will still all pay the RRP but if we were a retailer we would get a much better deal. There is so much to know about the site and the clearest way I could think to display it best is bullet points... so here you are.

• Co-Buying

This is what BuyaPowa calls it when we all join together to buy in bulk and benefit from the hefty discounts.

When you purchase anything on the site you are "joining a co-buy"

• Requests

BuyaPowa wants us to tell them what we want to buy but we're not willing to pay full price for. They have a requests section on their site where you can go and review and vote on other trending requests as well as suggest your own. They also have an app you can bookmark so when you're shopping you can hit the BuyaPowa button and tell them how much you'd like to pay for the product.

• Leader Board 

 This is a quirky extra incentive to spread the word about a co-buy you've joined (an item you've bought).

Once you've bought you're going to want other people to join anyway because the more people that join the less you will ultimately pay but the leader board bring in the element of competition. When you join a co-buy you get your own link to drive people to the deal, if people click through your link and buy or click on your picture to say you referred them you will move up the leader board. When the deal ends the person who has referred the most buyers gets their item for FREE!! That may seem small fry when we're talking about a £7 nail polish but what if you were buying a TV? Big deal!

For many of you this way of buying may be reminiscent of other retail concepts you've come across such as BidUpTV and Groupon. BuyaPowa always has one current deal, when 75 people buy it hits "Best Price" there's then the opportunity for 25 more people to get in on the action before the deal closes. There is a timer on every deal so it will end either after the timer runs out or after 100 people have bought the item. I am fairly confident that the beauty community is excited enough about grabbing a bargain that all cosmetic related deals will fly off the virtual shelves. When it comes to spreading the word BuyaPowa is much like Sigma and Eyeko, they are offering their own incentives for us to do their marketing for them. They are different in that as of right now there is no affiliate program and we aren't getting the opportunity to make money but we could save a bundle and when it's something that you know everyone is interested in why would you not want to tell everyone about it??

I think I've covered everything I would want to know but if you're still not sure go and check out the website it's fairly self-explanatory but I wanted to get all this out on my blog in my own words for those of you that are sceptical and want a little reassurance. I know myself that before I got involved I did a little research and found other bloggers I trust talking about the company, had I not I don't know if I'd have been as comfortable telling you guys about it let alone placing an order myself.

I'm already excited to see what other deals they have in the pipeline but the thing that interests me most is their request scheme. They tell me that their ideal is for every co-buy they offer to have come from our requests. They want to bring us what we want at the prices we want to pay. Is that really possible? Who knows? But I want to test them. Let's see what we can get if we just ask for it. Tell me your most wanted, overpriced products and let's see if they can deliver.

If I get enough of one request I will set up a poll and you can all vote for your favourite.. Wouldn't it be cool to get our own request made in to a deal? Leave me a comment :)