GroupsMore looks beyond Klang Valley

GroupsMore, which is part of US group deal-of-the-day website Groupon, hopes to reach 80 per cent of the local e-commerce retailers by the end of 2011.

There is a huge prospect to tap in the growing trend of e-commerce sector in Malaysia, company executives said. Based on IDC data, over eight million or about half of the Internet population had made purchases online in 2009.

"GroupsMore provides a platform for small businesses to communicate with their customers online.

"Merchants do not have to pay anything to us, we provide the editorial, we even take pictures of their business to be featured on our website," Groupon Malaysia chief executive officer Joel Neoh said in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

The 27-year-old entrepreneur, who was the winner of Malaysia's first corporate reality television programme in 2007 called The Firm, had initially founded a clone version of Groupon in September last year.

Groupon subsequently acquired that company as part of its expansion plan into Southeast Asia in January this year.

GroupsMore today has 57,000 members and it has sold 17,000 vouchers so far from almost 100 local retailers, which translates to about RM1.33 million savings to its members.

Members can log on to the company's website at www.groupsmore.com and purchase the coupon online.

The deal is activated when a minimum number of people agree to buy, encouraging members to share the deal with family and friends.

Depending on the deal, with a minimum of about 30 hits, members will get discount coupon of up to 90 per cent that is redeemable in a stipulated time.

A receipt will be sent via e-mail where members need to show the printed receipt to merchandiser.

Within the next three months, Neoh said, GroupsMore will send phone messages to members instead of having to print receipts.

This coupon method deal is another up-and-coming online advertising tool. The collective buying exposes businesses to more customers and allows personalised recommendations via social networks.

Among its record selling sale was the Darabeef burger coupon where some 2,336 members took up the 86 per cent discount offered.

The Extreme PD Buggy Trek Pit Stop coupon, which offers activities like double-seater off road buggies, krazy karts and ATV ride at RM28 from the initial price of RM75, was a big hit when it was introduced last month.

In the next 10 months, GroupsMore hopes to widen its local offerings and presence beyond Klang Valley to Johor Baru, Penang, Kuching and Kota Kinabalu.

It also hopes to grow its local businesses 10 times more to 1,000 merchants and subsequently increase its members to 300,000 by end of 2011.

Its parent group, Groupon, which had recently turned down Google's massive US$6 billion (RM18.32 billion) acquisition offer, is reported to make sales of about US$2 billion (RM6.11 billion) yearly.