Dell Makes a Social Shopping “Swarm”

If you’re like me (condolences), when you’re thinking of buying a computer you consult a tech savvy colleague, a friend who works in IT or a nerdy teen a.k.a. digital native. Or you might be into social shopping where the so-called “wisdom of the crowd” points you to the best products.

 

These approaches might help you specify your purchase. But they do not necessarily help you narrow down the best price.

 

But what if you also consulted other’s in the market for a new computer and organized them into one group so you could all get a better price? Group purchasing is common among large companies and buying cooperatives to achieve lower prices on individual items by buying in bulk. Dell is harnessing this group model with a word of mouth component to create its new Swarm program.

 

Swarm, Share and Save

Andy Lark and Lionel Menchaca/@LionelatDELL point us to the pilot program that debuted in Singapore and, as the video above details, is currently running in Canada.

 

The more you have in your group, the more you save. So there's incentive to spread the word about Dell and this program to your personal online networks. It’s an interesting model and it even has a feature reminiscent of Priceline where you commit to a purchase at a certain price. This wraps you into someone else’s group buy. The program means that Canadian consumers can get Dell computers cheaper than they would on the Dell.ca site.

 

Swarm reminds me of the Laptop Hunter ads as another example of how the PC is competing with the Mac in our current value-conscious economy.

Comments

[Angelina]

The market is one powerful thing and computer companies such as Dell and Apple is their best tool to make money comes and goes around in an endless loop making them richer and richer by the minute.

[Franklin]

Excellent read, I just passed this onto a colleague who was doing a little research on that. And he actually bought me lunch because I found it for him smile So let me rephrase that.

[refurbished computers]

Group purchasing is common among large companies and buying cooperatives to achieve lower prices on individual items by buying in bulk.

[Dell and HP Support]

I just passed this onto a colleague who was doing a little research.dell hp supportine Service,s nice.