SnapGhar is a group-buying site in the real-estate domain and is based on the fact that a group of like-minded customers come together on a website and avail of discounts on a real-estate project of a company/builder. The real estate developers are encouraged to give discounts when they see a large group ready to buy property in their project and the buyers also get the same property for a lesser price than what they have got on buying separately. It actually is a win-win situation for both the buyer and the seller.
How does it work?
Real estate projects are listed on the site and they get active only when they attain a minimum number of buyers showing interest before the expiry date. Currently, the site lists properties in Jaipur, Karjat, Thane and Mumbai. People interested in buying either need to show interest online or by making a call. It is more like putting the real-estate business online, but with a twist which helps customers get discounts in a group.
SnapGhar is a relatively new startup on the scene and its Facebook Page consists of only 101 fans and the Twitter profile is yet to get active. Also, with a poor Alexa rank of 1564734, the site traffic is meagre. All these facts show that the aggregated deals domain business in the higher priced product ranges is not run through an online medium but more of through an offline medium.
A Look at the Group Buying Space of Higher-end Products
The Group Buying craze in India is huge. Many startups have come and gone, all trying to sell goods and services at discounted prices. Some of the popular sites in the group-buying domain in India currently are: Snapdeal, Mydala, and Dealsandyou. With effective strategies and some luck these companies have survived and done exceedingly well in the Indian market till now. There is also a long queue of failed startups in the domain as well.
All the startups in the group-buying domain are trying to capitalise on the fact of frugality being a part of the culture in India. With the mainstream group-buying space flooded with more than 20 competitors, the recent trend in group-buying ideas has been towards a pull-based model where customers are given discounts on expensive products like a LCD TV to an apartment in Mumbai. Here are the sites which are working in the non-mainstream deal domain:
- Groffr – They give both real estate deals as well as deals on lifestyle products like electronic products like LCD TVs, etc. Groffr gives real estate deals in Ahmedabad, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Delhi NCR, Bangalore, Goa, Kochi, Nagpur and Pune. Groffr has been in the news recently for getting funding from IAN
- Mobstreet.in – Acquired by Groffr.
- GrtDeal – 15 days ago they were functional in the real estate domain in only Mumbai. Now, on seeing their site, one can see offers listed for not only real estate but other high-priced categories like cars, bikes, electronics, and travel in as many as 8 cities- Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, NCR, Chennai, Hyderabad, Goa, and Thane.
- Runpapa – An Ahmedabad-based startup applying the pull-based model to cars and bikes, including insurance and loans for automobiles.
This model of generating value to the consumers through aggregated deals is going to be very beneficial for the common man in this time of exceedingly high rates of interest in loans, esp. housing loans. As far as I can understand, this domain cannot be limited to online marketing but will need an offline lead generation strategy as well. Thus, the need for large investments.
Abhineet Kumar is the co-founder of Hungry N Foolish. A student of Business Administration, he is passionate about entrepreneurship and blogging. Abhineet urges you to do your bit in making this world a better place to live in, in your own small ways. Catch him on Twitter @abhineetsays.
Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Dealsandyou, Delhi, Goa, Groffr, GrtDeal, Hyderabad, India, Karjat, Kochi, Mobstreet.in, Mumbai, Mydala, Nagpur, Pune, Runpapa, Snapdeal, Snapghar, Thane