Influencer Marketing and Its Part in Social Group Buying

Research has shown that one of the hottest emerging trends in China right now is group buying. Especially during the pandemic, when community group buying centred around online grocery shopping saw a boost in popularity. Like many of the other ecommerce trends that started in China, group buying is also slowly evolving and gaining traction in other countries like Singapore.

What Exactly is Group Buying?

Group buying refers to collective buying, where products and services are offered at significantly reduced prices on the condition that a minimum number of buyers would make the purchase. Common products and services include groceries and electronics.

Other variations of group buying include Community group buying which mainly focuses on grocery collective buying, where people living within close vicinity of each other collectively bargain on groceries through bulk purchase. Often these purchases are collected and made through a “group leader” who earns commission through organising such initiatives.

Social group buying is another variation that combines social commerce and group buying together which is essentially just group buying with your friends and family!

Group Buying x Influencer Marketing

Ahead of trends, group buy platforms like Pinduoduo,  Groupify and Groupon are already well established and popular in the market. E-commerce platforms like Shopee also have their own group buy options!

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Bringing it back to the local scene in Singapore, the COVID-19 pandemic has seen the rise of more and more group buy driven businesses like FreshSG and Sengkang Group Buy gaining popularity as more people started buying and delivering their groceries online. These businesses often make use of social media platforms such as Whatsapp and Telegram to organise these group buy deals.

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Boasting over 50 estate groups and private groups on Whatsapp, FreshSG specialises mainly in fruits and vegetables.

The nature of group buying promotes exclusive deals and discounts that is without a doubt something consumers won’t want to miss out on. What better way to spread the word on such good deals than through influencer marketing?

Influencer Edlyn promoting the huge discounts on group buy website Duoria.

Parent influencer Connie Lim can also be seen promoting the good deals from CombineSG, another group buy platform.

Why collaborate with influencers?

1. Cost effective

Using influencer marketing can help cut costs for these brands. Rather than constantly spending money on paid advertising, they can now rely on influencers to promote their platform through sharing links to their large following base. 

Additionally, research has shown that 92% of consumers trust an influencer more than an advertisement and 71% of people are more likely to purchase a product from social media referrals, thereby proving the effectiveness of influencer marketing.

2. Develops a loyal customer base

The relationship between an influencer and their followers is often built based on a foundation of trust. These followers trust that these influencers have their best interests at heart and are genuine about their experiences when promoting sponsored products and services, as such their opinions are highly valued. 

Using influencer marketing will not only allow you to attract new customers but it may also provide you with loyal customers in the long run through these influencers.

Implications

Despite the current success of group buying, influencer marketing can be used to further boost the effectiveness of this new norm. With the reach and influence that influencers (and also the further discount codes that they provide) have, it is no doubt that group buying will further increase in popularity.

That said, promoting group buys with influencer marketing would not be as successful as when you collaborate with the right influencers. Choose the right influencers and sign up for a FREE demo on us now!