Where would you go to find a great deal? Big businesses? With the size and buying power to purchase in bulk and sell it on to us at lower cost. Online maybe? Waiting for that elusive deal that must come round again in the daily email.
Over recent times there has been renewed interest in the idea of buying together. Collective purchasing involves organised groups of like-minded people clubbing together to achieve better value or access to better quality by bargaining for goods in bulk, both on and offline. Small businesses, charities and consumers are buying everything from food and renewable energy to office and specialist medical equipment. This is not about quick savings on a daily deals site; it is about ongoing savings that the group can control.
It is true, technology has its place in the renewed interest. The internet provides us with a platform to collect and organise. The use of social media is creating a universal mind shift that makes autonomy default. With the help of the web we, as consumers, are taking more and more control over our buying habits. We have seen a raise in awareness for sites like ecomodo, part of the peer-to-peer economy by-passing centralised markets by selling or sharing directly with other people and our research shows that almost 20% of people – over eight million in the UK - are buying co-operatively by forming their own buying groups.
And there are some great examples of collective purchasing already out there:
At the very large end, there are businesses such as United Merchants (Unimer) – the UK's largest merchant co-operative and invoice clearing house for the building products industry. With a turnover in excess of £850 million, Unimer has over 1,000 merchant members, operating from more than 3,000 outlets across the UK.
The Energy Saving Co-operative brings together residents, enabling them to bulk buy everything from lightbulbs to solar panels, saving energy and money.
The True Food Community Co-operative in Reading is a well established food co-operative which was initially set up by local residents working together to buy good wholesome food and it has been such a success that the co-operative has opened its very own shop.
Another great example of how communities can benefit from collective purchasing is online organisation, The Oil Club, the fastest growing heating oil syndicate in the UK, with over 400 village clubs.
Also in Kent, the R Shop Bulk Buying Project is a shop to bring bulky goods to the community to make life easier and less expensive and to bring the whole community together.
But if only 20% of people are buying together, that means that the majority of people in the country are not yet seeing the benefits of collective purchasing.
Working with The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) we have created the 'Buy Better Together Challenge' to use collective purchasing to benefit consumers. We hope to inspire new models for community buying and support those not yet aware of the difference buying together can make.
The 'Buy Better Together Challenge' has a £60k fund that will go towards training and mentoring for stand out projects and includes £15k for the overall winner to develop their project.
Submission of new ideas opens today - Tuesday 21 February 2012 - and will run through until May before a shortlist of projects is developed ready for the final judging in the autumn. We hope this challenge inspires more and more people to see how combining their buying power can help their pocket and their local community.
We are delighted to be working in partnership with BIS on the 'Buy Better Together Challenge' to recognise and inspire new models for buying together and I am really looking forward to seeing what innovative and inspiring ideas we receive!
Why not take control of your purchasing power? See details of the 'Buy Better Together Challenge' here.
Kate Pickering is the Innovation Programme Leader at Co-operatives UK
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