谁的团购，谁的团？ 互动平台, 团购网站, Power, 时间

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今天你“团”了吗？网络团购作为一种新的消费模式，因其可以用很少的钱，买到更多更好的商品，其在短时间内就被各类人群接受，团购风潮现已经席卷世界各个角落。你是否就恰巧是团购大军中的一员，有过多次团购的经历？对于各类团购信息，你是不是已了如指掌，但是对于为顾客和商家搭建起消费互动平台的团购网站，你又了解多少？它们如何运营？它们有着怎样的目标和宗旨？它们如何扩大自己的影响？它们给商家来了高额利润还是巨大亏损？让我们在下文一探究竟…… 　
　　
　　The More, the Merrier: The Power of Group-Buying Websites
　　
　　谁的团购，谁的团？
　　
　　If you’re one of the millions who have a Facebook account, you’ve likely noticed ads in the margins of your home page for group-buying discounts in your area, offering sweet deals on everything from restaurant meals to spa services to recreational activities to specialty chocolates. Gone are the days of clipping coupons from paper circulars1)—the next wave of penny pinching2) is happening online, and en masse3).
　　
　　如果你是数百万Facebook用户中的一员，你可能已注意到了，在自己主页的边角上有一些关于你所在地区团购折扣的广告，所售商品从饭店餐饮到温泉洗浴，从娱乐活动到特制巧克力，无所不包，价格诱人。从纸质广告宣传品上剪下优惠券的日子已经一去不复返了，新一轮的省钱风潮正从网上扑面而至，并波及世界每一个角落。 　
　　
　　买得多，优惠多
　　
　　Good Things Come in Big Packages
　　
　　位于芝加哥的Groupon是最早的团购网站，据《今日美国》报道，从2008年11月到2010年5月，该网站用户已从400人发展到了400多万人，而其他许多团购网——其中包括LivingSocial、Groop Swoop和BuyWithMe——也迅速跟进。这些网站刚起步时有一个共同的特点，就是只在总部所在的城市经营业务，不过，目前有多家网站已迅速将业务扩展至其他地区，比如： 2010年9月16日，LivingSocial仅在美国就新增了25个卖场；该公司业务现已打入三个国家的众多卖场。
　　
　　Chicago-based Groupon4), which grew from four hundred to more than four million subscribers between November 2008 and May 2010, according to USA Today, is the original group-buying site, but dozens of others—among them LivingSocial, Groop Swoop, and BuyWithMe—have quickly followed suit5). These sites typically start out offering deals only in the cities where they’re headquartered, but many have expanded rapidly: LivingSocial, for example, launched in twenty-five new U.S. locales on September 16, 2010; the company’s services are now available in many markets in three countries.
　　
　　团购网基本上按照以下模式运营：团购网站向消费者提供各类针对其所处的特定区域的折扣信息。人们在这些网站注册，获取每日促销的通知，然后就可以通过多种不同的促销计划来抢购所需的商品：有的网站要等到需要特定优惠的人数达到最低限度时，才激活交易；有的还为用户提供额外折扣，甚至免费商品，条件是他们说服一定数量的朋友也来购买该商品。
　　
　　The basic business model is as follows: Each group-buying site offers consumers a wide variety of discounts in their particular geographical area. People who sign up for daily notifications from these sites then secure their loot6) through a number of different incentive programs: some sites won’t make these deals live until a minimum number of consumers request that particular coupon; others provide additional discounts, or even free goods, for users who persuade a specific number of their friends to buy the products as well.
　　
　　团购网站将其所得的利润分一部分给合作商家，那些商家的收益常常因此获得显著增长，有时涨幅甚至惊人。例如，2010年8月20日的《芝加哥论坛报》报道，在Groupon所举行的首次全国性促销活动中，价值50美元的Gap商品仅售25美元，该网站一举卖掉了44.5万张该大型服装零售商的优惠券，Gap公司凭此狂赚了1,100万美元。
　　
　　The sites divvy7) up the profits with the businesses they partner with, and those merchants often experience noticeable—sometimes even staggering8)—revenue increases. On August 20, 2010, for example, the Chicago Tribune reported that in Groupon’s first-ever nationwide promotion, in which the company offered $50 worth of Gap9) merchandise for $25, the site sold 445,000 vouchers10) for the clothing megaretailer, an endeavor that garnered a whopping $11 million haul11).
　　
　　同买单，同生活
　　
　　The Community That Pays Together Stays Together 　
　　
　　LivingSocial的财务总监兼商业开发部负责人杰克·马斯认为，团购网站为消费者提供了一个更深入地了解自己城市的极佳机会。“从一开始，”他说，“我们就一直努力让LivingSocial与大家的社区生活息息相关。我们的消费者非常看重多样性，利用我们来探索他们所在的城市，希望发现新玩意儿；这会让消费者始终有一种新鲜、有趣的体验。”为了达到这一目的，该公司在每个目标市场都雇佣了本地员工；这些工作人员再对其所在的地区进行搜寻，找出在当地居民中真正受欢迎的潜在加盟商户。LivingSocial的奋斗目标是不仅要进军大城市，还要打入美国一些较小的市场，那里的居民对自己所居住的地方有一种特别的自豪感，而团购活动进一步增强了这种自豪感。　　
　　　　
　　一传十，十传百

　　Spreading the Word
　　
　　团购公司并不仅限于在其网站主页上发布每天的折扣通知，他们还利用其他渠道来散播其商品信息，造势之猛如烈火燎原，这些渠道包括仿佛拥有无穷魔力的社交媒体平台——主要是Facebook和Twitter——和消费者的个人电子邮件账户。就拿LivingSocial来说吧，它原本就是做社交媒体应用编程的，所以天生就适合采取这一策略。马斯说：“社交媒体是我们核心策略的一部分，因此我们很清楚那些平台的影响力所在，也懂得如何利用它们为消费者创造快乐。”诸如“Facebook Connect”和Twitter的“Sign in with Twitter”等功能则使得团购网站能够更为简便地进行每日交易宣传。
　　
　　Group-buying companies don’t limit their daily discount postings to their sites’ home pages; rather, they tap into the seemingly boundless power of social-media outlets14), primarily Facebook and Twitter, as well as consumers’ personal email accounts, to propagate15) their products like wildfire. LivingSocial, for one, has its roots in building social-media apps16), so this tactic is a natural fit; Maas says, “Social media is part of our core DNA, so we understand the power of those platforms and how to leverage them to make things fun for consumers.” Tools like Facebook Connect17) and Twitter’s “Sign in with Twitter18)” feature make publicizing daily deals from group-buying sites even simpler.　　
　　
　　虽有利，也有弊
　　
　　The Downside 　
　　
　　不可否认的是，团购这一商业模式利大于弊；毕竟，正如马斯所说：“如果它无法做到令消费者和商户都满意，它是不会成功的。”但是，并不是每一个与Groupon之类的公司联手的零售商都对结果感到满意。2010年9月11日，俄勒冈州波特兰市、“花朵咖啡馆”的业主杰西·布尔克发布了一篇伤心的博客文章。她在博文倾诉了自从作出与Groupon合作这一“可怕的决定”以来所遭遇的种种困顿。
　　
　　The benefits of the group-buying business model undeniably outweigh its disadvantages; after all, as Maas says, “it wouldn’t succeed if it didn’t work equally well for consumers and merchants.” Still, not every retailer that’s joined forces with a Groupon-type company has been happy with the results. On September 11, 2010, Jessie Burke, the owner of a Portland, Oregon–based coffee shop called Posies19) Cafe, published a woeful blog post about the difficulties she’s encountered since she made the “terrible decision” to partner with Groupon: 　
　　
　　“在与Groupon合作的六个月里，”布尔克写道，“我们遇到许许多多可怕的Groupon客户……这些客户不遵守Groupon的规定，在单次交易中使用多张Groupon优惠券，还为此拉长个脸跟你争执不休。
　　
　　“Over the six months that the Groupon is valid,” Burke wrote, “we met many, many terrible Groupon customers … customers that didn’t follow the Groupon rules and used multiple Groupons for single transactions, and argued with you about it with disgusted looks on their faces.
　　
　　“在店里经过三个月的Groupon优惠活动后，我看了一下销售业绩，发现真是损失惨重。曾经有一天，我们真的都发不出薪水了，因为那时我们在Groupon的活动中已经亏损了近八千美元……所以，这段经历让我感到无比厌倦，而与少数不良Groupon客户之间的交易也让我们的员工感到疲惫不堪。在经历过这些之后，我发现自己都不愿意再去买Groupon上的促销产品了，因为我知道它会给商户带来多大的伤害。”
　　
　　“After three months of Groupons coming through the door, I started to see the results really hurting us financially. There came a time when we literally could not make payroll because at that point in time we had lost nearly $8,000 with our Groupon campaign.… So the experience jaded20) me, and the interactions with the few bad Groupon customers we had jaded our staff. After all of this, I find myself not even willing to buy Groupons because I know how it could hurt a business.”
　　
　　布尔克的经历也许不能代表大多数商户，但也不足为怪。毕竟，像Groupon这样的公司如雨后春笋般数量激增，这就容易掩盖一个事实：在规模宏大的网络消费主义运动中，这些团购网站的商业模式尚处于羽翼未丰的阶段，因而不可避免地有着一些薄弱环节。正如LivingSocial的马斯所解释的那样：“一切都还为时尚早——我们一直都在尝试推出新事物，为的就是能让更多的交易在消费者生活和工作的场所附近进行。”
　　
　　Burke’s experience may not represent the majority of businesses’, but it’s not surprising. After all, the explosive proliferation of companies like Groupon belies21) the fact that their business model is still a fledgling22) one in the grand scheme of online consumerism, and that some chinks23) in their armor are therefore inevitable. As LivingSocial’s Maas explains, “It’s still really early—we’re experimenting with new things all the time, to deliver more deals close to where our consumers live and work.” 　
　　
　　要想玩，先花钱
　　
　　Pay to Play
　　
　　与所有成功的电子商务投资活动一样，团购网站在自己的各种功能定型之前，都很有可能要经历几番沉浮。不过，诸如Groupon、LivingSocial这样的公司已经成功起航，而这很大程度上是因为他们出色地融入了其所服务的市场。社交媒体平台既能让久违的朋友重逢，也能引见用户追求相同的目标的用户相识，团购优惠网站也利用几乎与此同样的方式，既帮助消费者重新认识他们所居住和玩乐的城市，也让他们与社区里那些志同道合但素昧平生的人彼此接触。正如互联网将一如既往地超越地理、社会和商业界限一样，网上购物越来越会成为“团队玩家”的天下——不过在这个“游戏”中，谁也不用坐冷板凳。
　　
　　As with all successful e-commerce ventures, group-buying websites will likely go through several iterations24) before they finalize their features. But Groupon, LivingSocial, and their ilk are off to a running start, and that’s largely because they’re so well integrated with the markets they serve. In much the same way that social-media outlets both reconnect long-lost friends and introduce users pursuing common goals, group-coupon sites help reacquaint consumers with the cities where they live and play, as well as expose them to like-minded members of their communities whom they haven’t met yet. As the Internet continues to transcend geographical, social, and commercial boundaries, online shopping is increasingly for team players—but in this sport, no one has to sit on the bench.