My brother recently inspired me with an idea: GroupOn for Government.
GroupOn’s model works like this: GroupOn (or LivingSocial if you prefer), which markets your brand, gets a percentage of your sales if you sell over a set number of items.
A Government GroupOn could work like this: GSA negotiates daily or week-long deals with large corporations and small businesses throughout the country. For example, one business would sell its laptops at half price if it will can sell 500. This means agencies fill their needs while getting steep discounts and sellers get more customers and market exposure.
Certainly, there are limits to this model. Large government acquisitions work slower than consumer buys. However, it can apply to purchase card and simplified acquisition orders. Our federal government designed those processes for speed.
Additionally, this model could aim for deals specific to cities like Washington, DC or Philadelphia. Living
How would you improve the GroupOn for Government model?
Original Post: All Things Sterling
It has to be LivingSocial as they are in DC and want to represent..
Love the idea…could focus on items under the credit card limit – $3k
I have thought of this idea before too but figured it could not work because of acquisition laws – at least for local gov. The approval process most of us follow would also make implementation of this difficult. So for local govt, the state joint purchasing programs already in place are probably the closest we can some to this model. Unless elected officials can be convinced to change the laws and policies to allow for GroupOn type purchases.