Lifestyle
Mydala.com: Big discounts with on-line group buying!
By Sahar Adil
Published: April 14 2010
Mydala brings the power of on-line group buying to web users in some of the major cities in India. Bangalore is the latest to hop onto the Big Discount mydala.com bandwagon.
Mydala.com brings the benefit, scope and power of group buying to the online community in India. The site offers heavy duty discounts starting from 40% going up to 90% on services like spas, salons, restaurants, shopping, travel deals, IPL tickets, movie tickets even dance classes. The list is extensive, exhaustive and fresh. The idea here is to offer a group bargain to buyers, where the buyers can either form their own group, or be part of a group that is online buying into bargains on the same product. The discount is only valid if they manage to sell a certain quantity within a certain time. After the user has charged the amount on his card (credit or debit) or via IVR, the charge goes through only when the number of buyers for a product/service is reached within the stipulated time. If not all orders remain cancelled.
The inspiration for the name mydala.com, comes from the Sanskrit word for group, "dala" . Hence Mydala.com which reflects in the very essence of the on-line 'group buying' portal.
Currently mydala.com has a great deal with YLG Salon & Spa with discounts upto 70% . they have already sold over 125 vouchers of the same. Some of the more popular deals have been the one's with 13th Floor for great food and drinks at neat discounts.
The site has over 23,000 fans on its Facebook page since it went online in December. Mydala also has a popular Twitter following , with their Twitter page constantly updating users on the new deals that are happening across the country. As far as optimising their social media tools the group buying site is on the ball and even has a fan page on rediff. This portal is really quickly earning its spurs in the sphere of online shopping. mydala.com has sold close to 5000 deal vouchers in Delhi and Mumbai, helping people save over Rs.30,00,000 off the retail price, in the past 5 months of its launch. The concept is the brainchild of woman -entrepreneur Anisha Singh, who began her career on Capitol Hill working with the Clinton administration at National Women’s Business Association, helping women entrepreneurs raise funding for innovative women-led businesses.
Mydala.com offers group discounts on diverse products & services.“mydala is changing the way people go shopping, and focuses on getting you the best city-specific deals on casual dining and fast-food restaurants, shopping (clothing, handbags, shoes, etc.), health and beauty (massages, salons, gyms, etc.), recreation (movies, paintball, bowling, etc), services (drycleaners, cooking classes, dancing lessons, etc), and events (live music concerts, cricket matches, etc). Once you have benefited from mydala’s really deep discounts ranging from 40% to 90%, there is no way you will ever want to pay retail again. We have already partnered with more than 200 popular businesses across India and are in active discussion with many more,” says Anisha, founder and CEO, mydala.com,
Club M
Additionally if you are a come back buyer on Mydala.com you can become eligible for membership into Club M that provides additional opportunities avail weekly supersaver deals.
Says Anisha Singh, founder and CEO, mydala.com, “Club M supersaver deals are our way of saying ‘Thank You’ to the mydala fans for being a part of our group buying community. Typically, each Club M supersaver deal will be available for a limited time, and will offer the club members a discount ranging between a minimum of 80% and up to an unbelievable 99%. In fact, we wanted to announce this beginning this month, but waited for few days so people do not take it to be an April Fool’s Day joke! Even during our pilot test of Club M supersaver deals, we’ve already started receiving excellent reviews from people who believe this is too good to be true.”
Supersaver until September for CLUB M Members
Currently for Club M members mydala.com has Baskin Robbins vouchers worth Rs.100 which will be available at a 90% of Rs.10! These can be redeemed at across India anytime until September 30, 2010. mydala is garnering fantastic response to its supersaver deals with several Club M members already having bought the deal. Some of the other upcoming Club M deals will feature Shopper’s Stop
New and Innovative Features
Other innovative features to propel India’s online power for group buying are offers like a daily side deal, in addition to a daily deal, to offer more choice online shoppers. Mydala has also made the graphic user interface viewer-friendly and user friendly. The discussion box helps people post their comments directly from the website, while the “Map It” button helps them to locate the partnering retailer easily to avail the discounted deal.” Gifting is available on all deals promoted on mydala. Also, each referral that converts into a buy gets you Rs.100/- extra discount on your future purchases.
How mydala was able to make this a feasible and sustainable business model for itself and its associated retailers as it offers these massive discounts?
Anisha Singh says, that the ripple effect of Indian social media has been a driving force in the same, “Initially, we had an arduous challenge of convincing retailers to provide discounts as deep as 40-90%. Since we started with a small base of people who knew mydala.”
Their initial effort involved promoting these deals to the right audiences , that would then form the “groups” so that the deals could then go live. Now mydala is getting reverse inquiries from retailers whiel its fan base on Facebook continues to grow with enquiries on deals in more cities including Chennai, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Jalandhar, Jaipur, etc. “Given the logistical challenges, we can’t launch in all cities at once, but we hope to be expanding very soon and will be present in most of the major cities in India by end of this year,” Anisha adds as a final, positive note.
1 comments
Joydeep
Apr 19th, 2010 06:54 PM
Looks like a exact copy of Grabbon.com to me which is sister concern of world famous Groupon.com with a business model mainly focusing on Group discounts.
Grabbon was formed in Aug 09, and Mydala came to existence in Nov 09. I guess grabbon should contact copyscape.com
