Consumer Cost Concerns in an Online Group Buying Community: an Exploratory Study

The primary concept of online group buying business models is the lower prices the sellers can provide, due to the buyers’ collective bargaining power. We argued that price encompasses more than the dollar amount or financial cost to the consumer. Recently, consumer participating in ihergo’s online group buying community of CC2B e-commerce to buy products has been a prevailing and flourishing phenomenon in Taiwan. This paper aims to explore some emergent consumer cost concerns involved in participating and buying products in ihergo’s community. From literature review and Netnography, our results identify four basic types of consumer cost concerns: profit, value, belongingness, and self-achievement. These costs when paired with whatever value or utility the community offers, are a convenient way to consider the meaning of price to the consumer.

Citation:

Chih-Ping Chen (2012) ,"Consumer Cost Concerns in an Online Group Buying Community: an Exploratory Study", in AP - Asia-Pacific Advances in Consumer Research Volume 10, eds. , , and , Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 71-81.