The CrowdCartel Blog

The first collaborative buying platform exclusively for gamers has launched in the UK.

The basic idea of the Crowd Cartel platform is that users are able to organize themselves into groups and buy products they request as a single purchase, for a better price.

Since their launch in late 2017, the platform has grown to just under 3000 members. The early adopters consist almost exclusively of redditors, as many subreddits welcomed the idea of a platform where they could group together, and buy gaming products at a discount.

Gaming products are available to members at a discounted rate when a minimum or qualifying amount of sales are established. After the minimum is met, members are able to benefit from bulk-buying discounts for high-end pc hardware and peripherals.

The UK company offers members the ability to request and vote for items to be featured. Theo, one of the platform’s original founders, stated that “by offering members the ability to recommend and vote we are trying to give the gaming community a new and cheaper way to source those products they really want.”

Kristian, the other original founding member, described the original motivation behind the idea simply being that “it just didn’t make sense to us that all these people buying the same stuff couldn’t negotiate a better price.”

The website has already completed dozens of group buys and counts almost a three thousand members after only 4 months of being online. Redditors from r/mechanicalkeyboardsuk, r/buildapcsalesuk an r/pcmasterrace were the first to embrace the concept and now form the main core of the platform’s user base. As the community grows, users will have a larger amount of buying power and a larger say on what products get featured.

If you are interested in checking out the website and the first available products, visit www.CrowdCartel.co.uk now or you can join the conversation at the official subreddit at r/CrowdCartelGaming.      

Group buying is a viable option for PC gamers and modders wishing to build a PC on a tight budget. It allows you to benefit from the lower price of ordering as a group and save the valuable pounds and pennies which could be spent upgrading other aspects of your build. We are now offering a wide range of ALPHACOOL water-cooling parts up for vote on our website here. You can also request any ALPHACOOL products not featured here by e-mailing us direct at theteam@crowdcartel.co.uk

The first collaborative buying platform exclusively for gamers has launched in the UK.

The basic idea of the Crowd Cartel platform is that users are able to organize themselves into groups and buy products they request as a single purchase, for a better price.

Many of our users have asked us if we are essentially the UK version of Massdrop, or if that is what we are aiming for.

Although the similarities in the concept are clear, the way we operate is quite different. Our main differences are:

Our groups have both a minimum and a maximum order quantity:

Unlike massdrop that essentially dropships items after the minimum order quantity is met, we negotiate both a minimum and a maximum order. This allows us to negotiate an actual group buy where all members involved are necessary to making the purchase work. This type of group buy allows to negotiate a better price for a predetermined amount of products. The downside is that users can no longer purchase an item after the positions in the group are filled.

We only focus on one community:

Massdrop caters to a number of different communities and offers a wide selection of products. In contrast, we only focus on the gaming community and feature mostly PC components but also anything that could be related to gaming. We depend on our members’ requests to dictate what products we feature on our page.

We ship only to the UK and European countries:

We are UK based and aim to serve the UK and European gaming markets.  

As the e-sports industry increasingly grows in popularity, and competitions with millions of pounds in rewards become more commonplace, both professional and recreational gaming is cementing itself in the everyday lives of millions across the globe.

As an increasing amount of people take gaming seriously as either a sport or a hobby the number of products available to gamers has also increased accordingly. The gaming supplies and accessories has been around for decades but the sheer volume of new companies entering the marketplace and trying to compete seems to be at an all-time high.

An increase in competition is always positive for the community as it usually drives prices down and increases pressure on companies to offer better for value products. It also allows non-traditional commerce platforms such as our own collaborative buying platform CrowdCartel to operate.

As companies are eager to entice key gaming communities and introduce their product to a new audience they are more willing to offer bulk discounts to groups of gamers who act as a “buying cartel”. This allows companies to introduce or offer their product to a key segment of their target market while also protecting their average, single-sale, retail price.

Most gamers are already socialising either online or in person with the people they play games with but have yet to take advantage of their collective purchasing power. The design of our platform allows for gamers to recommend, vote and share items they would like to be featured giving the community true purchasing power. Items we get deals for that do not get the green light from the community never get featured on the site and nobody wastes their time waiting for a group buy that will never materialise.

Items that the community wish to see featured will go live after voting to ensure as little waiting as possible and a fast and cheaper transaction for all parties involved.

Allowing gamers the potential to harness their collective is possible but no easy task. CrowdCartel hopes to get the formula just right.