Accompany Inc. is planning a new online buying service designed to leverage
the power of the Internet “to bring people together in real time to pool their
purchasing power.”
Customers will access Accompany’s
service directly or through a partner site. After deciding which
product to purchase, customers will join that product’s
Buy-Cycle–the period of time during which an item is open for buyers to
join the purchasing process. The more people who join, the more the price
continues to drop, the company said.
Accompany said it will employ its patent-pending demand coordination engine
that enables individual buyers to transact as a group. Customers will be
billed at the Buy-Cycle’s close, usually at a price significantly lower than
when they joined, the company said.
Each customer is encouraged to refer friends and family to Accompany through
its “Word of Mouse” e-mail program.
“We feel that Accompany will fundamentally change the way buyers and sellers
do business on the Internet, shifting the balance of power from seller to
buyer through aggregation, access and advocacy. We feel that a customer is
truly empowered
when marketed to one-to-one, yet able to transact many-to-one,” said Jim Rose,
CEO and co-founder of Accompany.
Accompany said its buyer advocacy model encourages customers and suppliers to
work together to extract the greatest value possible from volume sales.
The San Francisco-based company said it filed for a patent on its demand
coordination technology and business model in early February and will launch
later this month.
