E-commerce demand aggregation services company MobShop Inc. was selected to power group
buying on buyers.gov, the U.S. General Service
Administration’s (GSA) soon-to-launch new Web site for government procurement.
In the one-year pilot program being conducted by the Federal Technology
Service (FTS),
MobShop’s demand aggregation technology will power a group buying engine as
part of the buyers.gov eFast program, allowing the GSA to pool individual and
agency purchases for volume-based savings.
Financial arrangements were not
disclosed.
The technology will allow spot purchasing (high-volume, low dollar
transactions
such as one-time credit card purchases below $2,500) by government employees.
Products are offered in time-limited group buying periods called Buy-Cycles.
During this period, the more buyers who purchase the product, the lower the
price falls for everyone.
The FTS group is the technology products procurement agency in the federal
government responsible for purchasing more than $3 billion in technology
related products and services for federal employees each year.
The Web site will allow government employees and agencies to purchase computers, printers,
servers and other technology commodities through online auctions, demand
aggregation and by requesting price quotes.
The new group buying system will pool orders across a variety of federal
agencies to generate volume discounts. MobShop will implement its group
buying service for the GSA this summer.
“For a large organization like the GSA in particular, group buying provides a
way to better control spot purchasing expenditures while leveraging the size
of the entire enterprise for greater savings,” said Jim Rose, co-founder and
chief executive officer of MobShop Inc., formerly called Accompany Inc.