Negotiation Process for Group-Buying in E-Commerce

Abstract

Group-buying was regarded as one of the most innovative business models of e-commerce and has been employed by many companies. However, the difficulties of synthesizing a group of needs of candidate buyers and buying a product or service have risen. For example, difficulties occur regarding how to synthesize individual preferences into the group consensus, how individuals communicate within the group, and how individuals collectively negotiate with the seller. This study proposes a buyer collective negotiation (BCN) model to synthesize buyers' preferences and allow the negotiation between buyers and sellers. The BCN model not only facilitates an individual to conduct the group-buying process, but also promotes sellers' sales. Finally, an example of the notebook purchasing process and implementation architecture for this model is described to show how this approach can be used.