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Sunday 19 June 2011

Dell Swarm - The First & Most Successful Corporate Group Buying Platform

Last week I did a joint presentation with Euan Wilcox, Regional Managing Partner from The Upper Storey (the digital agency that both Dell and Intel have been working with on Dell Swarm since the beginning) on the state of Group Buying and Social Commerce. The key highlight was discussing the next phase in the evolution of Dell Swarm, Dell's group buying e-commerce platform.

Dell Swarm (Australia) - http://www.dellswarm.com/
Originally conceived as an Intel and Dell joint marketing effort, Dell Swarm was launched in Singapore in May 2009. As a marketing tool, it generated a lot of buzz but it wasn't the commercial success Dell was looking for. It evolved again and was re-released in Canada and more recently Australia. Each time, the Dell Swarm platform has evolved and improved.

This year, Dell Swarm has just launched in the UK, is going into a new version in Australia and will be launched in Singapore, Malaysia and Brazil in the next 2 months, and in other countries like Japan and China later this year.

What is remarkable about this is that Dell Swarm is the world's first corporate group buying / deal of the day / social commerce platform developed by a fortune 500 company. It's an incredibly bold move by Dell. However, when you consider Dell's amazing heritage in e-commerce it doesn't seem as surprising. For example Dell was:
  • The fist company to sell complex configurable items via e-commerce
  • The first company to reach US$1M a day in online revenue
  • One of the first to launch discussion forums (back in 1995)
  • One of the first to have online support / e-support
And now it is the first company to develop a group buying platform.

Here is a great video on how the Dell Swarm group buying platform works: . You can also find out more on Dell Swarm at: http://www.dellswarm.com/.

I'd love to hear your feedback on Dell Swarm as I'm globally leading the program (and I consider it my "baby"). Thanks!
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2 comments:

Aditya P. Soni said...

I would like to know which E-Commerce suite is Dell following. Do you have any idea in this regard ?
Are there any available online for free ?

8 August 2011 at 14:59
Anonymous said...

I've been monitoring the UK site recently and although it's a great idea to have an electronics based GroupOn style site, the lack of information on when and what swarms are coming can be a little frustrating. There was a countdown last week but it got to 0 with no swarm published. As the last deal sold out in less than 90 minutes, having the time of the swarm is vital.

The time between swarms (around 9 days in the UK) may also benefit from being reduced. Perhaps a smaller swarm of the day option on sub £100 items could be done Monday to Saturday with the swarm of the week on Sunday fitting into the current swarm format of costing > £100.

26 September 2011 at 04:01

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