Mutual shopping is a method of organizing shopping in which people come together to buy goods at wholesale prices directly from suppliers or manufacturers. This gives buyers significant discounts and provides sellers with good sales volumes. We talked to experts about how to take part in a joint hunt for cheap goods.

Retail at wholesale price

According to Artur Movsesyan, co-owner and development director of Sport Wholesaler LLC, who has been cooperating with joint purchase organizers (JPs) for 5 years, the JV’s operating scheme is simple.

“There are people who want to save money and purchase goods at a wholesale price (without a retail markup). On the other hand, there are wholesale or manufacturing companies that sell products only in bulk. Accordingly, the joint venture is link between these subjects.

How does this happen? On the part of the joint venture is the procurement organizer - a person who looks for suppliers of goods and organizes the purchase of goods itself. To do this, he contacts suppliers, requests purchasing conditions (minimum quantity, quantity, delivery time, etc.), and then posts, for example, on the forum this information. For services (organization of purchasing, logistics, storage of orders), the organizer of the joint venture takes from 10 to 20%. Thus, buyers pay an additional premium to the wholesale price,” said Arthur.

Each purchase has a deadline, that is, the date when the supplier stops accepting orders. Forum participants leave requests for a specific product. Each participant can order any product in any quantity. If the sum of all orders for a given supplier satisfies the minimum order conditions, then the purchase occurs; if not, it is disbanded.

Vladimir Ivliev, executive director of FindTenders.ru, adds: “The organizer collects orders and places them, for example, at a plant or factory (or companies close to it). Some factories (especially Russian ones) are categorically against this (the purchase organizer in this case writes “please do not call the factory and do not disrupt the purchase”), but the majority are happy to work. For example, for the purchase of goods from brands such as Kerry or Lenne, you can find several dozen purchases taking place simultaneously.”

The administrator of the service for the organizers of the Delenka joint venture, Mila Borodina, said that their site is only six months old, but the traffic it has now achieved indicates that the direction of joint purchases among Russians is very developed, and there are not many offers from the joint venture.

“There are few joint venture sites that can boast a wide assortment with model and size subsorting (on Delenka you don’t need to accumulate orders for one model different sizes, you can choose any models and sizes - the main thing is that the goods are from the same warehouse), says Mila. - Our secret of success is that Delenki’s warehouses are ordinary retail stores that display their assortment in an online showcase with a small wholesale margin of 15–20% (in retail the minimum possible margin is 70%, and even this is rare, usually 90– 100). By connecting to an online storefront, warehouse owners do not have to create their own website, hire people to promote it on the Internet, etc. For this, they have to pay a small commission for each online order.”

Two sides of the coin

“The joint venture has a huge number of advantages. The most obvious is the price, plus additional ones: get-togethers, reviews, assortment, receiving goods close to home. Among the disadvantages, I would include the risks associated with waiting: you usually have to wait a little longer than usual (from 3–5 days to 2 months),” said Mikhail Iosilevich, owner of Tesla LLC, who, together with his partners, has been involved in JV in Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg and Novosibirsk

In addition, Vladimir says that often during joint purchases there is an “addition” section, where things go that for some reason were left over from previous buyouts. Among them you can buy goods at very competitive prices without waiting for collection and delivery.”

Arthur Movsesyan adds that with the help of a joint venture you can purchase goods that are not sold in your city, which is especially important for distant regions of the country. “The only thing is that often a person orders a pig in a poke, because there is no way to try on the products, feel the texture, etc., plus there is a long waiting period for the goods, and this does not suit everyone.”

Foreign purchases

The history of the emergence of joint purchases shows that this trading instrument appears as a market reaction to a drop in citizens’ incomes.

This was the case in the 1860s in the United States, when the first buyers' association known to us appeared. The founder of the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, George Gilman, invented a fundamentally new marketing technique. He sent “chain letters” to his neighbors, in which he proposed creating “shopping clubs” for joint orders of tea and coffee with a decent discount for wholesale. The goods were delivered weekly, and the organizers received an additional package of the drink for their efforts.

Several large product catalog sites offering group shopping emerged in the United States in the late 1990s. They were intermediaries between suppliers of goods and buyers. In Russia, joint ventures appeared in the mid-2000s with the light hand of young mothers. They offered to unite and make collective purchases on various forums. And after a certain time, the most active ones themselves began organizing wholesale purchases for a small percentage.

PR manager of the Parenting Center family complex Marina Soboleva says: “For the first six months after the birth of my son, I more than actively participated in foreign purchases of popular brands such as Gymboree, George, Crazy, H&M, Dorothy Perkins, etc. The difference in quality and price is simple indecent. All this happiness was slowed down by the increase in the exchange rate, but she managed to dress her son for 2–2.5 years in advance. Only recently I started buying a little more, and he turns 2 years old in a month. Before that, I only wore “overseas” new clothes, and for a long time - they seemed to grow with the child.”

Vladimir Ivliev only once resorted to joint purchases directly from a foreign website of an online store: “Many foreign internet Stores do not deliver to Russia or do it very expensively, but joint purchases allow you to divide these costs among several people. Well, volume discounts never hurt.”

Price issue

How much can you really save on joint purchases? There is no clear answer to this question. It all depends on the product. For example, 1 kg of Italian chocolate costs about 440 rubles, while in retail for this money you can only buy a 200-gram bar. True, this example is “record-breaking.” The markup on computers is small (about 9%), so they are not purchased in bulk.

As a rule, the difference is 50%, but it can be 5–10%, which still does not stop Russians from joint purchases. In addition to a good price and the opportunity to save money, people also get a larger assortment available in wholesale warehouses.

“I use joint purchasing to purchase children's goods, especially clothing,” says Vladimir Ivliev. - There are several Russian sites specializing in this, but I prefer babyblog.ru. Now this is not just a forum, but a full-fledged web service. Since I have been using it for 5 years, I already know most of the suppliers and I can trust them. The most frequent order that I have had to deal with is the order of Finnish (and not only) outerwear. These things are quite expensive, it is safe to send them by mail, the sizes are clear and you can try them on in any store before ordering there. The benefits are tangible, sometimes up to half the cost (2 years ago Kerry’s overalls in stores would have cost 3 thousand rubles, but on this site I bought it for 1,700).”

Store killers?

Is such user activity beneficial for business? Yes and no. On the one hand, many wholesale companies or manufacturers have their own or partner retail stores. If a supplier begins to work with a joint venture, he deliberately sets out on a path of contradictions with them and retail clients. On the other hand, every business strives to increase sales. Therefore, many companies still find ways to cooperate with joint ventures, without harming store customers.

“Firstly, the contingent of people buying in a store and through a joint venture is different: buyers who want to receive service (try on a product, understand whether it suits them or not), as well as buyers who need to receive the product here and now, are ready to overpay a little and go to the store. The category of buyers who, for the sake of a small difference in cost, are willing to wait for goods for several weeks, and sometimes months, will order through a joint venture. Therefore, the joint venture will never become a “store killer.” Secondly, not all people know about joint ventures, and some do not trust them, so out of habit they go to the store to do their shopping,” Arthur Movsesyan argues his point of view.

Marina Soboleva believes that this system with a joint venture is beneficial for representatives of business and production - they sell additional volumes of goods regularly. “But large and well-known brands do not really welcome joint ventures (a lot of fuss, risks of delays in payment, which is critical for them, etc.). This is why hidden joint ventures appear, accessible, relatively speaking, only to a select few. As for procurement organizers, they say that for those who are active and have managed to secure really cool procurements in popular niches, this is the main source of income, quite the average market salary.”

Over the past year, even those who previously did not pay attention to price tags in stores are now looking at them, comparing and looking for where it is cheaper. That's why the demand for Joint purchases is growing, and the number of online services that optimize the process is increasing.

And much more at wholesale prices.

The audience of our site is Internet users: organizers and buyers who want to purchase goods at wholesale prices.

We have been working since 2014, we are already more than 3 years old) All this time we have been constantly developing and growing, making our website even more convenient and understandable, constantly expanding the functionality of the site.

We employ about 200 organizers from different cities of Russia, they carry out more than 1,200 purchases for you, offering more than 1,500,000 products in different categories, from food to furniture.

Let's figure out what a joint purchase is and.

1. How does joint venture occur?

3. How to pay for your order

Main payment methods:

1. On bank card organizer

2. Cash upon meeting

3. To an electronic wallet

4. To the organizer’s bank account

After the purchase has been completed, you must pay for the order (the organizer will change the purchase status to “Payment”, you will receive a written notification about this). Pay for your order only when payment for the purchase is announced, or if the organizer asked you to pay in advance (for example, in the case of a pre-order).

After payment you need to notify the organizer about this. To do this, go to “My Orders”, then follow the link “Specify payment information” and “Add payment”. The data you enter is saved automatically. After the purchase organizer receives your payment, he will confirm the payment and you will see in the “My Orders” section that your payment has been accepted.

More about payment methods

4. How to receive an order

Each organizer has its own conditions for the delivery of your order, all of them are specified in the terms of purchase. The organizer must hold at least one meeting (usually some metro station is chosen for this - for organizers from Moscow), and there is also usually pick-up and courier delivery. Recently, more and more often our organizers are using pick-up points. We recommend that you familiarize yourself with the delivery terms in advance before placing your purchase order.

Learn more about how to receive your order

Concept firmly rooted in the modern life of people who value their time and money.

Terms and concepts of Joint purchases:

• Procurement Participant (Buyer, UZ)- registered p user from the website who accepted and expressing the intention to purchase the goods
• Organizer- a user who created an offer on the website for the sale of goods (purchase). Can work on 100% prepayment from procurement participants
• Organizational percentage %- the remuneration that the organizer receives for his services in organizing the purchase.
• Ransom- one of the stages purchases , when created aboutThe organizer provides participants with access to information aboutproducts placed by him on theinformation, and indicates their cost, procedure and terms of order, payment and receipt
• STOP- end date for accepting orders from JV participants. Once STOP is announced by the organizer, you cannot refuse the order.
• Annex- sale of new, unsuitable for some reason, goods from the purchase.
• Minimum ransom amount (minimum)- minimum purchase amount
• Re-grading- product of the same article, but of a different color or size
• Size range- a certain quantity of one article required for purchase from the supplier
• Pre-order- the goods are not yet in stock, but there is already a price list and you can place an order, redemption is made as the goods arrive at the supplier’s warehouse
• Prepayment- collection of payment for orders after STOP is announced before the supplier issues an invoice.
• Novice organizer - an organizer who decided to try himself in this field for the first time. Can only open 1 purchase. The second and subsequent ones can be opened only after one successful redemption. The first purchase can be made with a 50% prepayment
• Successful redemption - a redemption completed by the distribution of goods, which took place without complaints from participants
• Giveaway- delivery of goods to procurement participants. Distribution includes meetings, pick-up, courier delivery, and pick-up points. More details

Everyone knows that the price of goods offered in a store includes rent, the seller’s salary, and, of course, a percentage of the store owner’s profit. The price in a store for the same item will be 2-3 times more expensive than in a joint venture.

The unshakable truth of trade applies - wholesale is cheaper. And the benefit reaches half the retail price, and sometimes more.

Main redemption statuses in Joint purchases:​

• Collection of orders- redemption is open, orders are being collected.
• Order collection is over- the collection of orders is completed, the organizer stops the purchase, clarifies prices with the supplier, and sends an application to the supplier. Automatic change order statuses "New" => "Fixed".
• Additional order- re-opens the acceptance of orders, for example, for refills due to the lack of part of the ordered goods from the supplier. Automatic change of order statuses "New" => "Fixed".
• Payment- redemption participants are notified of the need to pay for their order within the time period specified in the note, you can start a new ransom. Automatic change of order statuses "New, Fixed" => "Included in invoice".
• Payment to the supplier- informing that the process of payment to the supplier is in progress.
• Order on the way- all orders have been paid, data has been sent to the supplier, participants are awaiting their orders.
• Product distribution- the package has arrived, participants are notified about where and when they can pick up their orders. Automatic change of status of existing orders to "Delivery".
• Completed- all orders have been distributed, the purchase is completed. Installed when the buyout is successfully completed.
• Suspended- used if you need to suspend the repurchase, for example due to your temporary absence or an unclear situation with the supplier.
• Canceled- The redemption did not take place, orders are automatically transferred to the status “Canceled by the organizer”.

Benefits of joint purchases:​

So, let's summarize. With what :

1. There is no need to overpay for the goods, the wholesale price with the organizational percentage is still much lower than in retail networks or even on the market, because the price does not include rent of premises, salary to the seller, utilities, and transportation costs.

2. No need to waste time and go shopping looking for the desired product, just click the mouse and order.

3. The organizer will always help you figure out the choice of goods WITHjoint purchases.

4. Unlimited variety of goods for purchase in WITHjoint purchases from stationery to household appliances and furniture.

5. You can always find a scarce product that is not available in stores in your city.

6. Possibility to order goods from foreign sites and receive them at a wholesale price!

7. Participants WITHjoint purchase a lot, so delivery is much cheaper, since it is divided among everyone.

8. You can place an item that does not suit you for any reason in the section , and you can boast about a successful purchase in

Why us:​

Our service provides a platform for conducting procurement completely free of charge, without collecting any commissions or entry fees from both participants and procurement organizers.

We have welcoming and friendly organizers, ohvery big choice goods, wide coverage of cities in which procurement is carried out, procurement participants from all over Russia and Crimea! Current new products appear very often, prices for goods of any category are the lowest among many joint purchasing sites, since our organizers take a very responsible approach to choosing suppliers.

We tried to make a simple and understandable website, open to everyone who wants to organize joint purchases and participate in them. We update regularly, constantly adding new ones interesting features, and a lot of interesting things await us: we are just at the beginning of the journey.

More information about the functionality of the site

We wish you successful shopping and pleasant communication!

One cannot but agree that the difficult economic situation in the country is forcing people directly involved in business to look for new ways of development, ways to stay afloat. From here, fresh, non-standard solutions emerge that no one has ever even thought about before. How do you, for example, like the idea of ​​joining together via the Internet in order to buy something by sharing or at a lower price than in retail? Today we’ll talk about the unique one that successfully implemented this idea.

What is the "Skladchina" service?

The online service "Skladchina" is a platform where people can unite with each other with a mutual interest in buying something at a good price. This could be food, household goods, children's products, etc.

The target audience of the service is both ordinary individuals and representatives of small and medium-sized businesses. Who would refuse to buy a product cheaper or at a good discount, right? :) And by the way, this is beneficial for both the seller and the buyer - after all, the difference between the cost of purchase and sale allows the entrepreneur to have cash flow. It is always more profitable for the seller to sell as large a volume of goods as possible, even at a good discount - in any case, he will always remain in the black. The golden rule of wholesale trade “more volume - lower price” has not yet been canceled. The benefit is mutual - everyone is happy :)

Moreover, such a purchasing mechanism is perfect for those entrepreneurs who are not yet focused on large wholesale orders or have a limited budget and want to buy a small batch of goods at a minimum price (for example, a trial batch). It also allows those businessmen who cannot do this in real life for obvious reasons to unite into a mutually beneficial tandem.

How does the joint shopping service work?

The creators themselves call their service an “online trading reduction for joint purchasing.” All its participants influence the final cost of the product, and each buyer receives the product at the lowest price. To better understand this scheme, I recommend watching this video, after which everything becomes clear:

Let's take a closer look at the trading mechanism on the Skladchina service. So, the service puts up some product for sale - LOT. It, in turn, consists of BIDs - small wholesale lots, which represent the minimum order in a LOT. A LOT has a starting price at which it is put up for auction, and there is a final (finishing) price at which it is given to the buyer.

Each participant in the pool, buying his BID in the LOT, reduces the cost from start to finish. Thus, the more bidders, the lower the final cost of the goods. This is the meaning of a joint purchase or a chip-in purchase.

Bidding lasts from one to five days. If the LOT time has expired, then the goods are sold at the “Stop price”, i.e. the price at which the auction stopped.

For each product, depending on the entry point to it (through the Product Catalog, the “Active Sharings” menu, the “Inactive Sharings” menu, the “Veche” section) you can find out the following information:

• Product description
• How many requests were left by other users?
• Starting and finishing cost
• Are there any auctions for this item?
• If there is no bidding, see if there are preliminary bids and how many there are, and also find out the preliminary start date of the pooling

For a product of interest, for which there is no bidding yet, you can leave your preliminary application, after which you will be regularly informed about the ongoing preparation of the pool for it.

Benefits of the service

We have already talked about the mutual benefit of the seller and the buyer above - we will not dwell on this. The great advantage of the service is its complete transparency of work and automation of all actions.

It is no secret that the principle of conscientious purchasing or shared purchases is not new, however, in RuNet it is represented by almost gray schemes in the form of specialized groups on forums and in in social networks. Consent there occurs verbally, by mutual agreement, and its parties are not protected from deception or fraud.

There are also online service s, which are built on a very primitive system of “catalogue-organizers” and have many disadvantages, including the lack of automation of trading and the inability to achieve the truly lowest possible price for a product.

Our video about how the Skladchina service works:

Bottom line

Let's summarize and outline those positions that distinguish the Skladchina service:

1. The influence of buyers on the final cost of goods
2. Automation of the search process, collection of applications, notification and bidding
3. Opportunity to participate in bidding for both legal entities and individuals
4. The service can operate in any region, and delivery to buyers at the auction location is free
5. The service is free for users

Attention! The project is currently closed and no longer available.