New Group Buying Website TheUForce.com Goes Live

EDINA, Minn., July 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Introducing TheUForce.com, a new group buying marketplace that harnesses the power of social media to allow consumers to join together and demand the best value for products and services. The site, which has just launched, is backed by the power of more than five million buyers poised and ready to make deals online.

Like Groupon or Living Social, TheUForce.com enables consumers to group together to get discounts on products and services. But unlike those sites, TheUForce.com allows consumers to buy what they already know they want. Rather than waiting for deals to come to them, members of TheUForce.com create buying missions that specify products or services they wish to buy, then band together with other buyers to force personalized group deals on the site.

National brands in categories like travel, wireless, computer hardware, eye care, floral gift, diet plans and financial services — including Travelocity, WireFly, Lenovo and AC Lens — make group offers to provide the requested product or service at a price that reflects that buying power. Other seller categories will include home services, car sales and services, pet products and services, and home improvement, with more being added daily.

TheUForce.com, supported by an advisory board including C-level executives from Best Buy, eBay, Harris Interactive and Experian, first came on the scene in February 2010 to recruit members interested in finding deals. In May, the company entered an agreement with Augeo Affinity Marketing, St. Paul, Minn., to reach more buyers. That deal instantly added more than five million consumers to TheUForce.com member base by partnering with Augeo's PerksCard platform, used by companies like Starbucks, Home Depot, Nascar and Pepsi as an employee benefit program.

TheUForce.com model offers sellers compelling economic benefits as well, including lower marketing costs, improved promotion conversion and promotional response speed. "We lower marketing costs for sellers because we already have members who have specific wants," says Andrew Atkin, founder and CEO, TheUForce.com. "There's no need for companies to advertise to find that needle in a haystack — they can turn right to TheUForce.com and find consumers ready to buy."

Sellers are anxious to tap into this new marketplace. "The ability to attract an active audience of shoppers engaged in the buying process was a key factor in our decision to work with TheUForce.com," says Robert Drumm, marketing manager, AC Lens, the full-service, direct delivery contact lens supply company.

"Lenovo is partnering with TheUForce.com to deliver special product and service offers right to the millions of members who are interested and looking to buy," says Darryl Bryan, Affinity Program Manager, Lenovo, a computer and technology product and service company. "That means we can reduce marketing costs and move inventory more quickly — and we reach an audience that is receptive to our offers."

In China, group buying, or tuangou, is a hot shopping trend. At a Chinese site like Qeeka.com, shoppers join a group looking for a deal, and are then sent to a retailer at a particular time to negotiate in-person, en masse. TheUForce.com improves on this model by taking it online, aggregating member needs and facilitating negotiations between the buying group and a retailer or service provider.

"Examples of current offers on TheUForce.com include 20-100 dollars off the lowest guaranteed hotel prices through our travel provider and five percent off the price for a leading manufacturer's laptops and other computers," says Atkin. "That's better savings than most consumers can find just searching online on their own."

TheUForce.com, the world's first social marketplace, is a Minnesota-based company led by Andrew Atkin, a senior executive with 23 years of experience starting and re-starting companies.  Atkin founded ClickIQ, an industry-leading market research technology platform that has been adopted by national brands like Best Buy, Gateway, Pizza Hut and Johnson & Johnson.  Anyone can create a personal MarketPlace in a five-minute, four-step process by visiting www.TheUForce.com and registering to become a member. You may also follow us @theuforce, find us on Facebook at UForce, and read our blog at http://themarketplaceproject.wordpress.com.

SOURCE TheUForce.com