Lemak Lemang

Tumpang.com... the online bulk discount store

This August 31 is Malaysia's 50th anniversary as an independent state. The same day, proponents of a Web site, dressed as "the world's premier Online Bulk Discount Store", will launch for a global audience.

Tumpang.com, anyone?

Tumpang--as a word pronounced "toom" as in "boom" and "pung" as in "rung"--may not ring a bell for anyone who doesn't undertand the Malay language. It has multi-prong meanings like "to hitch a ride", "pooling resources together" or "be defeated".



So how does hitching a ride got to do with online bulk discount? Or in simpler words, a Web shop for bargains?

Soft-launched in April this year to a Malaysia-specific audience, Tumpang.com promoters think the time is ripe to cross borders by tapping on the geography-irrelevant Internet. According to founder Jefrey Ong, Tumpang.Com facilitates a sales transaction by letting consumers pool their resources and collective influence to qualify and demand for bulk discount.

The notion of "crowd clout"
The magic comes from the concept of crowd clout–-where consumers wield far greater purchasing power by buying in bulk. "At Tumpang, the customer truly is king," said the company's senior marketing manager Raymond Chuah. "Retailers want to sell more and are willing to give huge discounts for bulk purchases," Chuah explained. "And this is where Tumpang comes in."

On the other side of the equation, users can post items for sale on Tumpang. Similarly, sellers (whom Tumpang calls the drivers) can post up items for sale offering a bulk discount for a specified quantity of that item.

Along the value chain, other users are then allowed to "tumpang" (hitch a ride) on this item to place orders. These buyers, or passengers as they are referred to in Tumpang, get to "ride" on this bulk and partake in the discount offered by the driver.

A fulfillment mechanism then closes the deal. The bulk order is then hinged onto the driver to ship and deliver the said items.

Yet another eBay?
Wait a minute, isn't this the B2B model before the dotcom boom bubbled and sizzled some 10 years ago? Or is this another reprise of eBay? The guys at Tumpang.com explained: "This fundamental crowd clout concept of Tumpang makes it very different from online auction sites like eBay." While auction sites have buyers competing with one another to purchase an item, Tumpang compels its users to collaborate with one another for good bargains. Makes sense?

To make Tumpang.com feel Web 2.0, it supports complex orders by organizing and managing the many buyers or passengers on the respective transaction status. Applications like SMS, private messaging and interactive comments are added in for the drivers and passengers to talk to each other.

What are the merchandise moved across the Tumpang platform? The guys said they include non-tangibles (read: Services and events) such as group holiday bookings, fishing trips and bowling outings, just to name a few. From a technology standpoint, Tumpang is going to adopt what Facebook has employed, rather successfully, that is opening its Application Programming Interface (API) for developers who may be keen to customize or integrate Tumpang into their blog or corporate Web sites.

For now, Web users can still make use of Tumpang's RSS feeds to see the latest items on sale.

Now, show us the money
On the issue of income stream, Tumpang said it will charge traders a fee for posting up items for sale. A driver of an article for sale must specify the standard price of his item and the discounted "Tumpang Price" he is offering to users. Charges are then computed--in Toints, Tumpang's lingo for points--based on the savings amount to manage fraud and prevent traders from over-declaring the savings of their sale.

So, you smell Toints to develop into eBays PayPal someday? "Yes, the fee is chargeable in Toints," said the Tumpang guys. Present rates for Toints are at US$0.01 per Toint. However, new members will be given 1,500 free Toints upon signing up.

By the way, Tumpang Malaysia was launched on April Fool's day this year. And no fooling around please as, to date, the site has garnered over 5,000 registered members. The Tumpang guys claim the site has helped Malaysian shoppers save almost RM90,000 (approximately US$25,000) in placing bulk orders.

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