GrOffr is a very interesting startup. It is into group buying space. Wait. Did you say group buying? Yawn. Not too fast on that judgment button. GrOff isn’t offering 100 rupees off on a spa treatment or 10 rupees off on a hair cut. It is offering deals on high ticket items like houses and cars. The savings could run up to 100,000 rupees. Now that we got your attention, let’s dig in.

GroOffr is a startup from Sandeep Reddy and Vikhyat Srivatsava in 2010. Both were classmates at IIM Kozhikode, Kerala. The idea for GrOffr was started on this premise :

The first need of an MBA student is a laptop; every two years he would look for a new job, every five years he would need a new car, every seven-eight years he would need a new house, and every year he will fly abroad to vacations, Srivastava said in an interview. “We think we can club all these needs.” (Mint)

The result is a pretty interesting startup which provides group buying power to a group of individuals on real estate property, apartments and cars. Groffr provides two ways of group bargain: You can subscribe to Groffr negotiated bulk deals or you can form a group by looking for people with similar interests on Groffr.

Groffr has just received $1m funding from Indian Angel Network. It also acquired another group buying site MobStreet back in March, 2011. You might not be hearing about Groff as you might hear about Groupon or Snapdeal. That’s because there are less people buying the stuff Groffr offers. Or there are more people who think they can have a sustainable business by selling 50% off on a spa session.

There are multiple theories of sustainability in the group buying business. It is because these groupons are making the jobs of merchants a whole lot tougher. They often provide more than 50% cuts on regular services which means at some point it has to stop.

If I can quote the words of Russell Peters, group buying business in one sentence, it would be this :

“Someone’s gonna get hurt today”

To not get hurt, group buying should provide real value to both the merchants and customers. A saving of 100,000 rupees on a house purchase is something noteworthy and of greater value than saving 100 rupees on a hair cut. It is not often that you buy a house, but when you do, you expect the best deal. For merchants selling cars and real estate, Groffr means predictable business.

Groupon got it finally too. It started offering big ticket by sending a pre-owned car deal on its site –  $500 off on a pre-owned car from LaFontaine Auto Dealership, Detroit. Entry of groupon in to big ticket items only means one thing. There will be more coming in. Which only ratifies GrOff’s business model of big ticket items.

This is how group buying should have been all the way. Alas, better late than never.