Website Bundles Lawyer Purchases for Volume Discounts
The CEO of a new group-buying website for lawyers called GroupESQ hopes a snowball effect will lead to better and better discounts for its online buyers.
GroupESQ groups individual lawyer purchases to get a volume discount. The website went live last Tuesday, its CEO, Steven Choi, tells the ABA Journal. Six days later, six deals were offered by vendors ranging from a CLE provider to an alternative dispute resolution service to a litigation support company. More deals are in the pipeline, Choi says, including an offer from a company that plans adventure activities such as whitewater rafting.
Lawyers interested in a deal are invited to submit a purchase order, but it doesn’t become effective unless there are a minimum number of buyers by a set date, according to a press release. One court reporting service, for example, asks lawyers to pay only $5 for a $40 credit toward a paperless transcript. Twenty buyers must sign on to the deal by May 23.
Choi admits the groups will initially be smaller—and the deals slightly less enticing—until more lawyers learn about GroupESQ. “Once you get going and a lot of attorneys are involved, then the deals are going to get better and better,” he says.
“It’s kind of a chicken and egg situation,” he adds. “Once attorneys start making the purchases, that will lead to better deals, which will lead to more purchasers, which will lead to better deals.”
Choi, who also practices law at his Oakland, Calif., law firm, sees benefits both for lawyers and the companies that sell to them. Lawyers save money, and the companies find new customers with little marketing cost. GroupESQ earns a small commission when a deal goes through and nothing when there aren’t enough buyers in the group.
“It’s a win-win for everyone,” Choi says. “The companies get what they want, which is a lot of new clients, and the lawyers get what they want, which is a lot of lower prices for the things that they buy.”
The the GroupESQ service is offered by legal social networking site LawLink, Robert Ambrogi’s LawSites reports. “Anyone who has ever shopped at a warehouse discount store knows that buying in bulk can save you money,” the LawSites story says. “A new website extends that concept to lawyers.”
