More customers pay less
Through Germany’s first crowdfunding portal Zita.de, customers are joining forces to get the strongest offerings for services and products.
“The power of the customer was underestimated for years,” says Christian Wagner. “But if you bundle and organize them in larger groups, you can communicate with providers on equal terms.” Together, Christian Wagner and Tammo Gerdes have developed the idea for the crowdfunding portal Zita.de – a kind of comparison portal 2.0. It is the result of an internal start-up program at the Oldenburg energy company EWE.
The crowd does it
The principle behind Crowdfunding is very simple: As many people as possible should join together via Zita.de to form buyer groups – so-called Crowds – in order to receive a better offer than when buying one-offs. “We’re looking for the best value for money for our users – and that’s the best way to optimize the size of the group,” says Tammo Gerdes.
In the start phase, new deals are unlocked every Monday at 12 noon. Therefore, interested people join the crowd within a week; starting from a certain Crowdgröße the current deal comes off then. The beginning is private liability insurance. On January 14, follows a mobile flat-rate including Samsung Galaxy S9, on January 21, the textbooks subscription Blinkist.
Free use
Even this bandwidth shows: there are no limits. For instance, whether energy supply, insurance, telecommunications or service contracts: After the start phase, the members of the crowd should decide for themselves which deals are interesting for them. Zita.de thus provides a classic win-win situation: Customers receive transparent, trusting offers on the best terms, providers win more customers. “In doing so, we want to offer the highest possible transparency without hidden contractual clauses,” stresses Tammo Gerdes.
Being a potential customer to join a crowd costs nothing. It is a question of interest. Only at the binding conclusion of a contract or purchase the costs for the service or the product are billed.
Also published on Medium.