How it works

How It Works

how group buy works with oSplit

oSplit is a peer-to-peer group buying platform; it allows participants to reserve Items.
Reservations can either be Allocated or In-Queue based on availability. When a Reservation is allocated, the corresponding amount is deducted from the participant's Collab Wallet balance.
The example goes through different scenarios, including Reservations, Reservation approvals & allocations, charges & refund to Collab Wallet balance, requirement changes, and cancellations. It demonstrates how Reservations are allocated or In-Queue and prioritized. The Deal ends with Item distributions and balance settlement.

oSplit is a platform that offers a different approach to purchasing goods and services compared to traditional ecommerce. oSplit deviates from the conventional buyer-seller model and adopts a group-buy approach. It involves an organizer (group leader) and participants coming together for purchasing goods and services.

A Deal is equivalent to a product in traditional ecommerce. Within each Deal, there are multiple Items, which can be thought of as variants of a product. Organizers take on the role of the sellers in traditional ecommerce, as they are responsible for organizing and coordinating the group's purchase of a particular Deal. Participants, on the other hand, take on the role of the buyers, joining the Deal and reserving the Item they wish to purchase. Given that some Deals on oSplit may involve group sharing or other situations where trust is a concern, each Deal is given the ability to limit the Participants who can join and may require the organizer's Approval for each Reservation.

Unlike traditional ecommerce, where a purchase is typically completed at the point of sale, making a Reservation of an Item on oSplit does not guarantee a successful purchase. Instead, a minimum requirement (of group Reservations) such as the number of Items reserved, the amount of money raised, or other criteria, referred to as the Trigger must be met to successfully complete the purchase.
When a participant reserves an Item on oSplit, the Reservation is initially put In-Queue. Depending on the specific Deal's Trigger, the Reservation may then be transitioned or changed to an Allocated status. At the end of the Deal, the Items are distributed to the Participants with Allocated Reservations, while those with In-Queue Reservations do not receive the Items.

The Collab Wallet takes the role of a credit card, where the system operates as if two users issue virtual credit cards to each other, consolidating their balances into one. Just like a credit card, users can extend Credit Limits to each other, allowing for negative balances, facilitating Reservations without upfront payment.
When a Reservation is Allocated, the Collab Wallet is charged accordingly. On the other hand, if the Allocated Reservation is cancelled or moved back to the In-Queue, the refund will be reflected in the Collab Wallet. Just like with a credit card, you don't pay for each individual Item you purchase; instead, you pay the balance of the Collab Wallet.
To settle the balance, users need to transfer or provide cash and create a Transaction to notify that the payment has been made. The other party then verifies and accepts the Transaction, ensuring transparency and accountability in the payment process.
The purpose of the Collab Wallet is to avoid credit card-related fees.

In contrast to traditional e-commerce platforms that typically require a Delivery option and associated costs for the buyer, oSplit does not impose mandatory delivery for Items. This gives organizers the flexibility to designate pick-up locations, personally delivering the Items themselves or even eliminate the need for delivery altogether, particularly in the case of group sharing arrangements.
The organizer can communicate the distribution method through the Potential Participant Note and Participant Note.

We believe that oSplit operates in a manner that aligns with people's general sense of fairness when making group purchases. The following principles guide the process:

oSplit follows the principle of "first come, first served", ensuring that participants with enough balance are Allocated Items based on their Reservation time.
If a Reservation cannot be used immediately, it will be placed on the In-Queue. This may occur due to Item limitations, unfulfilled requirements (such as not reaching the minimum money raised), or insufficient funds from the participant.
Once a Reservation can be used, it will be allocated to a specific Item.
At this point, the corresponding amount is deducted from the user's Collab Wallet balance.
Both participants and the organizer have the ability to cancel Reservations if necessary.
Allocated Reservations will not be returned to the In-Queue unless someone else cancels their Reservation. This cancellation must result in unfulfilled requirements to trigger the return to the In-Queue.

Initially, The organizer creates and starts a Deal with the following settings:

Participants are limited to Friends, and the Approval option is set to Approve All, meaning all Reservations will be automatically approved.
The minimum requirement is 3 Items, and the maximum limit is 5 Items.
The Deal consists of 2 Items: Square (limited to 3) and Triangle (no Item limit). Both Items are priced at $10.
Reservation can't be cancelled after 10:30, and the Deal will end at 15:00.

The example uses the Count Trigger, but the described features are applicable to other triggers as well, with the main difference being how the Deal is triggered, whether it's turned on, off, or transitions to a higher or lower tier price.
more on Trigger

Here are the initial Balance and Credit Limit for each of the organizer's friends:

Ben: $50 Balance and $15 Credit Limit.
Cindy: $0 Balance and $0 Credit Limit.
Dan: $0 Balance and $40 Credit Limit.
Emily: $7 Balance and $5 Credit Limit.

That's the basic

Feel free to continue reading to explore a detailed explanation of how oSplit works.

At 05:00, Ben decided to cancel his Reservations, which is allowed as long as the Deal hasn't ended or the Cancellation Deadline hasn't passed. Ben's Balance is refunded.
With Ben's cancellation, there are now only 2 eligible Item Reservations, which doesn't meet the minimum requirement. As a result, Cindy's Reservations transition to the In-Queue, and her Balance is refunded.
Ben's cancellation and the resulting change in the Deal's status (from On to Off) will negatively impact his reputation.
more on Reputation

If the Deal were to end at this point, it would be considered as unsuccessful.
Ben's Balance would be reverted back to $50 (from $40), and he wouldn't be entitled to any Items.
Cindy would have a Balance of $20 (as a result of transferring $20 from her bank to the organizer's), but she wouldn't be entitled to any Items.

At 05:30, the organizer decides to change the minimum requirement to 2.
With this adjustment, the existing Reservations now meet the minimum requirement, and Cindy's Reservations transition to the Allocated status. The Balance is reduced accordingly.

At 06:00, the organizer further modifies the approval setting to Approve Manually.
At 06:30, Ben reserves 2 Squares and 1 Triangle. Since the approval is manual, the organizer needs to manually approve the Reservations before placing them on the In-Queue.
At 07:00, the organizer approves the 2 Squares, setting the approval time for this Reservation to 07:00. However, the 1 Triangle Reservation hasn't been approved yet, so there is no approval time for it.
Only 3 Squares are available, and Cindy has already taken 2 of them, resulting in only 1 of Ben's Square Reservations being Allocated.

Even though Ben's initial Reservation was made earlier than Cindy's, that Reservation was already cancelled, and Ben's new Reservations are now later than Cindy's.

At 07:30, Dan, who has enough Credit Limit for 4 Squares/Triangles, reserves 4 Squares and 1 Triangle. At 08:00, the organizer approves all of Dan's Reservations. Subsequently, the organizer changes the approval setting back to Approve All.
At 08:30, Dan increases his Triangle Reservations from 1 to 7, adding 6 more. Since the approval is now set to Approve All, Dan's Reservations are automatically approved.

If there were other participants with Triangle Reservations made at 08:15, it wouldn't be fair if Dan's last 6 Triangle Reservations were given priority over those made before 08:15, or if all of Dan's Triangle Reservations were prioritized below 08:15 Reservations.
The fair approach is to allocate Reservations based on their actual approval times. Therefore, there are 2 Triangle Reservations for Dan.

However, Dan's Square Reservations aren't transitioned to the Allocated status because Cindy and Ben have already taken all the available Squares.
Dan is allocated 2 Triangles instead of 3 because there are already 3 Item Reservations (Ben: 1 Item, Cindy: 2 Items) in total, and only 2 more Items are allowed based on the Deal's limit (the limit is 5).
Meanwhile, Ben's last Triangle Reservation is not yet approved.

Why Dan's 08:30 Triangle Reservation is allocated, while Ben's 07:00 Rectangle Reservation is In-Queue?
This is because all 3 Squares are already allocated (meeting the maximum limit), but the Triangle doesn't have an Item limit, so it is available. Dan's 08:00 Square Reservation is still waiting to be allocated.
The Trigger doesn't prioritize who gets the Item first; it controls which Items are available or should be prioritized.

At 09:00, the organizer approves Ben's Triangle Reservation.
Although Triangles have no Item limit, the Deal's maximum limit has been reached, so Ben's Reservation is placed on the In-Queue.
Even though Ben's Reservations were made earlier, Dan's Reservations have priority as they were approved first.

Approving Reservations allows the organizer to determine the allocation priority, regardless of the order of Reservation.
While this might appear unfair, organizers may have varying levels of trust among participants, particularly in sharing situations, leading to allocation prioritization.
Re-approving a previously approved reservation alters the approval time, whereas revoking approval a reservation will remove the approval time.
However, re-approving or revoking approval of a Reservation will not transition previously Allocated Reservations to the In-Queue state or vise versa.
more on Approval

At 10:00, Dan reduces his Triangle Reservation from a total of 7 to 5. The platform removes the excess Triangle Reservations, starting with the In-Queue ones, while maintaining the same approval time when the Reservations were initially approved (08:30). Dan's Triangle Reservations still have higher priority over Ben's Triangle Reservations.

By removing Reservations starting from the last approved Reservation first, maintaining the same approval time, and reducing the In-Queue Reservations first, it ensures that participants still have priority for their earlier Reservations, and Allocated Reservations will remain allocated if possible.

Based on the existing settings, at 10:30, the Deal becomes locked, preventing participants from reducing their Reservations (except for the organizer, who can cancel anyone's Reservations before the Deal ends). However, new and existing participants can still make new Reservations.
more on Cancellation Deadline

At 11:00, the organizer cancels Cindy's Reservation (2 Squares).
The Square allocation goes to Ben first, and since Ben only needs 1 more Square, the remaining Square goes to Dan

However, Dan's Triangle Reservations and Ben's Triangle Reservations are not transitioned to the Allocated state because the maximum limit for the Deal has been reached.

At 12:00, the organizer increases the maximum limit to 7. There is no change to Dan's Square Reservation since there are no more available Squares. Only 1 of Dan's Triangle Reservations is moved to the Allocated state because he only has a $40 Credit Limit, which is enough to pay for 1 Square and 3 Triangles.
Similarly, only 1 of Ben's Triangle Reservations is moved to the Allocated state because the maximum limit is set to 7 (even though he has enough funds), and he has the least priority at this time.

Dan also transfers $50 to the organizer's bank, but since the organizer hasn't confirmed the transaction yet, Dan's Balance hasn't changed by this point.

At 12:30, the organizer cancels Ben's Triangle Reservation.

At 13:00, Emily reserves 1 Triangle, and the Reservation is transitioned to the Allocated state. Although she doesn't have enough Balance ($5) or enough Credit Limit ($5), the combined Balance and Credit Limit of $10 is sufficient to cover the cost of 1 Triangle.

At 14:00, the organizer verifies and accepts Dan's transfer, resulting in an increase in Dan's Balance. His existing Balance of -$40, combined with the $50 Payment, amounts to $10 in total. However, since the Deal's maximum limit has already been reached, this increase in Balance doesn't affect the allocation of Items.

At 15:00, the Deal ends successfully. Here is the distribution of Items and the respective payments:

Ben is entitled to 2 Squares and needs to be paid $30.
Cindy needs to be paid $20.
Dan is entitled to 1 Square and 3 Triangles and needs to be paid $10.
Emily is entitled to 1 Triangle and needs to pay $3.

If there were Tier Prices, the calculations mentioned above are based on the initial Price (does participant have enough fund to pay for the initial price of the Item). The difference between the initial Price and the Tier Price will be refunded as credit after the Deal has ended.
more on Tier Price

If there were Deposits, the calculations mentioned above are based on whether participants have enough funds to pay for the Item deposit. The remaining balance of the payment will be billed separately after the Deal has ended.
more on Deposit

Who got what Item first?.
The Deal Trigger controls which Items are available or best suited for the current conditions, aiming to achieve the optimum objective.
In the case of Count and Money Triggers, each Item has a limit, and once that limit is reached, subsequent Reservations for that Item will not be allocated. However, Reservations for other Items may still be allocated.
For example, in the given scenario at 08:30, Dan's Reservation is allocated while Ben's Reservation from 07:00 remains on In-Queue.
The Money Trigger considers the existing Reservations to determine which Item may be more suitable to maximize the total money raised.
In the case of the Bundle Trigger, a Reservation for an Item will not be honored if other Items in a bundle does not have enough Reservations.

Similarly, the Capacity and Segment Triggers optimize the total points needed to fill a Unit based on the existing Reservations.
Once a suitable Item has been identified, the approval time comes into play. The approval time can be determined based on the organizer's preference, prioritizing certain participants for approval. Alternatively, it can be based on the time of reservation, with automatic approval granted to those who reserved.
However, if a participant does not have sufficient funds available in their Collab Wallet, they will not be able to secure the Item. In such cases, the Item will be passed on to the next person in line who has the necessary funds.