A decentralized platform offering “e-commerce on demand” is launching, and says it has the ambition of enabling shoppers to have online orders delivered in less than two hours — with food shopping arriving at their door in 30 minutes.

Buying.com says its service will initially be available across six zip codes in New Jersey, providing customers with a choice of more than 50,000 items. A center in the town of Mahwah is going to monitor the platform’s progress, and the startup has bold ambitions to roll out across the state and nationwide in the months that follow.

Customers can make their orders through the Buying.com website, and the company says that apps for Android and iOS are in the process of being approved by the app stores. Two other apps have also been completely developed for drivers, enabling them to fulfill orders quickly and with precision.

Buying.com says the launch of e-commerce on demand comes nine months ahead of schedule, and it describes the service as the company’s “holy grail.” Over time, it aspires to become a household name, a crypto alternative to the online behemoths offering same-day deliveries.

Benefiting businesses

Buying.com says it wants to enable businesses at all stages of the e-commerce supply chain — retailers, distributors and suppliers among them — to pool their orders together so they can satisfy minimum order quantities and enjoy greater discounts on a product’s price. Not only does this help keep profit margins healthy, but it also enables businesses to offer compelling discounts to shoppers — better insulating them against online giants.

From the consumer’s perspective, Buying.com hopes that its app will enable the public to access items “from a much wider range of suppliers than is currently available in the centralized e-commerce market,” and access better bargains than they can now.

New technology

The company is hoping to “develop the world’s first vertically integrated blockchain platform,” and wants to drive engagement from shoppers by offering a limited number of “high-quality discounts and promotions” on a daily basis. These deals are also going to be targeted toward users based on their interests and previous purchases and will be time-limited to help boost sales from consumers eager to snap up a bargain.

Through its platform, “social sharing” will be incentivized, meaning the number of deals made available on social networks will increase as Buying.com gains exposure.

Buying.com added: “We will ultimately level the playing field for existing e-commerce stores, allowing them to compete with the likes of Amazon, Walmart and other major retailers. The app serves both as a business-to-business and business-to-consumer platform, harnessing the power of the masses to offer direct product pricing on millions of goods.”

Buying.com is available here

Localizing shopping again

Localization is a big emphasis for Buying.com, and the platform says that consumers will be more willing to spend their hard-earned cash with small businesses in their area if they can offer the same pricing and convenience as online behemoths.

To enable hyperlocal deliveries to take place within two hours, the company is doing away with the notion of expensive, centralized warehouses that stymy the flow of products and increase costs. This would be achieved by paying the owners of empty spaces — such as garages and storefronts — to become “distribution nodes,” creating a dependable network where small businesses can store their stock and drop it off to shoppers quickly.

The platform also hopes to tackle some of the other issues that have been blighting the industry, such as the chargebacks that cost retailers billions. Its Prime-Protect technology gives merchants access to an escrow service, in which funds are released when a customer receives their item and is happy with their purchase.

A sale of BUY tokens is currently taking place. As well as being used for making purchases and paying micro-distribution centers and deliverers, these tokens will serve as a reward mechanism for shoppers.

Over time, Buying.com plans to integrate two million products into its platform.

Learn more about Buying.com