If web 2.0 is all about the adoption of social applications, surely web 3.o is the result of what happens when ecommerce companies start reinventing their business models based on all of that customer interaction.
A short article in the New York Times Magazine recently appeared highlighting Threadless.com - a company whose customers are both the designers and merchants for the t-shirts it sells. Designers submit designs, customers vote on them, and the top scoring items get produced (in small quantities) and sold. The winning designers get a cash prize, and Threadless gets the benefit of producing merchandise that is as close to a guaranteed sell out as a retailer will ever see. Smart designers can look through the site to see what's selling and read customer comments, thus tailoring their submissions to consumer taste. Threadless.com has been around since 2000, so this is probably not the first time you've heard of them.
Now, if you're a merchant, you're probably wondering just how all of this works in real life and if you might be out of a job anytime soon.
Despite all of the obvious benefits of community and the wisdom of crowds, good merchants still play a vital role in the retail equation. They are editors. And while the shape of that editorial role is changing, it's as important as ever.
On Threadless.com, just like in more traditional retail, merchants make order out of the chaos. Not every design that gets submitted makes it on to the site. Someone has to weed out duplications, obscenities, trademark violations and, yes, in some cases, ugliness. Customers rule, but there's a check and balance. Designs that are highly controversial are given a chance, even if the voting score averages on the low side. Top designers get to play in the editorial sandbox too, selecting a few of their favorites to be produced regardless of the score.
Retailers in the web 3.0 world will need to figure out how to open some of their business decisions to consumers while still maintaining enough expert editorial control to add value, maintain identity and keep the store interesting. Otherwise, all stores become an EBay experience (no knocks to EBay, but there are as many reasons I don't shop there as there are reasons I do, depending on the circumstances).
Do I really want "the masses" designing my clothes and do I trust them to keep raising the bar on quality? Maybe, as long as there's a good merchant in the mix.
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