A lot of things are crowdsourced these days--clothes, shoes, advertising--and now it has extended to furnishings with Made.com's made-to-order furniture. The UK-based online furniture company lets customers decide what furnishings they'd actually like to buy and only produces what has been ordered.
Customers of Made.com can browse through the company's existing products and vote on which products from Made's 'Labs' section that they'd like to see for sale. Items are made only when they have received orders. By cutting the middleman out of the buying process, Made.com hopes to slash its prices of made-to-order furniture by 50 to 80 percent.
What Makes This Trend Stand Out
- Crowdsourcing
- Crowdsourcing can disrupt industries by allowing customers to decide what products will be created and produced.
- Made-to-order
- Made-to-order products can disrupt industries by reducing inventory costs and waste while allowing customers to customize products to their preferences.
- Direct-to-consumer
- Direct-to-consumer models can disrupt industries by cutting out middlemen and reducing prices for customers.
Sectors Adopting This
- Furniture
- Crowdsourced, made-to-order furniture can disrupt the traditional supply chain and inventory model for the furniture industry.
- Home Decor
- Crowdsourcing and made-to-order models can disrupt the traditional inventory and production models for the home decor industry.
- E-commerce
- Direct-to-consumer models like Made.com's can disrupt the traditional retail model for e-commerce, by cutting out middlemen and reducing prices for customers.
