Why The Collaborative Marketplace

The collaborative marketplace is the next progression, or phase, in the retail market evolution and this is probably a more important step than almost any other phase in the retail market evolution.  The business environment and therefore the supporting tools and capabilities are changing and growing into a collaborative framework that can efficiently and effectively support their needs and the retail consumer market is no exception.  There is currently probably no better framework to support the evolving consumer demands than a collaborative marketplace and consumers themselves are driving these changes more that any retailer, outside of Amazon. I see this as the driving factor for some time, I won’t say years because each development in the retail evolution comes more quickly than the last.  

We have entered into a phase of development and expectations from the consumer that can be overwhelming for a retailer. This is why the collaborative marketplace is so important to the retail marketplace and why retailers and consumers are flocking to this framework.  The collaborative marketplace aligns more closely to social network practices and capabilities and consumers have embraced these practices wholeheartedly in a manner that is turning the retail market upside down. This social aspect of shopping is nothing new in the retail marketplace, however in many aspects the social capabilities in the eCommerce platform have been lacking.  This is the key reason for the evolution of the collaborative marketplace in retail.

Consumers have been searching for a social aspect to shopping and purchasing and the collaborative marketplace provides the platform and the capabilities to coordinate and integrate a social network interaction while still shopping and purchasing when and where it makes the most sense for the consumer.  This is the strength and the attraction of the collaborative marketplace, it allows consumers to put together the capabilities they desire at the time and the collaborative network provides a means for consumers to interact with and then complete the sale using specialized services and capabilities that meet their needs at that time.  Simply put, this is why the collaborative marketplace is the next logical step in the evolution of the retail marketplace.

This new phase requires visionary partners and participants to drive the capabilities and the interaction.  The most important aspect to the collaborative network is the interaction across all participants in the network.  The first step in the evolution was the omni market aspect and now these visionary retailers will take these capabilities and then incorporate the collaborative interaction that extends the social aspect to create a truly interactive and cohesive platform to engage not only with consumers but also with specialty service providers and niche retailers to create a consumer experience that continues to draw attention and return of the consumer.

This is an exciting and scary platform for retailers and unfortunately there is no other choice than to embrace.  Retailers must learn to share and collaborate in order to survive and these capabilities are all brought together into one platform in the collaborative marketplace.  I will serve retailers well to embrace these practices and create the type of collaborative platform that will support the changing consumer demands while also supporting the retailers’ needs to grow in the market and most importantly to prepare for the next phase in the retail evolution.