Made.com is an online furniture retailer. While it may have many points of parity with other furniture stores, like quality, reliability and comfort, it has a mayor point of difference. The company runs by allowing the websites’ visitors to submit one of their designs, which are transformed into prototypes for which its community members can vote. The designs that get the most votes would subsequently be made available for pre-orders. All furniture will then be manufactured in China and sent directly to the buyers’ home. There is also one big advantage for buyers: prices are 60-70% lower than traditional retailers! This is due to the lowered need to outsource; as the manufacturers are directly linked to the customers and there are no intermediaries, no extra price is added.
While they are many criticizers I think that crowdsourcing is an innovative and profitable way to market and develop any product. It not only brings more profit to the company itself as they have no need for creative directors or chiefs of resources , but it is also beneficial to the customers, as the price is lower than by traditional methods.