Citizen commerce comes to retail

This past summer President Obama turned heads when the White House hosted a curious sounding event called a Maker Faire. The event was created to recognize people known as “Makers” and the global movement they are a part of that is upending traditional product development cycles, the consumer acceptance curve and the retail industry.

Highly regarded Web strategist and industry analyst Jermiah Owyang defines the Maker Movement as putting the “power in the hands of the people to find, design, prototype, produce, manufacture, distribute, market and sell their own goods.”

From our perspective at The Grommet, Makers are the tinkers, inventors and entrepreneurs that give life to our online marketplace for undiscovered products. In fact, The Grommet wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for the Makers and the movement they have spawned regarding how consumer products are created, manufactured, promoted, sold and discovered by retailers. We call this phenomenon Citizen Commerce.

The past decade has seen dramatic change in this process as individuals gained access to technologies such as 3D printers, laser cutters, computer-aided design programs, and open-source hardware. These developments gave Makers the ability to create products without the resources of a big company. The creation of new products skyrocketed. Crowdfunding fueled the fire and allowed product creators to jump over investors, raising money directly from consumers who were ready to purchase. An added benefit was that supporters could give crucial market feedback, something investors would never be able to provide.

It was a perfect storm of product creation that gave rise to the Maker Movement and the founding of The Grommet in 2008. The impact on the retail is now beginning to be felt in new and interesting ways. In fact, the momentum had reached the point earlier this year that The Grommet used the occasion of the White House Maker Faire to launch our new wholesale business.

Today, platforms like The Grommet and Etsy, another site enabling the Maker Movement, are transforming a wholesale industry that had been slow to embrace the potential of the digital age. In fact, the wholesale business operates in much the same way as it did prior to the advent of the Internet. It is common to find purchase orders that are still written by hand or transferred via email attachments. Product sourcing often occurs through catalogs, trade shows or sales reps appointments. The wholesale industry is overdue for the type of transformation that has affected other aspect of the retail industry.

For example, look at the new product discovery and launch process and the alternative that The Grommet offers. Our online platform gives retailers a convenient, organized, and curated place from which to source the newest, most imaginative and highly differentiated products. At the same time, Makers gain access to an audience of retailers who can help them to scale. To date, The Grommet has launched more than 1,600 Makers and nearly 2,000 products and we receive upwards of 200 product submissions every week. The Grommet was among the first to discover Fitbit, Soda Stream and Bananagrams.

By supporting the Maker Movement, we are helping create a more convenient, organized, and curated platform that is accessible to retailers of all sizes to discover the newest and most imaginative products. Our mission is to create a healthier retail ecosystem and ensure that within five years, 10% of all products sold by U.S. retailers originate from small-scale Makers who are creating vibrant jobs and innovative products in every corner of the country.