Walmart sees future in “crowd sourcing”

Over 5,000 submissions

Last year
Walmart organised the “Get on the Shelf”-competition for the first time, where
the chain asked entrepreneurs and inventors to send in a short video of their
product. Customers could vote and the chain committed to selling the products
with the most votes at hundreds of locations.

The contest
was an instant success: Walmart received more than 5,000 entries. Human Kind
Water, drinking water where proceeds go completely to charity; SnapIt, a repair
kit for glasses, and PlateTopper, a lid that can transform any plate into a
kind of Tupperware, were the laureates of the first competition. All three have
now been integrated in the assortment of the chain.

Repeat and
expansion following huge success

“Walmart’s
initiative, which got more than 5,000 submissions, has encouraged the company
to have another go this year”, said Joel Anderson to MarketWatch. “We realized
we need to connect with customers differently.”

“Our
customers are in control today. One of the things they said is they want a
voice in what products we carry…” And thanks to crowd sourcing the chain not
only gets handed some new ideas, but it can also see how much customers are in
need of the product.

Anderson
does not want to give sales figures for the three winning products, but Walmart
has decided to keep the products in the assortment for longer and the group is
also starting a similar competition in China, which probably proof there is
some future in crowd sourcing.