Mass collaboration comes to the marketplace

Online consumers are demanding new levels of functionality, and the marketplace is beginning to respond. Companies are now collaborating with their customer-base on a range of activities, including R&D, marketing and after-sales support. (Survey results)

Social shopping sites, blogs and Web sites with customer ratings and reviews are all venues for people to review and recommend products and describe how to use them.

Kaboodle allows retailers to have a profile and interact with site members. ThisNext, another social shopping site, invites Web retailers to submit unique products for community members to discover and promote.

US Internet users clamor to express their opinion online, judging by a Forrester Research study conducted in the third quarter of 2007. More respondents said they wanted Web sites to offer “user ratings and reviews” than any other site content or functionality.

Forrester Research Via eMarketer