Recently Scott Adam described an upcoming new way of doing business. He calls it ‘Broadcast shopping’. The main idea is that potential clients expose their intention to buy on an online platform. Clients can do this by describing their specific need or problem. On the other hand we would find companies that could provide a solution in the form of a product or service tailored to the specific needs of this person. They can send these customers their proposal, but so can other companies. Thereby this ‘request for proposal’ platform creates a reversed auction where companies are bidding against each other. In the end this should result in a better deal for the customer, like a lower price. Looking at the revenue model of such an internet platform, it could make sense to ask for a small access fee or to take a small commission on the actual transaction.
Although Scott claimed this is currently a non-existing business model, we see already the first experiments in the market. First of all these concepts will start in industries where it is worth the effort to start bidding. The margin on a bottle of milk will probably be too low. But within the field of real estate or banking the margins are much higher. Since 2008 the Dutch start-up Moviq.nl is giving homeowners the possibility to put their house up for sale, hypothetically of course. Thereby people can ‘flirt’ and test the market to see what their houses could be worth. Another Dutch initiative, that was only online for a few months this summer, was Spaarbod.nl. On this platform banks had the chance to bid against each other with the best interest rates to persuade individual savers. Although this second example went offline, this doesn’t mean that ‘broadcast shopping’ has no future. Scott is correct when stating that many more of these business models will follow. It will only be a matter of time.