eCommerce Dictionary: What is crowdsourcing?

All words that share the term "crowd" imply a collective or, to be more precise, a multitude. Just as the popular crowdfunding consists of collecting funds for a common project, crowdsourcing uses a representative collective to generate ideas and projects.

 

In fact, we could almost define it as brainstorming, but it can even be done with a large number of people outside the company itself, not only internally.

Community involvement in the company's decision making is enriching in many ways, from marketing to product.

 

We can open crowdsourcing processes for the choice of our next catalog, to participate in an advertising campaign or to include new services within the ones we already offer. But these are just a few ideas; keep in mind that it is such a powerful tool that the only limitation is your imagination and strategy.

 

 

There are many, many examples, but one of the most important is that of Starbucks coffee shops. Through an online platform called My Starbucks Idea, the company collected more than 150,000 suggestions. Many of them, such as free wifi in the premises or the implementation of mobile payment, were put into practice driven by the 2,000,000 votes cast.

 

Without reaching such overwhelming numbers, we see other cases, such as Lego Ideas to show your creativity or propose new kits of the popular plastic bricks, or McDonalds and its hamburgers designed by public and open competition.