The Wall Street Journal this weekend covered the trend of Silicon Valley start-ups focusing on consumer electronics rather than consumer Internet businesses. One great example cited is a “$359 kitchen appliance dubbed Nomiku, which people can use to sous-vide food—that is, cook meats and vegetables in airtight plastic bags in a water bath.”
This item isn’t sold anywhere yet because it’s still being made. It is in development and validated as a potentially great product idea thanks to crowd sourced funding. Nonetheless, it’s the perfect example of what huge retailers should be selling – products without UPC codes which Amazon can always underprice and outsell.
Traditional retailers need these products to sell but don’t know how to innovate on their own or figure out what will be a hit product. They should be funding their development or outright buying ones that are getting early traction – effectively strategically investing or acquihiring. By doing so, they will begin to tap into amazing cutting edge products, gain merchandising talent for years to come, and differentiate from Amazon.
Retailers have the enormous benefit of distribution for these products and can market them in a way few startups can hope by putting it physically in front of millions of consumers who don’t even know to search for these unique items.
When turnaround plans are discussed for traditional retailers like Best Buy, it’s just shocking to me that no one is talking about actually doing something other than cutting some cost or relabeling UPC products so shopper can’t price compare with Amazon. Best Buy needs to be selling amazing products that no one else has if it ever wants to take back marketshare and actually increase profits.
If retailers are daring enough to adopt this radical idea, we could start seeing a whole new frenzy around physical product startups as a result and maybe even a revival in traditional retailers’ fortunes.
