Pretail

Pretail is related to a wide variety of business areas: from product innovation (concept & ideation) and supply chain management to marketing and sales. The aim of pretail is to build customer awareness and get sufficient financing to start product development. Pretail is future-oriented and is usually implemented using crowdfunding platforms, controlled media channels, mass media, and social networks.[2]

The tendency of consumers to increasingly value the experience associated with a process of purchasing gives rise to experiential buying - creating a memorable buying experience. Pretail provides a sense of belongingness that customers perceive as important. Crowdfunding platforms make consumers feel that they are part of a community that consists of people who are interested in the particular product or service. Consumers thus consider the product as "the first", "the newest", "the one that I helped launch". Pretail is gaining popularity as it satisfies the demand for novel products which are of high consumers` interest nowadays.[6]

Pretail allows innovators to test their product-market fit with a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) equivalent. Thanks to pretailing risks associated with launching a product - financing and manufacturing are thus reduced. In addition to this, more people can participate in the project as investors or salesmen. By testing the demand for the project entrepreneurs can lower perceived and actual risks associated with launching a product and starting a company. By using pretail model companies can match supply and demand trends before they actually start producing a product. It is the framework that serves for connecting increasingly demanding consumers and entrepreneurs. However, using pretial model for launching does not guarantee success of the product or enterprise, not all pretailers become e-tailers. Some services and products never take off, while others receive strong indications of market demand, receive large volumes of pre-orders, and raise the capital needed for starting manufacturing. Those kinds of services or products are the ones that succeed to become e-tailers.[6]

Product development costs are pushed down, more and more people can start their own business, create goods, and provide services to broader audiences. By being able to measure demand before mass production is started allows companies to forecast financing needed and develop inventory policy more accurately.[6]

Opal Nugget Ice Maker is a specialized ice maker which collected more than $2.7 million on the Indiegogo.

This ice maker freezes water in a special way. Rather than freezing the water directly, the ice maker scrapes flakes away from the cylinder, and trough that process creates a lot of chewable ice nuggets. This type of ice making is often used in upscale cocktail bars or fast-food chains. However, machines used there are usually big and expensive. That is the reason why this project collected such a substantial amount of money.[7]

Oculus Headset is a virtual reality set that was initially started by Palmer Luckey as a side project. In 2014 the company was acquired by Facebook for $2 billion. One of the reasons for this acquisition was the apparent public interest in this type of technology which was shown two years earlier when the campaign on Kickstarter managed to raise a total of $2.4 million when the project was still in the prototype stage.[8]

Glowforge laser marker, engraver and laser cutter has a successful and unique pretail story. Unlike many other projects, it attracted a substantial amount of capital without big platforms such as Kickstarter or Indiegogo. With a team of only 14 people, the company went from an unknown startup to a popular enterprise that raised $28 million during its self-run campaign.

Glowforge has been awarded three Make Editor’s Choice Awards at the World Maker Faire event in New York.[9]