Leslie and guest John Hagel took questions on the competition for consumer-preference data. Leslie hosted Direct Hit co-founder Gary Culliss. Leslie's second guest was Kevin Kelly, Wired magazine's founding editor. Accompany Inc.'s new online buying service feels like a combination game show and big-box buying club, but it is unlike anything you've seen. Instead of making consumers compete, as they do in auctions, Accompany allows them to cooperate by negotiating volume discounts on their behalf.
Prices drop as more buyers sign up.
Because I believe you can glimpse the future of retailing in this San Francisco start-up. I wouldn't be surprised to see the successful ones diverting sales from regular stores in a big way. Accompany's three young founders envision a day when consumer goods can be priced dynamically through Web-based systems that mimic the New York Stock Exchange. Say you want a Palm Pilot. That' s what Accompany calls the period of time an item is offered, and it's illustrated with a graphic showing the current number of committed buyers, the schedule of discounts that will kick in as more people join the group, and the time remaining.