Have you ever been in the situation where you were scrolling through your Tumblr or Instagram feed and you suddenly came across a photo of someone wearing a clothing item you would really like to buy, but have no clue where the item is from? And you are not in the mood to spend the rest of your day hunting this item down or directly asking the person wearing it does not work? Well, forget the wasted time and awkward comments, because Wheretoget.it lets other consumers do the work for you!

How does it work?
Wheretoget.it is a completely crowdsourced platform. Crowdsourcing is defined as the act of getting a service or content through contributions from a large group of people, instead of employees (Schenk & Guittard, 2011). On Wheretoget.it an online community is used to basically link consumers and companies to each other, where users help each other in finding a piece of clothing they have seen somewhere online, but have no idea where to actually get it. Wheretoget.it The app works the following way. If you have seen a clothing item you like on Pinterest, Instagram or Tumblr for example, you just save it on your phone and upload it on wheretoget.it. The desktop version comes with a browser extension similar to Pinterest and Polyvore, which enables users to directly import the image to Wheretoget.it.  Then you specify the item of interest, after which other users of the platform help you in finding this item, by giving you a link to it. You then get to indicate whether the information was useful or not, after which the item gets classified as ‘found’. On the other hand, you can also browse through the feed of the application to see if there are items you would like to have, but have not been able to find yet.

Wheretoget.it is valuable for both its users and affiliating companies in the following ways. It provides users with an easy way to find something they would like to buy, all through the interactions with other users. Wheretoget.it reduces the search costs that consumers had before, because they in fact don’t do the searching themselves. The ability to browse through other items and product categories extends the reach of products and brands a user is exposed to, which makes them discover items they never knew of before. The motivation to participate in crowdsourcing can be broken down in intrinsic and extrinsic motivators and in this case users mostly experience intrinsic motivation, like enjoyment, passion and wanting to help others (Brabham, 2010). It is done through love and interest in fashion.

Affiliating companies also gain value from Wheretoget.it. Where the users are exposed to a much wider reach of products, the companies selling the products are able to reach more potential consumers and they get a larger traffic on their website. It is also a less costly method to them, since the users do not expect money in return. The only costs these companies have is a small fee they pay to Wheretoget.it for every click to their website.

As crowdsourcing is become more and more popular, I personally think that platforms like these could and should be exploited more, to an extend where our online shopping experiences get changed. There are already platforms experimenting with this, like Liketoknow.it where consumers and companies work together and consumers can shop instagram feeds straight directly from their email. This leads to the conclusion that consumers and companies collaborating with each other can improve the consumer experience and therefore increase the value for both parties.

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Sources:

Brabham, D. C. (2010). ‘Moving the crowd at Threadless: Motivations for participation in a crowdsourcing application.‘ Information, Communication & Society, 13(8), 1122-1145.

Schenk, E., & Guittard, C. (2011). ‘Towards a characterization of crowdsourcing practices’. Journal of Innovation Economics & Management, (1), 93-107.

http://mashable.com/2011/06/21/wheretoget-it-helps-you-find-the-garment-youre-looking-for (2011)

http://www.businessinsider.com/wheretogetit-2011-4?IR=T (2011)