How Brookstone Wants To Crowdfund A Comeback @ Fortune.

Specialty retailer Brookstone is betting on crowdfunding to help it get gadgets on store shelves at a faster pace. Under a new partnership with Indiegogo, first reported byFortune, campaigners on the crowdfunding site can now submit their ideas directly to Brookstone. The retailer will then select campaigns to work with on design, manufacturing, distribution, and eventually, the sales of those goods. Brookstone believes backing an Indiegogo product reduces risk for the retailer. If a campaign is successful, there is already a sense of how great demand can be.

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It will be interesting to see what model arrives from this partnership, will Brookstone get “pre-orders” for a zany gadget to gauge demand before going to manufacturing, they have the track record and capacity to actually make things which is one of the things many crowdfunded efforts do not. Crowdfunding is changing just about everything for manufacturers and retailers, 5 or 10 years ago not many people would have guessed Brookstone’s decline and then eventual strategy would involve something called “Indiegogo” and “crowdfunding”.