Recommend This!: Delivering Digital Experiences that People Want to Share

Chapter 9

Offering Curation

The possibilities for creation and insight are endless. We’re constantly collecting more data, and it’s starting to be very relevant to our lives.

—Aaron Koblin

Why do people visit Best Buy? Walmart? Costco? Ogilvie & Sons? Is it because these retail stores have better products than their competitors? Or is it because of something intangible? Something like . . . selection?

Successful retailers, like Ogilvie’s, rely on their selection as a statement of their position in the market. People come to their stores because they know what they will find. Curation is not just about the number of products they make available; it is also about the quality of those products. If Best Buy had the biggest selection of electronics, but all the products were subpar, few would frequent its blue and yellow buildings.

Selection is another element that influences relationships. We frequent stores that reflect our interests, values, and tastes. The keepers of those stores help save us time by curating amongst all the potential choices we face, finding items we value and presenting them to us for simple selection. Marjory, our harried young mom with the budding Ringo in tow, could have mounted a search for child safety equipment to cut short his drumming career. She might have read up on the latest developments in the field, searched online for recommendations, checked with Massachusetts child safety officials on regulations, and eventually made a decision, found a source, ...