Pretail

Pretail (also referred to as pre-tail, pre-retail, or pre-commerce) is a sub-category of e-commerce and online retail for introducing new products by first selling online, sometimes in limited quantity, before release, realization, or commercial availability.^[1] Pretail includes pre-sale commerce, pre-order retailers, incubation marketplaces, and crowdfunding communities. Retailers today are increasingly pre-tailing to test, scale, and monetize consumer demand in the initial phase of the new commerce pipeline as first introduced in a 2012 Forbes article.^[2] Consumers engaging in pretail activities are commonly referred to as an early adopter, fan, backer, supporter, presumer, and pre-launch consumer.

Growth

As of 2013, pretail was a fast growing trend found in all areas of demand-based retail: consumer electronics, movies, music, video games, books, fashion, software, connected devices, cars, toys, cosmetics, art, events, etc.^[3] This trend is being driven by companies to enhance new product development, better manage product releases, and leverage early fan enthusiasm.^[4] Large companies such as Amazon and Apple are pre-tailing new products to measure demand, manage supply chain market dynamics, and monetize fandom anticipation. Small companies are embracing crowdfunding platforms such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo before product realization to test product-market fit, fund manufacturing, and build fandom community. Consumer involvement with products and services pre-launch is becoming mainstream according to industry experts on consumer behavior trends.^[5]

See also

• Ecommerce
• Retail

References