How does anyone ever choose a perfume? Walk into a cosmetics department and your nostrils are hit with a smorgasbord of smells. Not sure whether you can have a smorgasbord of smells, but I just did. Anyway, it’s difficult to tell one perfume from another, or how each plays out in isolation ‘Commodity’ is a service that attempts to address this. The company offer a delivery service, giving customers the opportunity to try a series of scents in their own home, before deciding which they’d like to buy. Prices for a kit containing ten mini scents start at $24.95, and this sum is subtracted from the price when a customers buys a full sized bottle.

This business model – try a series of samples before you buy, and then subtract the sample cost from the purchase price – seems to be one with a number of applications. Might your product lend itself to sampling like this? If it’s consumable, the answer is almost certainly yes.

www.commoditygoods.com

I’m not sure I like the sound of this one, but it’s a service aimed at women – and I’m not one.

‘Skwag’ is a shoe swapping community which allows users to advertise/display their shoe collection, and then find like minded souls (see what I did there?) to swap footwear with. Members download the app and then create a profile featuring their footwear collection. Other members can then contact them to discuss trades.

I really don’t like the idea of second hand shoes, but maybe I’m a bit odd. The service appears to be thriving in the US, so maybe it would work here too. Thinking more broadly, are there other items of clothing or apparel that would lend themselves to the swap treatment – dresses, handbags, hats, jewellery perhaps.

www.skwag.com

One of the most valuable sources of sales leads for builders is a list of planning applications. People planning a home extension will have a variety of imminent needs. ‘Open Soon’ works on the same principle, but for companies supplying products and services to businesses.

‘Open Soon’ is a tool for providing sales leads to companies supplying to restaurants, shops, cafes and bars. Users can sign up for a monthly subscription via computer, laptop or smartphone, and then get access to information on new businesses about to open in their area of interest.

This is a US based service. Could there be an opening for something similar here in the UK? I see no reason why not. Thinking a little more widely, are there other opportunities to create a business providing valuable sales leads?

www.opensoon.co

Ever had the joy of travelling dulled by the misery of packing and dirty laundry? Maybe you need ‘Dufl’. ‘Dufl’ is  a digital valet service which stores, washes and re-packs a traveller’s wardrobe between trips. The  service even collects the user’s suitcase from their hotel and delivers it to their next destination, through partner company Fedex.

Users sign up  via a smartphone app and are sent a Dufl branded suitcase. Next,  they pack the case with their chosen  clothes. Dufl collects the suitcase and takes stock of the items, professionally photographing  everything and creating a virtual wardrobe. Next time the user makes a trip, they ‘pack’ using the app, and inform Dufl of their destination and arrival date. Dufl  packs and delivers the suitcase to the point of arrival. At the end of the trip, the user schedules a pickup and Dufl collects the suitcase and  cleans and stores the contents at the Dufl warehouse, until the user’s next trip. The service costs $9.95 per month for storage and $99 for each trip.

The service is limited to the U.S at the moment. Might something similar work in the UK and Europe?

www.dufl.com