Stephen M. Ross School of Business
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2007 Product Challenge: The Urban Shopping Cart
View pictures of the On-Campus Trade Show - November 28, 2007
A product to facilitate holding and transporting a collection of bulky, heavy objects long distances without a car.
Urban Shopping:
There are many situations in which people need to carry a variety of bulky, heavy objects over considerable distances and over an extended period of time. One such situation is urban shopping without a car. While more common in Europe, this car-free lifestyle is increasingly popular in the U.S. In just looking around the UM campus, one can see that the need to easily transport heavy objects of varying configurations is not restricted to urban shopping, and an increasing number of people are using wheeled carts (or variants) to help them. Additionally, the use of disposable paper or plastic bags for shopping is coming under increased scrutiny due to its environmental consequences.
Highlights of the 2007 IPD Competition
This year’s Integrated Product Development (IPD) trade shows
featured record levels of participation. 1,882 votes from around
the world were cast on the web, and 385 people voted at the physical trade show!
The product class this year (an “urban shopping cart”) was very challenging,
but all teams launched a viable design and did an outstanding job marketing
their product. Aggressive pricing on the web show benefited some teams, and
other teams followed suit for the physical trade show. Marketing efforts at
the trade show were outstanding, and some teams clearly strengthened their
position. Market shares did not tell the whole story, due to differences in
costs and margins. All products made money this year. The final profit
rankings were determined by margin, strong design and communication, and some
inventory stock-outs that benefited competitors.
The final results were:
Market shares on the web and physical trade shows were different, as some voters perceived differences between a product’s web presence and physical reality. The web and physical shows’ market shares were as follows:
On y va was in second place on profitability, but due to their very high market share in the physical trade show they stocked out and sent a lot of extra customers to Velocity (overwhelmingly the second choice for On y va customers). This depleted Velocity’s stock, which also stocked out sending customers predominantly to Folio. This sufficed for Folio to overtake On y va for second place. Feedback to the instructors was overwhelmingly complimentary. People were extremely impressed by what the students were able to accomplish in so short a span of time. The products were beautiful and fully functional! |
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Thank you to everyone who
participated in the online and on-campus Trade Shows!
2007 IPD Product Web Sites
The product this year was an "urban shopping cart" which is "a product to facilitate holding and transporting a collection of bulky, heavy objects long distances without a car."
Click on each product
below to view the design team's web site!
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Triport |
de kar |
Folio |
Collapse-A-Cart |
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$49.90 |
$119 |
$159.99 |
$40 |
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For more information about the IPD course or trade shows, please contact Tauber at (734) 647-0308 or email tauber.info@umich.edu |
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