Carol Sawdye, Vice Chairman and CFO at PwC, wrote about the "Three 'C's' of the Sharing Economy" in her post on LinkedIn along with some of the stats from the latest PwC report. 

According to the report, customers care about:

1. Cost
2. Community
3. Convenience

Says who? The data. 

• 86 percent of consumers agree that the sharing economy makes life more affordable
• 78 percent of U.S. adults believe that the sharing economy builds a stronger community
• 43 percent of consumers expressed that owning today feels like a burden, and 83 percent agree that sharing makes life more convenient and efficient

Why is this important?

What you're building needs to address a pain point but ALSO be affordable and/or cheaper than the alternative. But, why is community one of the "C's"?

Community has become one of the essential pieces to building a successful consumer-facing product. First, the tech industry talked about social media and the value it brought to customer service, specifically listening to the customer.Then we moved into the buzzword "engagement" and why engagement was more valuable than the number of followers you had.

Now, community includes social media, customer service and engagement. The relationship your product has with your customers needs to be nourished and prioritized whether you like it or not.The best part is that community can often be seen as an online and offline experience. The sharing economy has proved that with the community built around companies like Airbnb, Lyft and the O.G. CouchSurfing. 

So, to all my marketplace owners, how will you or how are you addressing the three C's?

Read the source article at World's Largest Professional Network