In a recent article for Shareable, Anna Bergren Miller (@abergrenmiller) reviews “The New Rules of the Collaborative Economy” by Jeremiah Owyang and Alexandra Samuel. The authors advise conventional businesses to enter the collaborative space in order to compete with sharing brands. Their report explores the reasons consumers choose sharing over buying and uncovers three main factors that drive this decision: price, convenience, and trust.

1. PRICE

Crowd Companies and Vision Critical released a report on the collaborative economy in 2014 that found price to be a motivating factor behind 82 percent of sharing transactions. To compete with lower prices of goods and services provided by sharing companies, Owyang and Samuel suggest that established brands create their own peer-to-peer marketplaces.

2. CONVENIENCE

Owyang and Samuel explain, “The whole value proposition of sharing services lies in their ability to provide on-demand, web-enabled instant access and services.” Mainstream businesses should follow suit. Partnering with an existing sharing provider could potentially improve access to an established brand’s products by making them more accessible and less expensive. This partnership could allow conventional businesses to access the sharing segment of the market faster and more easily.

3. TRUST

Owyang and Samuel discuss that “the whole point of a brand is to serve as a promise for product or service quality. In the collaborative economy, customers turn to brands to determine whether a transaction is trustworthy.” By entering the sharing world, conventional businesses have the opportunity to transfer their brand identity to a space that relies heavily on trust.

It remains apparent that the sharing economy is here to stay. Big businesses need to incorporate a sharing model if they want to access this segment of the market and compete with sharing brands. But they don’t have to reinvent the wheel. By partnering with a peer-to-peer platform, conventional businesses can provide a better price, more convenience, and establish trust in the sharing economy.