Recently, the metaverse has been abuzz with the heated debate surrounding the value and effectiveness of freebies, group gifts and hunts.  The hunt after hunt after hunt.  The are everywhere, a new one every week it seems.  I don’t know about you, but my inventory is still clogged with unopened gifts the grid wide Easter hunt…last year’s Easter hunt.

Watching the hunt debate unfold, Rika Watanabe started to formulate an idea.  What if there was a system that connected designers and consumers directly, allowed content creators to provide samples of their work to potentially new customers, and gave these same customers time to try out the item, decide they liked it and visit the store to see their other products?  I know what you’re thinking, this sounds a lot like another hunt, right?  There’s more.  Now imagine that the system automagically sends out one item per day, randomly selected from the pool of creators, to each list subscriber so that every creator’s work is exposed to a new group of customers everyday, and, over time, customers receive a product from each and every participating creator.  Starting to sound more interesting, isn’t it?

This concept is the Designer Showcase Network, and it launched today! Rika and her partner in this project, Peter Stindberg, have worked tirelessly to create a system that takes the hunting out of hunts, puts samples of a content creator’s work directly into the hands of potential customers, gives shoppers a new gift item everyday while eliminating that dreaded chore of opening hundreds of hunt boxes, weeding through the schlock and sorting it into an already-overloaded inventory.

Here’s how it works: Content creators purchase a kit for a small fee, follow the registration instructions, load their gift/sample into the drop box and then the system takes over from there.  Customers can join the network at any DSN Kiosk, just choose a location from the list on this page, from there the system starts sending gifts at the next scheduled delivery time.

It should be noted that not all customers will receive the same gift/sample every day.  For example, today, I  will receive a gift from Creator A and Codie will receive a gift from Designer B.  Eventually, I, too will receive the gift by Designer B, perhaps tomorrow, perhaps next week or next month.  The delivery system is completely random, but organized in such a way that I will never receive a duplicate gift from any designer.  Why is the randomness a good thing?  A few reasons.  First, if I like my gift, I’m dragging my friends shopping with me while I check out the rest of the products this creator has available.  Second, I don’t want to wear the same thing my friend is wearing! How boring is that?  But by the time the gift Codie received today arrives in my inbox, we are both reminded of how much she liked it the first time around and, yes, you guessed it, more shopping!  Third, I don’t have to fight the lag caused by hunt traffic and I don’t lose the item in my bulging-at-the-seams inventory.  I can take the time to open it, try it on, and shop at my leisure.  Finally, I don’t have the option to pick and choose which gifts to receive.  I’ll openly admit that I am one of those hunters who hits the stores I know and already like first, and then maybe I’ll do the rest of the hunt.  Maybe not.  So chances are, if I don’t know your store, I’m not going to make it a priority to “hunt” for you…I can only imagine the number of great little shops I’ve missed out on because I’m too lazy to actually hunt!  With DSN, I’m most looking forward to finding out about some of those places that I’ve not been exposed to yet.

There are nine product categories to which you can subscribe, and gifts are distributed at the rate of no more than one per day/per category to each subscriber.  I can’t think of a system that is more mutually beneficial to content creators and consumers alike.

Content Creators, get involved, take part in this fantastic new service and discover a whole new group of customers.  Designer kits can be purchased at Clever Things and on XStreetSL.

Shoppers, sign up, start receiving gifts each day from talented content creators, reacquaint yourselves with shops you’ve known and loved forever, while you discover some of the grids upcoming movers and shakers.  But, do me one favor, please…be kind, be grateful, show your support for these generous creators by saying thank you every once in a while, telling your friends about their products and visiting their stores.

Remember, it takes all of us, working together to imagine, design, build and live our Second Lives…Designer Showcase Network gives us a tool to reach out to each other in a new way.  Enjoy!