Make participants understandable, not just comparable.
FromComparable→ToUnderstandable
Standardised listings made millions of products comparable. An open network can keep that convenience and still let each participant be understood. Story creates interest, evidence creates confidence, and a new business with something distinctive can still be found.
Three bakeries, as a list
Three bakeries, as a list illustrative:
| Bakery | Price | Rating | Delivery |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | ₹800 | 4.6 | 35 min |
| B | ₹750 | 4.7 | 40 min |
| C | ₹850 | 4.8 | 30 min |
What the list can’t show: A uses an old family recipe and employs women from the neighbourhood. B is run by a pastry chef trained abroad. C grows some of its own ingredients and designs every cake around the customer’s story.
A buyer who said “I want a cake, but not a normal cake” needs to see the difference. She doesn’t need fewer choices. She needs better ways of understanding them.
Why you?
Standardised listings made millions of products comparable, a real breakthrough for convenience. Open networks can build on that and keep what makes each participant distinctive.
Differentiation is information. When a buyer wants something distinctive, the agent searches for distinctive capability, not just for sellers in a category.
“Why you?” Every participant can answer three questions: what are you unusually good at, what do you do differently, and what do customers come to you for? The AI makes the answers machine-readable. The seller’s own words stay visible.
The interface fits the need. A ₹500 purchase is about speed, convenience and price. A ₹5 lakh piece of furniture is about craftsmanship, a portfolio, conversation and milestones. A consultant is about expertise, evidence and availability. Fresh local food is about proximity, freshness, provenance and today’s availability.
Story creates interest. Evidence creates confidence.
Anyone can claim “we’re the best.” So differentiation connects to evidence wherever possible:
| The claim | What backs it |
|---|---|
| “We specialise in custom wedding cakes” | Previous work, verified orders, repeat customers |
| “We use locally sourced ingredients” | Supplier details, certifications, provenance |
Reputation and differentiation are different. Reputation asks “how reliably do they deliver?” Differentiation asks “what makes them right for me?” A new business with something genuinely distinctive can still be found.
The network should be plural. The discovery experience should be personal.
Go deeper
Open participation, not unrestricted attention
Anyone can join, but a participant appears to a buyer when their capability, evidence, availability and conditions make them relevant. That keeps diversity from becoming noise. There are no forced categories, because a participant can be relevant in many ways, and discovery sets deliberately include different kinds of relevant.
Who it helps. Buyers find what genuinely suits them, not just what is cheapest or most reviewed. Distinctive businesses, often small ones, compete on what makes them special. The network gets richer as it grows instead of noisier.
Claims need evidence
Words such as “sustainable”, “natural” and “organic” are already regulated. India’s Central Consumer Protection Authority issued guidelines in October 2024 on greenwashing and misleading environmental claims which, as press reports describe them, require credible evidence for such claims and an adequate qualifier for terms like these[1]. We would apply the same discipline to “handmade” and “locally sourced”: verified wherever possible, so that being distinctive never turns into greenwashing.
Scope. We relied on a press report of the guidelines, not their text.
What could go wrong
- Distinctive becomes decorative.Words like “handmade” are easy to write and hard to check, so claims are tied to evidence.
- Noise.Open participation without relevance would drown buyers, which is why a participant appears only when relevant.
- Story over service.A good story can hide poor delivery, so reputation stays separate and visible.
- The cost of evidence.Proof has to be cheap enough for a one-person business to provide.
How we’d test it
“Why you?” profiles and evidence links for sellers in one category, tested with buyers who are looking for something distinctive.
- The test
- Why-you profiles
- What we would measure
- Compare buyer choices with and without the profiles. Measure whether buyers choose differently, how satisfied they are, and whether smaller distinctive sellers win more business.
- What would end the idea
- Buyers choose on price and rating as before, or distinctive sellers win no more business.
Sources
- [1]Storyboard18, CCPA issues guidelines against greenwashing and misleading environmental claims (16 October 2024)Checked via a press report; the Guidelines’ own text not read
Spotted a source we missed or a rule we misread? Tell us what we got wrong.
Being understood matters most to those who start with the least. The next shift is about the smallest seller.