Over the past couple of days, I’ve been observing a fascinating experience that my wife Heather has been having while seeking out a new case for her new iPad.  

First, a little background.  Heather is an extremely methodical, process-driven person and doesn’t often make shortsighted decisions.  Combine these traits with the vast level of information available on the internet and an efficient shopper is born.  Unfortunately, this gift is at times a curse, as she spent a large portion of the weekend trying to find an iPad case that satisfies her needs. 

Most consumers desire a sturdy product from a brand or merchant that will stand behind it in the event of malfunction. This is why we all have favorite brands or merchants.  

Heather is no different, so her search began with brands such as InCase, Griffin and Belkin - brands that have a good reputation for building mobile device cases.  Once Heather defined her needs for an iPad case (something that covered the front of the iPad, not too bulky, material that doesn’t pick up excess dirt), she realized that none of the main players had a product that fit her needs.  

The next step was the wild, wild west of video product reviews. Once the most reputable brands were out of the equation, Heather’s next step was to leverage the power of user generated content to actually SEE what was out there.  

Sadly, the state of user generated video product review websites is inefficient at best. Major review sites with paid staff (think CNET, Consumer Reports) can’t afford to review every single iPad case, so they don’t capture the “long-tail” of iPad cases. Sites like ExpoTV have attempted to build a website around the product review niche, in hopes of capturing this long tail.  Unfortunately, they have geared their product toward casual contributors by offering money instead of cultivating an environment of power users. The end result is a sparsely populated website that doesn’t index well in search engines and seems spammy to the end user.  YouTube has a vast database of video reviews and ends up being the best option,  but the curation and quality is inconsistent.  

Key learning? There is a major opportunity out there for a website that can harness the untapped potential of video product reviewers like those on YouTube. These people are power users who have found art in reviewing products and want to share their gift with the world.  Building an entire community around these power users (who are not inspired by promises of money, but by the promise of fellow humans to share their gift) will draw in casual users and lurkers alike.  YouTube can even do this by making categories a more prominent aspect of their landing page, and creating a section of the site that is dedicated to product reviews. 

But back to Heather.  She kept on pulling in leads for her perfect iPad case from various sources, but she continued to be underwhelmed by her choices.  Every time she thought she had found a case, she would unearth information that convinced her otherwise. Part of this might have to do with the problem humans experience when facing too many choices (the subject of an entire book by Columbia professor Sheena Inyegar titled “The Art Of Choosing”), but it also speaks to the high expectations of the modern shopper.

With demands as high as Heather’s, the solution might not be better video review sites, but instead a peer-to-peer commerce experience.  She is in search of detailed specifications and top notch quality.  Websites like Etsy.com can connect her to someone who can produce a case just for her.  Just like the user generated content video review sites, the key to sites like Etsy being successful is catering to that hardcore subset of power users that isn’t just there for money. Once credibility is built and there are enough choices, more passive users will join the site in search of the art being created by the power users.

Late on Sunday night, Heather eventually settled on a case by Yoobao, a Chinese brand that she stumbled across on the MacRumors forums: 

The brand apparently makes affordable products with exceptional craftsmanship - exactly what Heather was looking for.  I’ll be sure to report back to let everyone know if there is a happy ending to this long weekend of iPad case hell.