COMMON, The World's First Collaborative Brand, Launches Its New Collaborative Online Marketplace

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 12, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Walk down the supermarket aisle, go to the mall or go online. What do you see? Too much junk. Too much packaging. Too much of everything being trucked, shipped, trained and planed from all corners of the earth in a frenzied exchange. Today, COMMON, a worldwide collaborative community of creative and business professionals dedicated to the common good, is changing the system with the launch of a new collaborative online retail destination for consumers who care – the COMMON Marketplace.

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Debuting with more than 101 SKUs spanning 44 planet-conscious products from 21 companies, the COMMON Marketplace is designed to support and celebrate the people, companies, products and services that redefine the way we purchase goods for our common day.  From recycled toilet paper to headphones made from reclaimed wood to scarves from India that rejuvenate home-based weaving, consumers will now have an easy and efficient way to make conscious purchase decisions about the products they buy without making it a full time job.

"We believe that living life in a way that adds to life around you, not detracts, should be frictionless, easy, built into the system and not an anomaly," said Dan Burrier, COMMON CEO. "Living well and good at the same time shouldn't be a career all its own."

All products featured on the COMMON Marketplace, ranging in price from $2.95 to $250.00, have been sourced from a number of socially innovative companies, including:

• LSTN
• Sir Richards Condom Company
• Skoop
• Preserve Products
• bambu
• Thinkbaby
• Usful Glassware
• ESPEROS

Over the next 90 days COMMON plans to add 200 new products along with new, helpful site features, while carefully listening to, monitoring and responding to its collaborative customers. Among the products currently available to Marketplace shoppers is also "Nothing." This ability to purchase nothing is COMMON's humorous take on the idea that sometimes the best way to take care of the planet and all the creatures on it is to do nothing, buy nothing, consume nothing.

Any company can apply to sell goods on the COMMON Marketplace, but to be accepted they will need to answer the COMMON questionnaire covering design, sustainability and collaboration issues, as well as original business intent, philosophy and social impact. Additionally, shoppers can suggest the products they would like added to the Marketplace and can support these companies by continuing to buy their goods. Subsequently, customers will have the option to vote on each individual item in the Marketplace answering the question – does this product matter?

"We created COMMON to accelerate social innovation through the power of a global brand," said Alex Bogusky, COMMON cofounder. "But it does no good to talk about this, even to celebrate it, if you don't provide a platform to help social entrepreneurs test their ideas in a real world capitalist market. The Marketplace is our platform."

The Marketplace itself embodies yet another element of "good for good" in COMMON's overall offering. Dedicated to helping realign traditional businesses around the new social enterprise space and helping launch new enterprises, COMMON is – one part brand, one part community and now, one part marketplace.

For more information please visit www.commonmarketplace.is.

ABOUT COMMON

COMMON, the world's first collaborative brand, was founded in 2011 by Alex Bogusky, Ana Bogusky, Rob Schuham and John Bielenberg. COMMON is a worldwide collaborative community of creative and business professionals, designed to accelerate social innovation by redefining the capitalist narrative. In addition to the COMMON Marketplace, COMMON offers Maniacal Business Attack (MBA) strategic workshops, creative services under COMMON Creates, and conducts worldwide COMMON Pitch events to celebrate social entrepreneurs everywhere.

CONTACT: Mark Eckhardt, Co Chief Executive Officer, [email protected], 310.420.8825

SOURCE COMMON