A new US website called Alice.com, billed as a combination of housekeeper and personal shopper, is causing quite a stir in the US media and with FMCG brands.

Alice.com is an open platform that consumer packaged goods manufacturers can use to sell their products directly to consumers rather than via retailers.

The key to the idea is that, by gathering together all the different brands under one roof, consumers can buy direct — but place products from a selection of manufacturers all into one shopping basket and receive the goods in one delivery.

And, to ensure consumers get the products for a competitive price, Alice.com provides a comparison shopping feature for each item that presents the latest prices being charged by top retailers and also automatically adds to the basket the value of any coupons being offered by a manufacturer on a chosen product.

Alice.com doesn’t charge manufacturers a fee and aims to make its money from advertising and from the offer of marketing services to manufacturers. The concept is already proving popular with FMCG brands — Alice.com already boasts 6,000 products including 86 different kinds of toilet paper.

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