We often think that Crowdsourcing is about the early ideas stage, but this week a story has broken showing how online retailers are using it to drive their sales plans.

Moxsie.com is an online fashion boutique.  It has embraced Crowdsourcing by making use of instant feedback from its twitter and Facebook followers to decide which items to stock and to sell.  For example it recently showcased two versions of a retro-styled gingham cotton dress that it is offering retailers for the coming spring season – one in red and white check, the other grey and white. By tweeting pictures of the alternatives, it took feedback from Twitter and Crowdsourced the winning choice in a concept of ‘buyerchat’. (The grey one won).

Jon Fahrner, CEO says. “The goal is not to sell stuff, but to get honest feedback on the merchandise.”

Mr Fahrner says the idea of consulting on Twitter came up when Moxsie was considering how to use Crowdsourcing to create a closer relationship with customers, having collected 110,000 followers on Twitter and almost 35,000 Facebook fans.  Again, we see how Crowdsourcing actually isn’t just unidirectional – it’s as much a part of engaged community building as traditional collaboration techniques. Moxsie decided it wanted to engage better, wanted to use Crowdsourcing, and the ‘buyerchat’ began, opening up buying meetings.  The company, which has fewer than 20 employees, is expanding the initiative by offering the most committed participants “junior buyer” and “buyer in training” online badges, and giving away $50 Moxsie gift vouchers to the best participant in a session.

Of course, the beauty of this latest example of Crowdsourcing is that you can actually measure the results. For Moxsie, the test of the initiative will come within months, when the inventory that was open to influence by buyerchat goes on sale.

We think that Moxsie.com really shows Crowdsourcing at its best: it’s engaging, it’s active, it’s measurable, and it combines the power of the Crowd with the Channel of Social Media. If we’d set up Crowdsourcing awards for 2010, Moxsie.com would certainly be a late and winning entrant.