Dive Brief:

• Design e-retailer Minted raised $39 million in addition to $41 million last year. Minted has specialized in paper and stationary products and fine art prints and is now expanding to offer fabrics and home goods.

• The retailer’s approach involves crowdsourcing designs through competitions, using online community voting plus its own algorithms. Winning artists receive monetary competition awards as well as commissions from designs that sell.

• Minted is also expanding to establish storefronts for its winning artists. So far it’s been able to keep tight control over inventory and costs by printing designs on a made-to-order basis.

Dive Insight:

Minted has attracted significant funding in the past 12 months, but it’s a seven-year-old company with a proven track record. It may need to change its made-to-order structure somewhat as it expands to fabrics and other goods, but has shown that its basic approach, using crowdsourcing to choose its designs and keeping fulfillment lean, is a winning retail strategy.