Market forces

What any up-and-coming inventor wants most of all is a chance to meet with influential retail buyers who can get their product into stores. Handily enough, that’s on offer in this new series – with one small catch. Before they can pitch to the panel of influential buyers, they have to convince at least one real shopper to part with their hard-earned cash.

“This is their foot in the door,” explains host Brian Conley. “It’s so important for them to get the chance to be seen by huge online shopping sites – ‘division one’ people that could change their life.”

Each inventor has just 90 seconds to make their pitch – and that time limit is very strictly observed.

“We don’t stop if the product doesn’t work,” admits Brian. “We had one guy who had a little squeaky ball that you could stick to the top of your cellphone. You’d press it and it would get the dog’s attention, so you could take animal selfies – but this dog did not look at him once! He was squeaking away and the audience were in hysterics, and the dog did not want to know. I felt so sorry for him.”

The audience members have agreed to pay up if they like the product – and Brian assures us that they’re very discerning.

“It’s not a game – it’s not like ‘Oh, in principle, I’ll buy it,” he says. “No, if you want it, buy it. In some shows they were quite conservative, but we had some where 50 per cent or more said ‘I want this’. That makes a retailer realise that a lot of people want it, so that reflects in how many they will buy.”