ETD: 938 Surveys; RFID warehouse; Small Stores Carve Out Niche
Despite Big Competitors
E-Tailer's Digest
etd_post at gapent.com
Thu Dec 8 03:49:13 GMT 2005
E-Tailer's Digest --- Everything for the Retailer
Issue #0938 December 8, 2005
George Matyjewicz, Moderator mailto:georgem at gapent.com
Published by: GAP Enterprises, Ltd. http://www.etailersdigest.com
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CONTENTS
[1] Greetings
[2] Surveys
[3] RFID warehouse
[4] Small Stores Carve Out Niche Despite Big Competitors
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[1] Greetings.
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Hi All:
Today we have some responses from list members to the query on RFID
warehouse and small stores. It looks like one of our list members
has an RFID-controlled warehouse package using triangulation. I
passed it by our client, and will see whether we visit them,
Has anybody every done surveys? I mean involved 30-40 questions
type. We did a couple for a client this week, and have been very
surprised and well-pleased with the results. That hardest part was
getting the software to work ;-)
The past couple of weeks I have been interviewing people with great
ideas who have little or no idea how to bring their ideas to market
(I'm looking for a company who needs a partner to bring products to
market). I've been trying to tell them that developing the product
is the easiest part - getting people to want it is hard. What do you
think it takes to gain and keep new customers? Both online and in a
brick & mortar store?
How's the season going for you so far?
Now, let's get to everything for the retailer.
Sincerely
George Matyjewicz, PhD
Chief Global Strategist, GAP Enterprises, LLC
mailto:georgem at gapent.com
http://www.etailersdigest.com
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[2] Surveys
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I recently came upon a free survey software program that uses PHP and
MySQL. It is truly amazing. We created two surveys for a client and
mailed them out to 2,400 members and within 7 hours we had 379
responses. What amazes me is how quickly people respond, and how
detailed they reply.
Each survey had approx 40 questions - 25 multiple choice and 15 text,
and they would take 10 minutes to complete. Which says people are
interested and willing to spend a lot of valuable time (we did not
offer a gift to complete it).
One of our board of advisors is a market research guru, and favors
surveys. He suggested a test to 50 members to test they survey, and
use the test to do the entire survey, which we did.
Based on the results we will know how to develop certain programs and
how to market them. It's almost like an online focus group.
Has anybody used surveys in your business? What were the results?
George
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[3] RFID warehouse
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> What do you think? Do you know of anybody who uses RFID in their
> warehouse? How about GPS?
The distance at which you can communicate with an RFID tag is
limited. (At least, if you don't want to fry your workers, blow out
nearby tags.)
GPS is blocked by any metal, and I'd guess that most warehouses have
substantial metal in their roofs. But what's GPS anyway? Just a set
of coordinates, that's all. Any set will do.
Thus, what you need to do, is to record RFID locations as you deposit
things in your warehouse.
Put an RFID tag on every post in the warehouse. Use RFID readers on
the forklift to identify where the forklift is.
(One alternative would be to paint huge bar codes across the floor
and hang reader electronics on the fork lifts; but using the fork
lift as the scanner itself is just a little tricky, though it would
be a tremendous motivator to keep the warehouse spotless and speeds down!)
The rest is software; but warehouse software records where things are
put anyway, so all you need to do is translate RFID results from
posts and other goods as the forklift goes down the isle to location
codes. That's software. I design systems and write software.
-javilk- mall-net.com
------------------- IMAGINEERING --------------------
----- Advice, Analysis, Strategies, Development -----
---- Got a problem? Give us a call! 408-705-2284 ----
Serving the World for three generations, since 1933
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Another Javilk (tm) brand post. Copyright (C) 2005,
Copyright retained. All rights reserverd.
+++ [Moderator's Comments] +++
Thanks. Looks like somebody may already have such a product. See next post.
George
+++ [Next Post] +++
I'd like to talk with you to see if my company might assist you and
your client with the use of RFID in their warehouse as described in
the last E-Tailers Digest.
We have a complete warehouse management system which is RFID-enabled
and we have a team member that has both RFID and GPS experience. I
know that he has put systems similar to this in place. In fact, we
just spoke to a company in Knoxville, TN about such a system - their
inventory moves into a warehouse and the operation's dynamics won't
allow for pre-defined locations as this would slow down inventory
put-away drastically. The solution you described is a viable option
in a situation like this and may work for your client as well.
You can certainly combine RFID readers running on a grid system with
GPS to isolate item location.
Please call or email me to discuss. I'd certainly like to explore
the opportunity and put you in touch with our RFID - GPS expert.
Tom Wengler
CGW, Inc.
Chattanooga, TN
www.cgwinc.com
423-892-2902 x 3105
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[4] Small Stores Carve Out Niche Despite Big Competitors
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> The Formula for Total Customer Experience
> Nothing is more powerful than seeing real users interact with your
> e-Commerce application, Web site, or software. Use Morae, a single,
> collaborative software solution, to identify barriers to conversion,
> while watching real users navigate your site. Free White Paper!
It's all in your server logs. If you simply sort your log files, it
will group the records by IP, and you can look at them yourself.
Sure, you can pretty them up (Or have me do i for you), but YOU have
to look at your logs.
Smaller stores understand the relationship pays off in the long run.
large stores view people as interchangeable replaceable entities, and
force them into that mold.
People go to Bob when he runs his own store. But large stores, when
someone asks for "Bob" in Cameras, get suspicious that someone's
re-pricing things, getting too personal, etc.
The large stores discourage experts from talking to customers at
length. 35 years ago, Woolco hired a college kid to man their camera
department because he did a lot of photography. That was me. I was
hired because I wanted to promote, not just clerk. Then they
squelched me for talking about the hobby with customers too
much. All the ideas about using customer photographs, forming a
camera club, holding any kind of tutorials or photo clinics fell on deaf ears.
If you put a customer's photo (trophy, or whatever) up on display,
that customer is going to bring people in to see it! Then the three
or four or five of you can discuss the techniques the display
illustrates, and sell more lenses, cameras, and supplies! "No no no
no. That's not the way we do business here." And so, they didn't do
as much business as they could have.
That applies on the web just as much as it does in the store. Put up
photos of the customer, and the customer will e-mail invitations to
view his achievement to everyone he knows!
-javilk- mall-net.com
------------------- IMAGINEERING --------------------
----- Advice, Analysis, Strategies, Development -----
---- Got a problem? Give us a call! 408-705-2284 ----
Serving the World for three generations, since 1933
-----------------------------------------------------
Another Javilk (tm) brand post. Copyright (C) 2005,
Copyright retained. All rights reserverd.
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