Here's why the retail needs to get its groove back

Here's why the retail needs to get its groove back | LoadProof

Is retail dead? This became the crux of the matter when I found myself invited to pitch in front of a leading retailer at the Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC) at Georgia Tech. It was an exciting opportunity that was dulled when the name of the retailer was revealed. They are losing market share to Amazon, the big elephant in every conference room discussing supply chain topics.

This retailer was on a downhill slide, shutting multiple store locations. There are two ways to look at this situation. I could figure that it was a waste of time doing this pitch. The other was to try to turn adversity into opportunity. You can guess which approach I chose.

Part of what led me to this decision was a distinct retail experience from my past. In those days, I saw a Kenneth Cole shoe at a local retailer. My salary was sparse, so I had to plan for the purchase, and wait for a sale. Finally, I got a coupon after about six months, and I was so excited I woke up early to go to the store. I tried it on and it was beautiful, a Kenneth Cole Simplicity in burgundy. I presented the shoes and my coupon to the clerk who told me that the coupon wasn’t valid for my purchase. I left the shoes behind at the store because:

I felt betrayed by the fine print.
It felt like a bad deal without the discount.

That was the last time I shopped with that retailer, even though I walked by the store a hundred times. For me it was shoes, but I’m sure we could point to a similar example for just about any electronic gadget or gizmo around.

Comments

5 reasons why you should switch from using your digital camera right now | LoadProof

Are you still using digital cameras to capture and store photos of your shipments and other processes in your warehouse? If the answer is “yes”, then there is a better way. Initially, you may not think it’s much to address, but when you think about how many photos are taken each day in your warehouse then there is a lot of time and money that can be saved by switching to a more efficient photo process. Using digital cameras to capture photos, and PC’s to store the photos of the loads taken during shipment might result in issues such as: Slow uploading - your camera likely requires a hardwire plug-in through USB. Time-consuming photo tagging - adding reference numbers or labels. Slow retrieval of photos - photos are often hard to search and locate. Sharing photos manually - manually attaching JPEG files to email. Accountability - there is no accountability as you don’t know who worked on the shipment. With an efficient photo documentation system will include: Fas...

Are you still using google drive in your warehouse? | LoadProof

Here is another interesting dynamic about LoadProof . Apparently somebody in their organization is interested and somebody saw the value of the product – LoadProof provides. We get to talk to them and they’re curious. They want to learn more, and in our conversation this comes up: “hey we already use Google Drive, and we store pictures in Google Drive and and it was great for us”. This was actually a very interesting story. An intern from Georgia Tech, pretty smart kid, but they don’t understand all the implications of using an enterprise system for a recognized supply chain environment. In an established supply chain network, you’re dealing with so many different partners such as vendors, customers, transportation service providers, lumpers, etc., Supply chain is a huge community. When you spend some time in the industry you understand all these different players and how to work with them and how to maintain the data integrity and still do business maintaining ...

Improve Quality in Your Supply Chain by Increasing Visibility | LoadProof

I would think that electronics OEMs or distributors would be leading the charge toward quality, and I’m sure many of them are. However, the first time I encountered a quality department that did extensive quality control it was in a New Hampshire distribution center (DC) that served the apparel industry. For this manufacturer, the goal was to make fairly priced clothing that delivered good quality to middle-aged women. The Director of Quality at the warehouse, along with her team, did such a good job that this retailer was known for its quality. To meet their quality goals, workers spent a lot of time measuring the tops and pants against strict criteria, checking the cut of the pieces, figuring out how the pieces would look on real people, and making sure that the colors were good for a variety of skin tones. They thought of everything. They took pictures and shared infractions with their vendors across the supply chain. Quality inspection Quality inspection is a relatively simpl...

Image Enabling The Supply Chain

Search This Blog