D
Diginomics
Hi. Any ideas or comments on how much the digicam-fax machine outlined
in the article beneath would cost to be mass produced? PS. Charity
shops in the UK are equivalent to USA thrift shops but are organised
as national retail chains with standardised operating procedures.
The Digicam Fax: Enabling Charity Shopping on the Internet
Charity shops have a unique demand and supply profile similar to fine
art as goods are not mass produced and hence often only available as
unique items. Therefore there exists a physical-virtual conflict when
attempting to sell such unique items in two places at once: on the
Internet and on the shop-floor. This is a technique to overcome this
and introduce e-commerce into the charity shop retail sector. It aims
to widen consumer choice and more importantly for charities aims to
maximize potential revenues from massive price mark-ups on unique
labels or trademarks through central co-ordination of locally selected
items. The same techniques could be applied to branches of chains
where remnants of stock are held (maybe the end of a fashion line).
To begin with, from the buying public's point of view, purchasing
hours through the Internet are restricted to between the hours from 6
in the evening until 8 in the morning or what may come to be called
the "Bargain Shopping Hours" or BSH. The charities e-commerce website
during normal shop-floor opening hours is closed for purchase although
still open for browsing. This is essential to overcome the
physical-virtual conflict. Purchase on the Internet, as said always
done out of shop-floor opening hours, is generally done through a
prepaid scratch card and the amount deducted is a only the
non-refundable deposit to secure the item. Probably a percentage (say
10%) of the total cost. Particularly in the case of charity shops this
charge is for the Reservation and Movement (R & M) of the chosen
items. The goods will often be imperfect so physical inspection on
site is required before the remaining balance is paid. It is not
intended that any good is home delivered, only that they be moved
around a national network for inspection for a small charge to the
nearest convenient high street branch of that particular charity.
Charities may need to improve their logistical supply chain to
encompass this even perhaps pooling clothes rail transport with rival
charity shops.
Central to the success of the design is a new invention. The "digicam"
fax is a unique machine designed to enable back-room shop staff to
carefully select a few items (say 4-5) on a daily basis to be imaged
and registered with head-office without the intrusion of a keyboard on
their work duties. Hence the device consists of a separate digital
camera that plugs directly into the digicam fax. This device acts like
a fax in sending paper but also uploads maybe several photos of the
chosen items. Since normal digital cameras allocate unique identity
numbers to photographs, the staff include on written paper with the
photo transmissions these unique identities against other written
basic details such as: label or trademark, size, gender and condition.
Thus there is no keyboard with the digicam fax but is essentially a
machine with normal fax controls to limit training needs and relies on
pen power for further detailing. Head-office thus collects information
from all branches, inputting by hand (typist volunteers) the extra
faxed data and creating a database out of the pictures.
Stock movement on the charity shop floor requires a regular (perhaps
daily) movement of a display rail out and in. The rail coming in holds
the Internet reservation items that have come from all around the
country through an intervening sorting depot and await inspection. The
rail going out must go on first to the intervening sorting depot for
rail hanging according to geographic destinations. Items that have
been digitally photographed and placed on the Internet are still
available for purchase on the local shop floor during the day. Hence
reservation from the database can only be done during the BSH, or
Bargain Shopping Hours (6 to 8) to avoid conflict between the physical
and virtual buyers. The specially chosen goods for Internet
reservation may command higher prices of between 200 to 300% depending
on label and collector's tastes. They are also marked with special
pricing tickets while on the shop floor with such as things as "As
Seen On the Internet". This will increase not only product want but
make their removal from the shop floor easier in the morning before
the doors open if they have been reserved on the Internet during the
night. A morning fax or email alerts staff to this.
The baseball cap is an appropriate item to consider being sold on the
Internet for a charity shop chain using such a system. The student or
lower income shopper not possessing a credit card has already seen
from the national database using a free library Internet connection
that there appear from time to time quite rare baseball caps for sale.
He visits his local charity shop but finds nothing unique but decides
to purchase from the counter a £5 reservation scratch-off card. One
week later he spots a desirable label for £15 on the Internet and uses
£3s of the scratch-off card value to reserve it. 5 days later he gets
an automatic email to tell him the item has arrived at his local
branch for his inspection. A few days later he gets a moment to go in
to the shop and happy with the condition, despite a small blemish, he
decides to pay the remaining £12s. The cap had been moved halfway
across the country but rather than be sold for £5s the cap was sold
for £15. Thus a very reasonable 200% increase mark-up on what it would
have fetched without Internet e-commerce. If the cap had been rejected
as too imperfect, the charity would still have made a small profit by
keeping the £3 already paid up for R & M (Reservation and Movement).
=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=
Project First Cup inventions development program supports the frank
exchange of ideas, concepts and prototypes likely to lead to
commercial success. Project First Cup requests acknowledgement as
first source when things succeed.
Please visit www.tide2000.com/feedback to discuss this invention and
others.
in the article beneath would cost to be mass produced? PS. Charity
shops in the UK are equivalent to USA thrift shops but are organised
as national retail chains with standardised operating procedures.
The Digicam Fax: Enabling Charity Shopping on the Internet
Charity shops have a unique demand and supply profile similar to fine
art as goods are not mass produced and hence often only available as
unique items. Therefore there exists a physical-virtual conflict when
attempting to sell such unique items in two places at once: on the
Internet and on the shop-floor. This is a technique to overcome this
and introduce e-commerce into the charity shop retail sector. It aims
to widen consumer choice and more importantly for charities aims to
maximize potential revenues from massive price mark-ups on unique
labels or trademarks through central co-ordination of locally selected
items. The same techniques could be applied to branches of chains
where remnants of stock are held (maybe the end of a fashion line).
To begin with, from the buying public's point of view, purchasing
hours through the Internet are restricted to between the hours from 6
in the evening until 8 in the morning or what may come to be called
the "Bargain Shopping Hours" or BSH. The charities e-commerce website
during normal shop-floor opening hours is closed for purchase although
still open for browsing. This is essential to overcome the
physical-virtual conflict. Purchase on the Internet, as said always
done out of shop-floor opening hours, is generally done through a
prepaid scratch card and the amount deducted is a only the
non-refundable deposit to secure the item. Probably a percentage (say
10%) of the total cost. Particularly in the case of charity shops this
charge is for the Reservation and Movement (R & M) of the chosen
items. The goods will often be imperfect so physical inspection on
site is required before the remaining balance is paid. It is not
intended that any good is home delivered, only that they be moved
around a national network for inspection for a small charge to the
nearest convenient high street branch of that particular charity.
Charities may need to improve their logistical supply chain to
encompass this even perhaps pooling clothes rail transport with rival
charity shops.
Central to the success of the design is a new invention. The "digicam"
fax is a unique machine designed to enable back-room shop staff to
carefully select a few items (say 4-5) on a daily basis to be imaged
and registered with head-office without the intrusion of a keyboard on
their work duties. Hence the device consists of a separate digital
camera that plugs directly into the digicam fax. This device acts like
a fax in sending paper but also uploads maybe several photos of the
chosen items. Since normal digital cameras allocate unique identity
numbers to photographs, the staff include on written paper with the
photo transmissions these unique identities against other written
basic details such as: label or trademark, size, gender and condition.
Thus there is no keyboard with the digicam fax but is essentially a
machine with normal fax controls to limit training needs and relies on
pen power for further detailing. Head-office thus collects information
from all branches, inputting by hand (typist volunteers) the extra
faxed data and creating a database out of the pictures.
Stock movement on the charity shop floor requires a regular (perhaps
daily) movement of a display rail out and in. The rail coming in holds
the Internet reservation items that have come from all around the
country through an intervening sorting depot and await inspection. The
rail going out must go on first to the intervening sorting depot for
rail hanging according to geographic destinations. Items that have
been digitally photographed and placed on the Internet are still
available for purchase on the local shop floor during the day. Hence
reservation from the database can only be done during the BSH, or
Bargain Shopping Hours (6 to 8) to avoid conflict between the physical
and virtual buyers. The specially chosen goods for Internet
reservation may command higher prices of between 200 to 300% depending
on label and collector's tastes. They are also marked with special
pricing tickets while on the shop floor with such as things as "As
Seen On the Internet". This will increase not only product want but
make their removal from the shop floor easier in the morning before
the doors open if they have been reserved on the Internet during the
night. A morning fax or email alerts staff to this.
The baseball cap is an appropriate item to consider being sold on the
Internet for a charity shop chain using such a system. The student or
lower income shopper not possessing a credit card has already seen
from the national database using a free library Internet connection
that there appear from time to time quite rare baseball caps for sale.
He visits his local charity shop but finds nothing unique but decides
to purchase from the counter a £5 reservation scratch-off card. One
week later he spots a desirable label for £15 on the Internet and uses
£3s of the scratch-off card value to reserve it. 5 days later he gets
an automatic email to tell him the item has arrived at his local
branch for his inspection. A few days later he gets a moment to go in
to the shop and happy with the condition, despite a small blemish, he
decides to pay the remaining £12s. The cap had been moved halfway
across the country but rather than be sold for £5s the cap was sold
for £15. Thus a very reasonable 200% increase mark-up on what it would
have fetched without Internet e-commerce. If the cap had been rejected
as too imperfect, the charity would still have made a small profit by
keeping the £3 already paid up for R & M (Reservation and Movement).
=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=
Project First Cup inventions development program supports the frank
exchange of ideas, concepts and prototypes likely to lead to
commercial success. Project First Cup requests acknowledgement as
first source when things succeed.
Please visit www.tide2000.com/feedback to discuss this invention and
others.
