A Wish and a Prediction
I have a problem. I often can’t figure out what store to go to to buy certain things. I find this especially difficult in Manhattan, where we don’t have those stores that carry everything. I still don’t really know where to buy an umbrella, so now I just get them online.
I have another problem. I hate it when something is out of stock. I would love it if I could save myself a trip to a store by knowing whether something was out of stock beforehand. And calling the place doesn’t always work. A lot of stores don’t exactly have a firm grasp on their realtime inventory.
Okay, so, here’s the wish: I want an app that will show me all the stores near me that not only carry a particular product, but also let me sort by price and filter by availability. Right now with things like Yelp or Google’s recently-announced “Near Me Now,” I can search for types of stores near me, but I can’t search for products near me. I’d like this to be really specific, too, not just enabling a search for “umbrellas” near me, but, for example “Totes umbrellas” near me.
I realize this is not a trivial task, as it would entail mining tons of inventory data from an insane number of stores, many of which aren’t even tracking their inventory, and those that do are using a wide variety of systems. But here’s where the prediction comes in: this would be a perfect challenge for a company like Google to take on (I mean, hey, they mapped the freaking Earth, Moon and Mars already; no job is too big for them.)
The way I envision it is that Google could offer free point-of-sale and inventory tracking systems to retail businesses. The system would be good at importing legacy data and integrating with accounting systems like Quickbooks and SAP. Once it got deep enough penetration with this (and it would if Google offered it for free), it could then begin to mine the data that was coming in at these points-of-sale. At that point Google could then integrate this inventory data into their product search and near-me-now applications, and in a few heartbeats basically own this space. They would then monetize this by serving up targeted and localized ads based on the product an end user searches for.
The question isn’t whether or not someone will do this. The question is who will do it, and how soon.
6 comments
There’s an app for that! Shopsavvy on my Droid. You can search by product name and then using your GPS location, it will find select retailers in your area stocking the product, and the price they are offering. It also gives you online vendors like Amazon and their price. If you physically have the product in front of you and you want to comparison shop, you can use the phone’s camera’s built-in barcode scanner to quickly enter the UPC and search even faster that way. In the “sticks” of SE Virginia there aren’t many hits on local retailers other than the major chains but in NY your results will probably be a lot better.
Do you think the big retailers would allow their inventory to be available to the general public and their competitors?
Would the small mom and pop shops be able to then automatically sell their goods using an online marketplace like Amazon or eBay? Could they also easily access services for fullfillment (i.e. somebody to box and ship goods) in exchange for a commission on the total cost of sale?
I’ve tried ShopSavvy, and at least when I tried it the penetration wasn’t there. Like you say, mainly major chains. Someone on Twitter also recommended Milo.com, which in my brief test seems to have the same issue.
I think Google can really dominate here, but the key is getting retailers to, as Doug says, allow their inventory to be available to the general public & competitors. (Which, btw, is certainly a good point Doug–it would be a trade off they’d have to make for 1) getting a free POS, and 2) being listed on this service.)
jamie, once again you hit the nail on the head. the ‘out of stock’ problem is the key. so the system you envision really has to know weather the ACTUAL item was scanned in at that SPECIFIC location, and has yet to be scanned out by way of a customer buying it. (not just whether they ‘normally’ carry that item). i want this app very badly. does ShopSavvy really do this? because as you point out, it would require a tremendous amount of data crunching, but also human activity and corporate (not to mention mom and pop) participation. but nearly every product on the planet has a bar code, right? so it should be doable. and of course i want it global, not just US. i was recently in mexico city, and i was trying to find a particular (and semi-obscure) cold remedy for a friend. i wanted exactly this app, just to tell me if the product was somewhere in the city that i could buy it. i ended up emailing the manufacturer, who, although they didn’t have distribution in mexico, could not necessarily tell me definitively that it wasn’t available there. again, could ShopSavvy have helped me? and is it available for iphone?
This is an endeavor that spans not only technical concerns, but also socio-economic ones as well.
Firstly, I must admit that I am a big fan of any technology that makes our lives easier and helps us operate faster and more efficiently. I love the luxury of being able to purchase something from anywhere, without going anywhere, at any time of day, with no human interaction if necessary. I applaud any efforts that makes this process even better.
However, there is a very real problem that results from technology that grows too rapidly and too efficiently. One that I have not even heard addressed by anyone yet. Probably because it’s not immediate. Yet, it is very real. And I predict it is a struggle that our generation, or certainly the next, will have to contend with: displacement.
It is obvious thattechnology affords big business an unfair advantage over the small mom and pop shops, who either do not understand, or can not afford to remain competitive against it. Big Business will eventually win out and either absorb or destroy the mom and pops of the world.
But the problem doesn’t end there. The ability to find and shop online eliminates the need for significant physical space and human labor. Even Walmart, the world’s largest employer, could eventually operate efficiently on a total staff of probably 5-10% of its current size. The tremendous technological efficiency gained by business owner and consumer would be devestating to workers worldwide. This eventually could also trickle into the consumers lives as well. As technology becomes the norm, less jobs and physlcal office space is required. This could cause havoc in the real estate and construction markets, as well as skyrocketing numbers in general unemployment across the board. And this would not be a temporary setback like previous or current depressions. This would become a new way of life, and the new problem of our age: How to keep an economy running, and people employed when less and less jobs are needed? If monetary gain is the fuel for the progress, only a very few will benefit by it. The effort must be a humanitarian one, or economies around the world will fail as a result.
Technological advancement is a very exciting, yet dangerous, prospect. For if not executed properly and responsibly, the results could be devestating instead of glorious.
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