ETD: 680 Internet E-Mail Stamp; New York Auto Show; Internet
Sales Tax update;Architecture War;RFID Expectations Unveiled at AMR
Conference
E-Tailer's Digest
etd_post@gapent.com
Thu, 24 Apr 2003 07:33:03 -0400
E-Tailer's Digest --- Everything for the Retailer
Issue #0680 April 24, 2003
George Matyjewicz, Moderator mailto:georgem@gapent.com
Published by: GAP Enterprises, Ltd. http://www.etailersdigest.com
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CONTENTS
[1] Greetings
[2] Internet E-Mail Stamp
[3] New York Auto Show
----- ---- --- -- -> Important Offer <- -- --- ---- ---- --
[4] Internet Sales Tax update
[5] The Architecture War
[6] RFID Expectations Unveiled at AMR Conference
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[1] Greetings.
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Hi All:
We have a full issue today - contributions from our list members on these
important topics. So my comments will be brief.
Let's hear from you. What do you think about these issues that affect us
all? Or any other issue that is important to retailers/etailers?
Now, let's get to everything for the retailer.
Sincerely
Dr. George Matyjewicz
Chief Global Strategist, GAP Enterprises, Ltd.
mailto:georgem@gapent.com
http://www.etailersdigest.com
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[2] Internet E-Mail Stamp
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Our moderator wrote...
>Sometimes it's the simple things that work - like a "stamp."
> The issue is who enforces it and how? It could be something
> the US Postal Service could do, and distribute the money to
> the various countries postal services for distribution. But,
> we all know what happens when governments get involved.
I don't see any reason to get governments or ISPs involved. Neither are
exactly revered for their customer service, nor their
imagination/creativity/problem solving :)
If it is left to the user to choose a filtering/stamp mechanism, then
competitive services can be created. Involving governments and ISPs will
only make the situations worse. One such service is http://www.emailstamps.net.
I don't particularly care for their implementation of the idea, but the
idea is a sound one. The main thing I don't care about re: their system is
that prospects would be asked to pay to inquire about a potential purchase
via email. Sounds like a great way to run off a prospect<g>. Not to mention
PayPal is the real winner in this deal.
Mark Riffey
Granite Bear
Vertical business management software
www.granitebear.com
+++ [Next Post] +++
Scenario One;
Place the onus of handling stamp charges on the ISP's of the senders as
they are in a position to account for all outgoing emails. They then
charge the individual senders according to each's output. This sounds like
putting the wolves in charge of the henhouse to me. It would be too easy
for a sender to charge the customer properly, but under-report their
output, generating illegal income. But, for the sake of discussion, let's
assume we can trust the sending ISP to honestly report their output;
First, the sending ISP would take their share for handling the stamp
charges. They would then have to pass the remainder, with reports [honest
or not], on to what agency for final management/re-distribution? How does
this scenario work for you?
Scenario Two;
Put the onus on the receiving ISP to track all incoming email and bill
sending ISPs for stamp charges. Receiving ISPs would get a handling share
of the stamp charge for their services. Again, this leaves too much
opportunity for generating illegal income by overbilling, so we again will
assume, for the sake of discussion, that receiving ISP's will honestly
report their incoming load and generate correct sender lists from their
logs. Do they then bill the sending ISPs for their stamp charges? Or, do
they send reports to an agency for billing out? Again, what agency? How
does this scenario work for you?
Scenario Three;
Set up an automatic system to manage this information. It still needs to
be passed to an agency for billing, distribution, use, etc.
So, it's obvious that, no matter which scenario we choose, we need to
create a new agency to monitor all email that flows globally and 'stamp
charge' accordingly. First, who does this agency charge - the ISP or the
actual sender? Charge the ISP and you will cut down on the number of spam
friendly ISPs. Charge the actual sender and you hit them directly in the
pocketbook BUT - and this is a HUGE ,'but', - this type of monitoring
flies in the face of the idea of an open society. Now, I don't want to get
into a political discussion here, but open societies are more business
friendly societies. Enterprise flourishes and the economy expands. So,
how do you resolve the dichotomy of an open society with the ultimate
communications monitoring system ever thought up? How does this scenario
work for you?
Have I missed something obvious? After all, any agency would have to be
international as spam knows no borders. This just makes the proposition
much harder to handle regarding the final disposition of stamp charges
generated. I shudder at the thought of an email stamp - and I don't use
bulk email for any purpose at all.
Will someone please tell me there is a 'Scenario Four' I have not thought of?
Gary K. Foote
Webbers Communications
http://www.webbers.com
603-447-1024
gkfoote@webbers.com
+++ [Moderator's Comments] +++
Interesting comments guys. Thanks.
I do see another opportunity for digital currency. A stamp needs some way
to collect. PayPal is an alternative, but only goes down to cents. A
stamp would need micro payments - down to six decimal places.
George
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[3] New York Auto Show
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Our moderator wrote..
> they produce (or show concepts of) the monster cars - like Cadillac's
> Sixteen with 1,000 horsepower. Now I love fast cars, but that one scares
> me. The show itself seems to have more convertibles than any time in the
> past (or maybe it's because I'm looking for a convertible ;-). The most
> unique new "car" is the Dodge Tomahawk concept car, a 500-horsepower Viper
> V-10 engine powering the dual rear wheels gives this radical vehicle a
> potential top speed of 420 miles per hour - for anyone who wants to test
> it. It looks like a four wheel motorcycle (see links at end of digest).
I seem to recall, the average Corvette drives about 50,000 miles per
fatality. Having lived on a straight road just after a curve, I can tell
you that people have trouble handing a normal car at about 45 miles per
hour. Cost us about five mailboxes and a very nice parked car to learn
that. Also two concrete culvert and three telephone poles, one of which was
chopped off about 3.5 - 4 feet above the ground by a flying truck.
200mph? Not till we have computers driving! (And it better not be Windows!)
420mph? Not till they have rails to keep the car on the road!
-javilk-
------------------- IMAGINEERING --------------------
--------------- Every click, a vote. ----------------
----- Do people vote for, or against your pages? ----
-- What people want: http://www.SitePsych.com/free --
-----------------------------------------------------
+++ [Moderator's Comments] +++
I still think all countries should do as Germany does. You take a 6 month
driving course before you get a license. Of course with no speed limit on
the Autobahn, you need training. I was once doing 135 MPH (210 KPH) there
and was passed by like I was standing still.
BTW, there were other interesting autos at the show. I'm looking for a new
car, so I went to the International Auto Show in NYC. Interesting
stuff. It's almost as if they are saying let's get away from the SUV's and
go with massive gas guzzling cars instead.
1. The Dodge Tomahawk - a four wheel "car" that sure looks like a
motorcycle. 500 HP with top end speed of 420 MPH.
http://www.tiscali.co.uk/motoring/firstimp/2003/01/13/story_1.html
2. The concept Cadillac Sixteen with 1,000 horsepower. It's competing
with the Maybach.
3. Lincoln and Chrysler had what appeared to be SUV/car
crossovers. Lincoln had the Navicross which has the front end of the
Navigator on an auto frame. Massive.
4. Lot's of convertibles, which is what I want this year. Just about
every manufacturer has one or more. BMW had 4-5. BTW, I understand that
now that BMW is being made in Spartanburg SC, they are officially changing
their name from Bavarian Motor Works to Bubba Makes Wheels. ;-)
I like the Mercedes SLK 230 and the BMW Z4 ("Land Shark"). Although the
highest rated convertible according to Edmunds is still Mazda Miata, which
my wife owns.
5. A couple of hardtop convertibles where the hard top folds into the
trunk, yet gives you room for luggage.
Of course, they had to drag me away from the Ferrari/Maserati displays.
No doubt, one can easily kill oneself with many of these vehicles.
New York International Auto Show
http://www.autoshowny.com/
BTW, Ford will be discontinuing the T-Bird at the end of 2005.
George
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----- ---- --- -- -> Important Offer <- -- --- ---- ---- --
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improve your sales closing ratio. GUARANTEED!
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----- ---- --- -- -> Important Offer <- -- --- ---- ---- --
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[4] Internet Sales Tax update
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Hope all is well. Here's my two cents...again. First Sales Tax issue, then
S&H issue.
In the past I think I've made clear our associations stance on the cross
state sales tax issue. We greatly appose any "new" taxes. I've heard all
the arguments, they don't hold water with us. I want to vent on two arguments.
The latest amnesty thing with big retailers collecting tax. They should
have been collecting it all the time, from each State they have a store in
anyway. They tried to pull a fast one. This is no concession for "true"
direct marketers to follow. It does give warning to collect tax from places
you have a physical presence.
Losing tax dollars, I haven't seen it proved. Many theories and estimates,
but that's about it. Even if it were so, as more and more retailers build
sales on the web things will even out.
Also, don't forget that most every state has a "use tax" that citizens are
suppose to pay if they purchase goods from out of State. Guess what, people
don't pay it. They don't want to! So the States are trying to put the
collection burden on the company that is selling.
Okay... As for Shipping and Handling.
1. Many smaller companies are loosing money on each order because of the
cost of order handling and shipping. Many are afraid to charge what they
need in fear of loosing sales. Others just don't pay attention to how much
it really costs and think they have it covered. But don't!
It is easier for bigger companies to weather the storm because they have
efficiencies in volume. But if you notice how many big catalogs are in
trouble- big volume isn't everything either. But the majority now-a-days do
NOT try to make a profit center from S&H charges, it's already hard enough
to get an order.
Here's a breakdown of what some bigger companies try to do for S&H.
13% Cover outbound freight only.
21% Cover Freight and Materials
18% Cover Freight, Materials and Direct warehouse labor.
-----
= 52%
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19% Charge what they think the market will bear.
26% Charge relative to competition. (Note: in reality some of these people
could be counted with the first 52%)
1% Provide Free S&H year round.
1% Provide Free S&H during peak shopping periods.
1% Don't know how they are coming up with it.
Hope this helps.
By the way, we have the 2003 directory of mail order catalogs now available
on our site. Over 11,000 listings in 40 product categories. You can find
more info here:
http://www.nmoa.org/catalog/index.htm
--
Best regards,
John Schulte, Chairman
National Mail Order Association
Email: schulte@nmoa.org
Tel: 612-788-1673
Direct Marketing Discussions at: www.DMchat.com
http://www.nmoa.org
+++ [Next Post] +++
Hiya to George and all the readers. Firstly I do not see why an Internet
sale should be exempt from sales tax that phone call sales must pay. If
someone orders an item from an infomercial by calling the '800' number, the
shipper must charge sales tax depending on the state that it is being
shipped into. How is an point and click any different or more ephemeral
than a phone call? The e-tailers have been treated to a competitive
advantage that I don't think they are entitied to.
Re: email 'stamps' - Who is the Internet that "they" can levy such a tax?
If we compare this again to phone calls, there is a tax on the service
provided on your monthly phone bill, but there is no "tax" per se on
communications. I am not a lawyer but I do remember a revolutione a couple
of hundred years ago that included gripes about a stamp tax.
Personally, I'd pay LOTS to eliminate the spam. It and the viruses that
they promulgate are a large problem for all users and businesses. perhaps
if the sender had to pay it would stop a lot of the nonsense. Who would
levy such a tax? The very freedoms that the Internet provides prohibits
such a tax or stamp. Should such a tax be instituted it would be too easy
to circumvent via offshore servers etc.
That's my two cents worth.
Joe Dweck
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[5] The Architecture War
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Our moderator wrote...
> Open system was the hot topic in the 1980's, when the mini computer
> industry faded away, and the manufacturers were trying to regroup. So they
Which would you like writing your code, a crack team of well paid
programmers under the gun of a shipping date? Or a bunch of guys, often
over one hundred times more guys, doing what they love just because they
love doing it? And shipping the next release when they are satisfied!
Whom do your trust with your car problems, your expensive and terse garage
mechanic; or "Click and Clack" and others having fun explaining things on PBS?
I use Linux, not because it is technically superior, but because it lets ME
describe to it what I need done, try it, glue working bits and pieces
together to form larger things. In the end, it just works for me without
interruption. It's like batch files on steroids.
Windows? I'd have to buy an expensive set of professional tools and learn
an incredible amount of stuff to be able to program it to do anything. I
can describe and start doing the same thing in Linux in one tenth the time
with one tenth the effort. And it runs three to five times faster.
In fact, that's what I use to do before a friend dropped a Linux CD on my
desk as a birthday present in 1995.
Yes, I am a professional programmer. It's still ten times faster and
easier to use Linux! Think what that means to a
non-programmer... Possible vs Impossible, maybe-affordable vs Totally
Unaffordable!
Open Source means that anyone, be it on your payroll or a
"fellow sufferer" in Sweden, can look at the source, find the bug, and
post the fix for it. And that's exactly what they do. Bug, after bug, after
bug is fixed, and done at a far faster rate than any single corporation
could afford to pay for. The stuff Evolves!
> allowed more flexibility with various manufacturers. Open systems was
> wonderful for retailers. Now you could have a Fujitsu Point of Sale
> system, with an NCR in-store processor, tied into an IBM back end system.
>
> Microsoft's ingenious ploys to have their operating systems installed on
all
> PCs virtually ended the wars.
At our expense! You can buy a Linux PC for $200. Or Less. Windows? Add
several hundred dollars. And gimicked demos aside, the machine runs a lot
slower!
As for IBM, they are endorsing Linux these days. (Their research guys
forced them to -- the labs I worked in ran mostly Linux the year before
they announced.) Why should they buy write the operating system when they
can put Linux on their hardware practically for free? Same for SGI. SUN
seems to be slowly coming around.
When Gates made the decision to irrevocably integrate the browser into the
operating system for legal reasons, he committed a colossal technical
blunder - making it _irrevocably_ _intertwined_ reverses the trend toward
modularity, flexibility, etc. and makes fast response to
evolutionary changes in the world nearly impossible.
-javilk-
------------------- IMAGINEERING --------------------
--------------- Every click, a vote. ----------------
----- Do people vote for, or against your pages? ----
-- What people want: http://www.SitePsych.com/free --
-----------------------------------------------------
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[6] RFID Expectations Unveiled at AMR Conference
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The buzz at last week's third annual AMR Retail and Consumer Goods
Executive Conference in Chicago was ePC/RFID (electronic Product Code/Radio
Frequency Identification). Speakers on the topic included Pete Abell, AMR's
research director, retail industry service, and Gap Inc.'s executive vice
president and chief supply chain officer, Chuck Crovitz. Crovitz indicated
that Gap was very impressed with the results of last year's RFID pilot
throughout its supply chain and straight through the store to checkout.
Crovitz cited great visibility at store level where Gap was able to take
inventory, as he says, "six times an hour rather than two times a year!" In
spite of the pilot's positive ROI, Crovitz feels it is "a little too soon"
for the Gap to make the full investment in ePC/RFID. Gap is currently in a
wait and see mode, in part, waiting for the cost of implementation to come
down, but more importantly, waiting for the consumer privacy concerns to be
effectively addressed. The consumer privacy issue is perhaps the biggest
concern surrounding this technology, affecting CGs and retailers alike.
AMR's Abell addressed the issue forcefully in his conference session and in
an exclusive RIS News interview. Abell says the technology industry must
build a "tag kill" command into every tag. In addition, he says consumers
must be given a notice of use and also a consent and choice option
regarding the tags. Consumer trust in the technology and the companies that
use it will be paramount for its ultimate success.
Early signs of adoption by retail and consumer goods leaders including Home
Depot, Target, Gillette, Procter & Gamble, Unilever, Kimberly-Clark and
others, equal one trillion dollars in retail sales according to Abell. He
fully expects ePC/RFID to be transformational for both the retail and
consumer goods industries. One sign of RFID's momentum is Wal-Mart's
expectation that all supplier pallets be marked with RFID tags by 2005.
Abell stated that supermarkets will have to adopt RFID as soon as possible
and should be contacting suppliers and saying, "hey, if you're doing this
for Wal-Mart, we want to tap into the effort and get the cost savings."
Details at...
http://www.consumergoods.com/newsletter/cgt_newsletter.htm#1
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