ETD: 780 Gift cards; Twilight of Barcodes and the Dawn of
RFID; Internet Tax Moratorium
E-Tailer's Digest
etd_post at gapent.com
Mon Apr 26 20:53:05 GMT 2004
E-Tailer's Digest --- Everything for the Retailer
Issue #0780 April 27, 2004
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] Gift cards
[3] Twilight of Barcodes and the Dawn of RFID
[4] Internet Tax Moratorium
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[1] Greetings.
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Hi All:
I was at a conference yesterday and at lunch somebody said a product was
"the Cadillac of the industry." Which got me to thinking about our
discussion on luxury. Does that term "the Cadillac of the industry" still
have the same meaning? Or should it be updated, and, if so to what?
Today we have some more information gift cards, which was a carry over from
sales potential and customer service. Do you use gift cards? How
effective are they?
We have more on RFID. This time they are stating the demise of
barcodes. And to think, that is relatively "new" for a lot of
companies. What do you think?
And list member Jean Reehl found something on the Internet Tax
Moratorium. Do you think it will ever come? How will it be
monitored? Who will collect and distribute the tax?
Tell us about your business which will remain for posterity at
our "Members: Who Are You?" site. We just updated all those postings that
we were delinquent with the
updates. http://etailersdigest.com/resources/members/index.htm And we have
a form there for you to tell us about you. As I said when I first proposed
this idea, we have "known" each other for a long time, yet we often don't
know anything about each other. So, tell us who you are and what you do.
Now, let's get to everything for the retailer.
Sincerely
George Matyjewicz, PhD
Chief Global Strategist, GAP Enterprises, Ltd.
mailto:georgem at gapent.com
http://www.etailersdigest.com
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[2] Gift cards
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At 05:09 AM 4/22/2004, you wrote:
When you return an item without the receipt to WalMart, they give a WalMart
gift card with the amount of the return encoded on the mag stripe.
This is partially incorrect, at least in the gift card systems we evaluated
prior to writing our own.
The gift (refund) amount is not encoded on the stripe. The amounts are kept
on WalMart's central gift card management system. The swipe devices in
stores do not generally have the ability to record onto the mag stripe. You
wouldn't want to pay for a terminal that could do this<g>.
They certainly do give you a gift card in the refund amount, of course.
We rolled our own gift card management system because our customers' cards
do not have to be usable outside of our customers' stores. This saves our
customer $ because they aren't paying a gift vendor a percentage of the
transaction. In a situation where multiple stores are involved (like a mall
gift card) this would be inappropriate and a standard gift merchant system
(such as those mentioned on pccharge.com referred to in my last post) would
be a better solution.
BTW, we are PC charge resellers, but only to our customers for integration
with our vertical POS (etc), so I don't benefit from saying their name:)
Mark Riffey
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[3] Twilight of Barcodes and the Dawn of RFID
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In an article in Ecommerce Times, Paul Korzeniowski reports that barcodes,
those familiar sets of lines on items from DVDs to refrigerators,
eventually may go the way of the typewriter, the black-and-white television
and the dodo. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology promises to
replace bar coding and make it easier for suppliers, distributors and
retailers to track individual items.
Yet while the technology holds great promise, it is currently hampered by
typical new-technology woes: high-priced components, a lack of
functionality and consumer privacy concerns. None of these problems is
insurmountable, but it will take time for the technology to take hold.
Born during World War II, RFID technology has been used in such functions
as airport baggage routing and highway toll collection for more than a
decade. This technology transfers data wirelessly from a minuscule
transceiver (or "tag") that can be attached to just about anything: a
razor, a shipping container or even a living thing.
The tags transmit information to readers that track product movement
through the supply chain . When coupled with associated software, RFID
systems can automatically trigger actions, such as restocking a shelf
depleted of products.
Automating such functions has become a prime focus for suppliers,
distributors and retailers. Expanding markets, retailer consolidation and
product customization are confounding the supply chain and making it more
difficult to forecast demand. As a result, companies constantly are trying
to make sure they have enough inventory to meet demand without carrying too
much and increasing their own costs.
RFID potentially offers help because it rides on radio waves and doesn't
require the line-of-sight scanning used with barcodes. Since it can
transmit information at ranges of up to 90 feet, RFID has the potential to
offer companies more granular, accurate information about product
availability.
Closer monitoring of product status could deliver significant paybacks to
large companies. Tire manufacturer Michelin, for example, carries about
US$1 billion in inventory at any time and thinks RFID may help it reduce
that amount by $100 million.
Consumer packaged goods company Procter & Gamble spends between $50 million
and $100 million per year reprocessing orders based on inaccurate shipment
information, and RFID could help lower that number. Because of the
benefits, market research firm IDC predicts RFID spending -- on hardware,
software and services -- for the U.S. retail supply chain will grow from
$91.5 million in 2003 to nearly $1.3 billion in 2008.
Indeed, large suppliers and retailers already have begun promoting the
technology. Each year, nearly 6 billion containers pass through Wal-Mart's
(NYSE: WMT) 108 distribution centers. To cut costs, the nation's largest
company plans to deploy RFID technology in its distribution centers in
2005. It has mandated that its top 100 suppliers deliver certain RFID
tagged products in 2006 and have all of their products RFID-enabled by
2007. If they fail to meet those requirements, they could lose their shelf
space.
While RFID faces many hurdles, observers feel the technology will take
root. "Because established companies, such as Wal-Mart, are backing RFID,
it will be successful," IDC's Boone told TechNewsWorld. "Deployment may not
occur as quickly as the big retailers would like, but I expect it will
happen in the next few years."
Details at...
http://ecommercetimes.com/perl/story/wireless/33439.html
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[4] Internet Tax Moratorium
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I just received this email from a board that I serve on and thought it
might be of interest to list members.
Regards,
Jean Reehl, President
FULFILLMENT SERVICES, INC.
526 E. 16th St.
Tucson, AZ 85701
www.fillorders.com
---
Senate Commerce Chairman John McCain is working on a Compromise Internet
Tax Moratorium Plan that would extend the expired moratorium on Internet
access taxes by four years. According to a summary being prepared by
staff, McCain's proposed compromise would exclude traditional telephone
service from the moratorium, as well as voice-over Internet protocol
services to the extent that they mimic traditional telephone service. The
compromise also includes temporary grandfather provisions for states that
tax some forms of Internet access. The summary was made available by an
industry source and its accuracy was confirmed by a McCain spokeswoman.
The compromise is an effort to reach a reasonable middle ground in the
debate between those who want to make the Internet tax moratorium permanent
and broad and those who want to make the moratorium brief and narrow,
according to McCain staff. McCain's compromise was already gaining support
from members on both sides of the Internet tax issue, but there is no
official statement yet from Senators George Allen, Lamar Alexander and Tom
Carper.
Majority Leader Frist would like to take the Internet Tax bill to the
Senate floor next week. If passed by the Senate, the measure would have to
be conferenced with the House of Representatives. But, that will not take
long because the Congressional leadership wants to finish this bill.
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