ETD: 832 Check 21; Retailers Carrefour, Metro Plan Big
Expansion in Chinese Market; Holder of Patent On Global Trade By Web
Sues Dell
E-Tailer's Digest
etd_post at gapent.com
Thu Nov 4 12:20:18 GMT 2004
E-Tailer's Digest --- Everything for the Retailer
Issue #0832 November 4, 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] Check 21
[3] Retailers Carrefour, Metro Plan Big Expansion in Chinese Market
[4] Holder of Patent On Global Trade By Web Sues Dell
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[1] Greetings.
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Hi All:
We have some interesting retailing news today, which will have an impact on
many of us.
First we have a new law in the U.S. - Check Clearing for the 21st Century
Act, a/k/a "Check 21", which allows banks to exchange electronic checks
rather than hard copies. For those of us who like technology, this may
seem like a good thing. However, for those of us who are money managers,
this takes away the float and gives it to the banks. And, I question if it
will prevent fraud. One scam with checks is to issue a check to ABC
company who goes to a check cashing service and cashes it as the XYZ
company. You only know that when you see the backs of the checks. What do
you think? Will it help or hurt us?
If you sell globally you now have another issue to worry about - a patent
on global trade online! Dell is the first company involved in the
suit. Look for others. This is a gold mine for the patent holder.
Finally, look to China as a way to increase business. Retailers Carrefour
(2nd largest worldwide retailer) and Metro Plan (German retailer) are both
expanding in China. No longer is it only a source of cheap labor. Time to
get on board.
51 days until Christmas. What are you doing this year to increase business?
Tell us about your business which will remain for posterity at
our "Members: Who Are You?"
site. 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] Check 21
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A slew of technological advances are changing the antiquated ways in which
checks are processed. Cashiers at Lacoste clothing boutiques, for instance,
swipe customer checks through a machine and hand the check back to the
shopper. Only 36% of Americans now receive canceled checks in the mail with
their bank statements. At the Oakbrook Gardens apartment complex in St.
Louis, office managers deposit rent checks right in the office --
eliminating the need for an afternoon bank run.
The evolution of the check business enters another new phase Nov 1 when
banks will be allowed to exchange checks electronically instead of using
paper versions. Signed into law last year, the Check Clearing for the 21st
Century Act, known simply as "Check 21," is expected to help checks clear
faster. It also means that banks will likely curb the high costs associated
with sending paper checks around the country in airplanes and trucks -- a
key part of the check-clearing process right now.
Ironically, the changes are coming even as traditional checks are being
pushed aside by more modern forms of payments, such as credit and debit
cards and online banking. For the first time, the number of electronic
payments made by Americans last year topped the number of check and cash
payments, according to a study conducted by the American Bankers
Association and Dove Consulting, a Boston-based consulting firm. Cash and
checks accounted for 47% of consumer purchases in stores in 2003, down from
51% in 2001 and 57% in 1999.
The decline is expected to continue. The Federal Reserve, which processed
nearly 16 billion checks last year, is shuttering some of its
check-processing offices around the country. In the second quarter of 2004,
the agency processed nearly 3.6 billion checks, down from 4.1 billion in
the year-earlier period.
Still, check usage isn't expected to go away anytime soon. Check payments
remain particularly popular in transactions between businesses. A survey
released yesterday by the Association for Financial Professionals, a trade
group, found that more than 75% of business-to-business transactions are
made with paper check. This, in turn, is prompting banks and retailers to
embrace new technology that speeds up the process of getting a paper check
into a bank account.
For banks, the new law represents the first major technological innovation
in check-processing since 1956 when they started encoding key data on the
bottom of checks, such as the bank's identification number and the
checking-account number. Prior to that, checks were sorted by hand.
For consumers, checks will likely clear faster, eliminating the so-called
float -- or lag time between payment and clearance -- that occurs when the
documents are transported around the country. Consumer advocates have
contended that could ultimately result in more bounced checks, which means
bigger fees for banks.
Among banks developing electronic check products, Bank of America Corp. is
testing a "remote deposit service" for middle-market and small-business
customers that allows the companies to scan checks at their offices and
send them to the bank electronically.
The changes in check processing also have created a fledgling cottage
industry in which consulting firms, marketing gurus and public-relations
agencies are pitching their services to help banks implement the new law.
Alogent Corp. of Atlanta has expanded its work force by 30% in the past six
months to take advantage of new consulting opportunities, says Brian
Geisel, founder and chief executive of the financial-services technology
company.
Details at:
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109891784239657852,00.html
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[3] Retailers Carrefour, Metro Plan Big Expansion in Chinese Market
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SHANGHAI -- Major European retailers Carrefour SA and Metro AG announced
aggressive expansion plans in China, suggesting the country's retail sector
will continue to grow rapidly as companies shift their battlegrounds to
smaller cities.
German retail and wholesale giant Metro said yesterday that it plans to
increase the number of its stores in China by more than 50% by the end of
next year. The company, which operates 21 warehouse-style stores in China
serving business clients such as hotels and restaurants, will add two
outlets by year's end and an additional 10 next year. It will focus on
expanding into smaller Chinese cities, such as Nantong, near Shanghai, and
to urban areas in central China.
France's Carrefour, the world's second-largest retailer by sales, after
Wal-Mart Stores Inc., said it will open 15 stores this year in China. Its
president for China, Jean-Luc Chereau, described the pace of expansion as
"never before [seen] in the history of Carrefour." Carrefour is China's
largest foreign retailer, with 53 hypermarkets in the country and sales
last year of $1.6 billion, according to the China Chain Store and Franchise
Association.
The expansion announcements, made in the wake of China's decision last week
to raise interest rates for the first time in nearly a decade, indicate
retailers remain confident that consumer demand will stay strong amid
Beijing's continuing efforts to cool overheated segments of the economy.
The rate increases are "too small" to have an effect on Metro's operations
in China, Metro Chairman and Chief Executive Hans-Joachim Koerber told
journalists in Shanghai.
Another factor behind the companies' growth plans is China's pledge to the
World Trade Organization to let foreign retailers wholly own stores in any
city starting Dec. 11. That is helping ease the way for greater investments
in a large number of cities; previously, foreign retailers were limited to
setting up in a handful of the largest cities and in provincial capitals.
"Because a lot of cities will open up, it makes expansion easier," Mr.
Koerber said. However, he said Metro has no immediate plans to increase its
60% stake in the company's China unit, Metro Jinjiang Cash & Carry Co.
Carrefour also plans to expand its Champion-brand supermarkets from the
current three outlets in Beijing, with three stores slated by the end of
this year and between 10 and 15 in 2005.
Mr. Chereau said that 180 million people in China -- 70% of them female --
made purchases at Carrefour last year. He said 45% of its customers came by
bus, 28% on foot and 15% by bicycle. Only 12% came by taxi or car, he said,
showing that the company already reaches far beyond the well-off residents
of Chinese cities. Mr. Chereau said Carrefour's target market in China
totals 280 million people, primarily the 15% of the population that is in
the middle class as well as the small group of wealthy people.
URL for this article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109929884974360981,00.html
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[4] Holder of Patent On Global Trade By Web Sues Dell
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A tiny company that holds a U.S. patent covering all international commerce
handled by computer sued personal-computer titan Dell Inc. alleging patent
infringement.
DE Technologies Inc., of Blacksburg, Va., filed the suit in U.S. District
Court in Roanoke, Va. Its founder and chief executive, Ed Pool, said that
ultimately DE Technologies hopes to license its patent to multinational
companies in return for a small percentage of the value of their
international shipments -- a sum that could collectively amount to billions
of dollars.
Dell is the first company DE has sued under the patent. The Round Rock,
Texas, company had no comment on the lawsuit. In the fiscal year ended Jan.
30, 36% of Dell's $41.4 billion in sales came from outside the U.S. A
majority of Dell's sales to consumers and small business are handled online.
DE Technologies holds a business-method patent. Such patents cover
processes and methods, rather than gadgets or chemical compounds. Companies
started filing such patents rapidly following a 1998 Appeals Court ruling
upholding their validity. Critics say many business-methods patents
shouldn't have been awarded, because the processes they seek to protect are
obvious or because they simply involve introducing computers into
procedures that historically had been carried out with paper and pencil.
The patent office is supposed to give patents only to inventions that are
both novel and nonobvious.
The DE Technologies patent was filed in 1996 and awarded in 2002. After the
Patent Office initially said it planned to issue the patent in 2000, it was
cited in debates in Congress as an example of a patent-protection system
run amok because of the breadth of its claims. The Patent Office then
re-examined the DE Technologies patent. According to its lawsuit, the
re-examination also was approved by a special patent review board and then
reviewed again by a deputy commissioner, before the patent finally was
issued in October 2002, almost six years after its preliminary filing.
Bruce Lagerman, a former patent lawyer who is president of DE Technologies,
insisted "the patent is rock solid."
URL for this article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109935395065961731,00.html
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