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Store 2.0 – Gadget store of the future (concept)

November 10th, 2011 . Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Yesterday when we were driving to Zagreb to visit Info restart fare, meet some friends, etc… I pondered on an idea of a revolutionary gadget store which has no employees or to be more precise, sales people.

Apple store interior

Apple store interior

I kinda thought about the Apple store. Because they have the least cluttered store (just compare this to HP, or Sony brand store).

So anyway… Look at this picture and imagine… You enter a store. Aproach the table/desk/counter. There are devices to choose from (like iPod, iPhone, iPad). Just as it is now, there is one device open for testing (if you pull it the alarm goes off).

Plastic dome

Plastic dome

Behind it, there is a plastic dome. Inside of that dome, there is a sealed box of the device you are testing. For example the iPad. When you decide to pay for the product, you swipe your credit card, or insert cash, confirm and the dome opens. When it opens you take the product. After a few moments, the dome closes and from beneath the counter a lift brings up fresh box version of that same product.

Naturally, there should be some personnel handling the security and refilling the stocks. I was more concerned about the sales process itself. For example if a potential customer wants to ask a particular question (how to connect the iPad to the Internet). Should there be a phone that’s connected to the switchboard, and there are few telephone operators answering the questions? I am not so sure that would work well, because phone support is, difficult, to say the least. Although 2-4 operators could handle support for 10-20 stores (instead the usual 2-4 salespeople per store).

Could this store easily be open 24-7? Should the sales process itself take place somewhere else? Somewhere where you can analyse and track everything? On some detail oriented website with videos, tutorials, Q&A, Forum, etc… Not sure…

If you think you are an expert on the subject, please tell me why do you think this idea would fail miserably :D

How do investors think? [Foursquare]

September 5th, 2011 . Posted in Business | 1 Comment »

A good friend of mine, business partner Muamer Mujević of Studio Iconis (who is among other things a marketing strategist) recently began analyzing Foursquare. I first need to roll back a few months… I was using Foursquare, under the impression I was an early adopter testing new technologies. After a while, I got bored. Also in Croatia, companies aren’t fast to adopt new opportunities. Meaning I can’t get any perks for my mayorship. Our parent company GEM Studio was the first company to give a discount in radius of 200 km.

But I slowly moved away from the topic. So, Foursquare just didn’t catch so quick. I even asked myself at that time if Steve Jobs is using Foursquare? BTW, if someone knows the answer to that question I would appreciate it. But lets return to the topic.

Mr Mujević completely destroyed the business model of Foursqure (in lack of a better description and words). What do I mean by that? He checked in at several place in short spans (and received a badge for it) although he was still at his office. So the system works as long as you play by the rules (and the system trusts that you will). OK, nothing wrong with that. What I am concerned is the following scenario.

Foursquare team pitches their idea to the potential investor. The investor asks the question “Well what if I hack the system and check in into places I haven’t really visited?”. The Foursquare team answers, well you get the points, the badge, the discount regardless of that. And the investor gives the money anyway?

My partner Edi Budimilić (Co-owner of GEM Studio, and co-founder of WhoAPI) had an interesting counter remark. His opinion is that if the users decides to cheat the system it’s OK to reward him anyway. Let me explain in an example. User checks in places where he isn’t really present, and receives a discount for it. But he needs to do it 5 times in a week (which demands focus, thinking and planing about it) plus after all you become their buyer. Basically you are rewarding that, and according to Edi, that’s OK. Also, if you cheat the points system, you constantly notify your friends with irrelevant data, and sooner or later, your friends will get annoyed and remove you from their list. This way, you will cheat the system, but only you will know that you have a lot of points and rewards, which is pointless.

How do you feel about this?

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