RE: UKNM: The Big Retailers - was Toys R Us

[Andrews, Stephen]

The business-to-business area is without doubt where the key £ benefits

are to be had (not through increased sales necessarily, but certainly

through significant cost savings and efficiencies).  And stationery

ordering is just the tip of a huge iceberg - applications such as online

meeting room-booking progs, share option allocation progs, global

customer management apps, enterprise-wide knowledge management etc

etc...  The list is endless - virtually every business process has a

potential IP application waiting to be developed.


Was at Microsoft recently, they have a meeting-room booking system which

allows you to book a room at any one of their sites globally, and sort

out lunch/refreshments, and auto bill it to the right cost centre etc

etc.  Saves hours of everyone's time apparently.


Steve

__________________

Steve Andrews

Cable & Wireless plc


		-----Original Message-----

		From:	Sajid Mohammed [

g23rocketmail [dot] com (mailto:g23rocketmail [dot] com)

]

		Sent:	01 February 1999 12:38

		To:

uk-netmarketingchinwag [dot] com

		Subject:	Re: UKNM: The Big Retailers - was Toys R

Us


		---Steve Johnston/IMRG <

steveimrg [dot] org

> wrote:

		>

		> >Don't the big retailers need someone to tell them

that this whole thing

		> >is an opportunity rather than a threat (isn't that

the new media

		> >marketeer's message?).

		> 

		> Every 'new media marketeer' thinks they are meeting

this 

		> bloody-obvious-retail-opportunity-why-are-they-so-dim'

type stuff for the 

		> first time


		Yeah! Fight! Fight! Fight!


		Seriously, the one topic that has yet to appear in this

thread is the

		aspect of e-commerce that isn't retail, but

business-to-business

		procurement.


		Yours truly thinks (and it's an unsubstantiated

conviction) that until

		we live in a society where it's as feasible for

low-income households

		to get online and buy as it is for the affluent,

retailing to the

		consumer will never really take off big time. Anyone

care to hazard a

		guess as to how much of the UK population has net access

at home & a

		credit card?


		On the other hand, procurement for business is a market

where at the

		end of the day buyers will inevitably be buying the same

stationery,

		janitorial supplies, computer consumables etc. that keep

the wheels of

		capitalism turning week in, week out - the possibilities

are endless.

		If there's going to be a boom in online selling, it's

going to come

		more from B2B than retail aimed at consumers.


		And if it means I never get another Viking catalogue

ever again...


		Sajid Mohammed

		

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