Author: f1232vdemskyy

Keep Your Customer Happy

Posted on by f1232vdemskyy

As we all know, managing your inventory is one of the key parts in running a successful business. Having too much inventory is not good because inventory depreciates while it just sits on your shelves or in your warehouse. Having not enough inventory is also not a good thing because I don’t think there would be someone who is happy about waiting to buy what they want or need. So main question here would be how do you find that perfect balance?

To control your inventory in an efficient manner, you need to make sure that you do certain things. First of all, you need a good inventory control system without which your simply would not be able to fulfill your orders in an efficient manner. Also, you need make sure you do not have excess inventory, because it gets deducted from company’s bottom line and can lead to you losing money, so you need to make sure that you do not overstock. Another part would be to have a good inventory tracking system that would allow tracking the damaged product and preventing it from getting to a customer.

As an example I would like to share a recent personal experience that I had with PUMA. Few months ago Puma was having their end of the season sale offering 40%-50% off their clothes when you buy it online. As excited as I got, I bought two sweaters and two t-shirts. After a week I got my package with only one t-shirt inside. When I called their customer service I was told that the items that I purchased were out of stock therefore they will refund me my money for the items that I did not receive. It was very unpleasant news to me, but what was more unpleasant was after my phone call I went online and looked at the items that were available for sale, and both sweaters that I wanted and other shirt were still available; nowhere did it say that these items were out of stock. In my opinion, PUMA has a very poor inventory control system that allows them to sell things that simply do not have. Things like this could lead to bad customer relationship, because you just get discouraged when something like that happens.

On the other hand Apple’s inventory management is probably one of the best one out there. Most of the things that you order from Apple’s website come directly from their factory in China, so they do not have to waste money on inventory storage. They also have one of the best delivery systems and we have seen it recently with their iPad launch, when just a few days after announcing the product it was already available for sale, while other companies take weeks.

Has anyone had any similar experience that you can tie to inventory management? Or do you have any suggestions for PUMA to improve their inventory control?

http://www.ehow.com/info_7754850_results-bad-inventory-control.html

http://www.phonearena.com/news/Apples-secret-sauce-for-success-is-inventory-management_id28558

Future of Electric Cars in US Market

Posted on by f1232vdemskyy

 

Technological advances in the car industry are evolving at an extremely high rate. However, consumer research shows that not all technological innovations appear to be attractive to US consumers.

 

A decade ago, something like an electric car was thought of as something that will not be available to the general public for a long time. However, Nissan released the first model of an electric car called Nissan Leaf in 2010. This car runs only on electricity and requires absolutely no gas. It is designed for people that drive no more then 120 miles per day. Leaf’s first debut in Japan proved it to be a successful product. Since its release date, Nissan sold almost 38,000 Leafs. What seems to be a pretty high number in reality is not, mainly because this is the worldwide sales data. In comparison to a regular gasoline car this number seems to be pretty small. For example, last year Toyota sold 155,000 units of its popular Corolla model, which by size and features is comparable to the Nissan Leaf. Clearly there is still something that is holding consumers back from switching to the electric car.

 

In the United States, Nissan Leafs quarterly sales are down by 56%, and down by 31.5% for the entire year. These numbers appear very troubling to me because a new product that is predicted to dominate the market in the future should not show such low results. However, in Europe, the Nissan Leaf seems to be more attractive to consumers. Their sales for this fiscal year are up by 207%. Nissan of North America spokesman, David Reuter, stated that trouble in the US market is caused by a natural disaster that happened in Japan last year, claiming that most of the Leaf parts have been washed away by the tsunami, therefore, the supply of Leaf’s in the US is very low.

 

However, is it really the low supply that causes such results in the US market? Or is it the difficulty to adapt to small hatchbacks that will not drive you for more then 120miles with out a recharge? Or is it the fear of being stranded somewhere where there is no charging stations? I think US consumers just do not trust electric cars enough yet. As long as gasoline prices continue to be affordable, no one will want to make the change to a lower performance, smaller, yet more environmentally friendly car.

 

Nissan reported that there were also a few battery problems that are related to the Leaf model. In Arizona, there were several customers complaining over the shrinking of the energy storage capacity of their lithium-ion batteries. However, Nisan handled it in a very ethical manner; they bought back two models from unhappy customers. By doing so, is it possible that Nissan admitted to producing a faulty product and showing that they are not able to deliver on their promises in relation to the Leaf?

 

Do you think that electric cars like the Nissan Leaf will eventually be successful in the US market? And do you think the way Nissan handled the Arizona buybacks was appropriate? And how will is affect their sales in the future?

http://www.prlog.org/11128791-nissan-leaf-is-the-first-electric-vehicle-to-win-2011-european-car-of-the-year-award-trophy-nissan.html