Off-Price Store Marshalls - Assignment Example

Marshalls is a large departmental store based in the U.S. and owned by TJX companies. shopping at Marshall's is a hectic and tedious process that consumes a lot of time. As such, finding the right item in the right size is always a big challenge for customers (TBF, 2011). This paper, therefore, proposes that Marshalls adopt a new in-store technology to serve customers faster and more efficiently, handheld devices for employees, and use of item-level RFID to better track and manage its inventory. Consequently, I will consider Macy’s shoe department as an example. To achieve this, I will detail all the benefits of this technology and the approximate cost of installing this technology in Marshalls.

Indeed, Macy's has adopted recent technology to enhance store shopping. Indeed, Macy’s technology seeks to expand online inventory and store-to-door fulfillment capabilities. The system is Wi-Fi enabled in brick-and-mortar stores. Additionally, the system uses item-level RFID to better track and manage the inventory. It also collaborates with Google to facilitate store maps and mobile-enabled payment. As such, Macy's can be a very significant technology in perfecting the shopping experience in Marshalls. The device is significantly portable due to its remote control size. The clerk takes a quick scan of a bar code on the shoe, types in the customer's size, and the machine subsequently establishes whether the store has the shoe in stock.

This promotes a masterpiece in the shopping experience. This facilitates instant service to the customer without the clerk not physically going to the back room to check the availability of the reference item (Clough, 2012). Indeed, the device can instantly search for the item in the context of type, name, and size without running to the back room. The device therefore speedup up service and improves convenience and portability. The device equally sends a message to a subordinate staff in the back room informing him of the customer’s choice and even proposing the closet door for the worker to deliver the item to the customer.

More so, the device allows for time-saving in serving one customer thus allowing the clerk to serve more customers, especially during weekends and holidays. Indeed, the clerk can use the saved time to introduce the first customer to other options thus increasing the customer base. The system equally allows the customers to view various products online on the screen as well as allowing them to touch the real items. As such, the device allows the company to display more merchandise than floor space or inventory limits. Moreover, the Google maps partnership allows customers to navigate the stores and enable tap-and-go mobile payments through the Google Wallet (Giannopoulos, 2012).

As such, this device has enormous benefits that can add value to Marshalls Company. This would highly facilitate effective service to the customers in a faster and more convenient manner. It will similarly help Marshalls to better track and manage its inventory. More so, it will accord service to more customers, enable the workers to work effectively, and generally improve sales turnover in Marshalls. Nevertheless, the installation of such a device at the Marshalls Company is a costly affair. Indeed, in a company with branches worldwide and resounding numbers of customers, the kit would require to have a device for every clerk serving the customers.

As such, installing such a system would require huge capital to satisfy all the branches in distinct countries. More so, the collaboration with Google will equally warrant a business deal that will cost Marshalls a significant amount of resources. At the same time, installing this technological device will warrant specific technological know-how, training of clerks, maintenance costs, and power. Additionally, this will require licensing of the device, which has distinct terms in various countries. Such a license will cost the company significant amounts of money.

Most significantly, the WI-FI application installed in the device will necessitate networking that will attract additional costs. However, since, Marshalls is a big company with huge resources, it can easily afford to install this device. More so, the benefit of this device surpasses the installation costs. As such, I recommend that Marshalls Company install Macy’s technology in its system for the purposes of managing its inventory and serving its customers in a better and more convenient manner. Read More