The Use of Integrated Technology in Shoe Store - Essay Example

My Shoe Store Introduction My style shoe store is basically a store where s get to design their own shoes through of the art technology, this is the basic unique selling point or the USP which the store looks forward to capitalize upon, the basic theme has been around for a while with burger shops where customers get to choose the ingredients for their own burgers and get to choose the shape and size of their burgers, the same has been incorporated into our shoe store where customers can with the use of integrated technology design new shoes or can even choose to make moderate changes to existing shoe designs to fit their desired needs and criteria. Starting off the store would just be a one brand store because of high customization that is available for the customers there hardly is a need to develop alternative shoe brands, this is so because different brands are made to cater to different segments of society and people but when people can choose the material, design and design that the shoe would consist of there hardly exists a need for having multiple brands of the shoe. In addition to this just having one brand while starting off would make it easier for the store to publicize its uniqueness and would make it easier in terms of costs and marketing activities plus it would be easier for the brand to cut through the clutter of different brands by different companies and hence it would prove very beneficial for the store in the early stages of its development in the market on the whole. In today’s environment it is very important for any upcoming business idea to be unique so that it is able to differentiate itself from the existing brands in the market just not for the sake of differentiation but also because there are market leaders that would not want the market to be penetrated by new comers and hence uniqueness is the answer to the stifling competition that every company faces in this modern day era. What better way would there be to cut through this clutter than the use of technology and at that state of the art technology to cut through the competition and hence the idea of a store where customers are given the maximum customization opportunity- your shoe, you design it! This is the basic theme of the endeavor that we have in mind. The finances for this store have been made through individual contributions made by the partners as well as funding through bank loans because the technology that had to be used in the store had to be specially developed and hence was costly but this kind of technology has been patented by the company for 20 years and hence it makes it very difficult for any of the competitors to copy and gives the company a security of sorts and makes sure the uniqueness of the store would be preserved at least for the initial 20 years of the company. The location of the store is in New York City Times Square which is the shopping hub of New York and adjoining cities and is very appropriate for a store of this kind because people would immediately notice the uniqueness. The store has just 6 employees out of which two are IT specialists that would stay in the store 24/7 to ensure the smooth running of the system through out. The other 4 employees would be there to show customers samples of the different parts of the shoes that they would using to design the shoe and these employees would have expertise in designing and briefing customers about the durability and cost effectiveness of different material. Customers can also refer to these employees in case they want to design a show for different climatic conditions and the employees will duly inform them about the different materials that would prove to be long lasting in the conditions that the customer has identified. The store would not be a very large one since it would house just 8-10 portals where customers can design there shoes and it would have samples of different materials that the customer would be choosing using a catalogue on the PC, this would give the customers a feel of what the final product may look like and hence would make it very realistic hence over coming the weakness that the customers might not know what the final product may feel like after they have designed the shoe for themselves. Mission Statement and Goals Our mission is to give our customers the most customized foot wear experience as possible and for the purpose of customization we have introduced the state of the art technology in our store to provide a cost effective yet quality foot wear solution to each and every individual, we manufacture exactly as you design it with immense precision and immaculate accuracy to ensure that you get the very best out of your customized design. Our goal initially is to survive in a market where we face immense competition from our indirect rivals but as time goes on and with initial success the goal would be to expand and expand rapidly not only with in the united states but also to take the concept to other continents because an innovation of this standard would hardly go unnoticed in other parts of the world as well and hence to capitalize on this innovation the plan would be to expand globally after 2 years of operations in the United States so that there is enough revenue as well as the expertise required to operate under different market situations and climatic conditions as well. The question remains of the target market for the store and it is very important from the perspective of any new business venture because one needs to know who the customers are and where they are located, but with innovations of this level where customers are building their own shoes and they have a control on the price that they would have to pay for a customized shoe then it virtually makes it possible for people from each and every segment of the society to be able to shop from our store but since the material quality that we would be using would be very high the costs are not always going to be very low hence our target market would be the upper middle and upper class of the society, having said that it does not mean that we would not be catering to the middle and lower middle class altogether we would target these classes during special seasons for example Christmas by giving special discounts and hence include these segments as well. Technology The most basic technology as mentioned above would be the catalogue in which all the materials required in making the shoe would be listed with their prices and the customer can choose these to build a shoe. Digitizers are pads that are used by architects to design houses, what this basically does is that when you sketch something on the digitizer the digitizer converts it into digital format and shows the image on the computer screen, for measuring the feet of the customers digitizers would be used so that the exact replica of the feet can be obtained on the computer screen and the customers can build their shoe around their feet, literally! Artificial intelligence in the form of neural networks would be used to help the consumers with identifying what other customers have designed and hence they would be able to identify the latest market trends all on their while they are at designing their own shoe, the user interface for this would be all built on a special software that was also outlined before and all of this technology would be patented. The store would have 8-10 portals where the customers can design their shoes and hence 8-10 pc’s with digitizers and the patented software and neural networks would be present with in the store, portals would also have internet connectivity so that consumers can visit different brand sites and design their shoes according to different brands of shoes but of course a customized version of it. The owners of the store would initially be all the 3 partners that had invested in the store but in the longer period when there would be goals of international expansion the company would go public limited and become listed on the stock exchanges so as to generate revenue for international business ventures and hence the ownership would change hands. Innovation in today’s dynamic environment has most certainly become a need rather than a desire or a want and this idea which is a very practical one because all the technology that is needed for this venture is present and there is just the need to integrate it to have booming business venture and this is what exactly what we have achieved a novel venture and all the credit goes to the technology that we are surrounded by in today’s world. References 1. Zwass, Vladimir. Management Information Systems. 2nd. 1992. 2. N, Kumar. Management Information Systems. Anmol Publications, 1989. 3. Kroenke, David. Management Information Systems. 1994. Read More