[Sigia-l] Site to Store - Ship to store

[James Aylett]

On Fri, Oct 05, 2007 at 01:58:44PM +1000, Andrew Boyd wrote:

> It is not large by US standards, but here in Oz, Harris Technology
> (http://ht.com.au) have an anecdotally accurate stock/availability
> indication on their website. I say anecdotally because it has never
> failed me personally in the years I've bought stuff from them online.
> They are nationwide, but again, given the smaller number of outlets
> than a similar chain in the USA might face, it may not be a fair
> comparison.

I have experience of two companies doing this in the UK. Argos has
never failed me (it certainly feels like they hook directly into their
in-store inventory system); PC World /probably/ works, but the
experience was appalling, and after half an hour waiting for them to
actually find the item I gave up, walked out, and ordered it from an
online company (Firebox) that delivered it first thing the following
day. Yes, it was a small amount more, but my time waiting for inept
shop assistants is probably worth at least that much.

Although the data warehousing / processing aspect is non-trivial to
get right, the experience depends on an awful lot more, which it seems
PC World have neglected. (Argog's experience has always struck me as
pretty utilitarian, but I can't remember ever being let down by it.)

James

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  James Aylett                                                  xapian.org
  james at tartarus.org                               uncertaintydivision.org