Las Vegas Trade Show
03/10/2008 noreply@blogger.com (Tony Pitale)Nightclub & Bar Beverage Retailer Convention and Trade Show
Feb 26 & 27, 2008
As is our tradition, Jim and I arrived in Sin City on Monday, February 25th and set up
our ICS trade show booth. The show officially opens February 26 at 11 am and runs till
6 pm. Tomorrow the doors open at 11 noon and the show will close at 5 pm.
As the show started, we were visited by Greg & Durrell from Beverage Warehouse, Joe
Anderson from Spirit and Wine Cellar, and Dave Dobbs from Red carpet Wines. Later in
the day, Dino from Monroe stopped by to visit. It is always great to see our current
customers visit our booth and enjoying the trade show and Las Vegas.
During the course of the day, we were visited by four different guests from Montana. We
do not have any stores in this state and are hopeful that we can close one (or more) of
these leads. This will open up a new state for ICS and Vision.
As we were about to shut down for the day, we were visited by a group from the State of
Idaho. Idaho is a state controlled environment. They own over 50 stores and are the
“vendor” to over 100 privately owned stores. This is exactly the same model as the
Maryland Liquor Control Board. So we are encouraged that our LCB version will fulfill
the State of Idaho requirements.
On Wednesday, the 27th, the show opened at 11 am and closed at 5 pm. In previous
years, the traffic on the second day of the show is generally painfully non-existent. To
our surprise, we had a fairly steady stream of visitors for the better part of the 6 hours.
We were visited a second time by the owners of Stockmanʼs. We did not have any of
our existing customers visit this day. And as the day wore on, there were less people
walking the floor.
In all, we were able to obtain over twenty leads, many of which we believe to be worthy
prospects.
We plan on doing the show again next year, as our customer base continues to spread
to new states, we feel encouraged that stores are continuing to look for new or
replacement systems.
St. Bernard Recovery Corp.
01/23/2008 noreply@blogger.com (Tony Pitale)I would like to deviate from what you would expect to be written by a technology company and instead, write about one of my passions.
In June, 2007, I along with my wife and college aged daughter, visited Andrew Jackson Elementary School in Chalmette, Louisianna. This school is in an area almost completely destroyed by Katrina. The purpose of our visit was to deliver 2,300 books to the school, that were collected thru actual book and financial donations, by my daughter. As each child selected a book, you would have thought it was Christmas. The entire trip was an extremely moving experience. Nothing short of seeing the devastation, in person, could do justice to the conditions that the residents have to endure. And the conditions they were forced to live in continue to this day.
We would like to continue to help these people. People like you and I, and your family. They had homes, families, friends, property ... lives. In the coming months, we will be mounting an effort to raise funds and home related furniture and appliances that can be used to improve the lives of the residents. We hope to contact each one of our customers to ask your financial help in assisting us in improving the conditions and lives of these people.
You can get a great deal more information by visiting www.thesbrc.org.
Please join my family in helping.
Tomorrows solutions - today
12/18/2007 noreply@blogger.com (Tony Pitale)Many companies tout ‘ongoing development’, however ICS continually backs up that statement. Every month we distribute a Release Notes document, explaining the changes made to VISION, based on customer feedback, sales focuses and new ideas. This document is seldom less than 2 pages – in some cases it has been as large as 6. Obviously, there are a many ideas brought up for discussion in planning new features.
One of the recent modifications is Enhanced Customer Order (or ECO). In the planning for a number of months, ECO has built on the initial Customer Order concepts, to more closely resemble the ‘Back office” ordering process of today’s Liquor Stores. Customers placing an order can pay a full deposit, split a shipment (great for futures!) and use multiple shipping addresses, charges and methods. Initial response to this new feature has been overwhelming and we thank the many customers who contributed to the design of this feature.
As your industry evolves there will be more emphasis placed on the customer ordering process, as retailers use this component to extend their business. By implementing ECO and adding refinements to this function, (including Web Order integration, scheduled for early next year) Vision customers will position themselves to take advantage of these new growth opportunities.
How to find ICS on the web
11/26/2007 noreply@blogger.com (Tony Pitale)How do you search the web for a point of sale system? What phrase do you use?
Wine and liquor pos. Retail liquor store pos. Liquor point of sale. Point of sale. Liquor and wine pos.
However you search, it is hit or miss on what you will find. In an attempt to improve our visibility on the web, we have now purchased www.wineandliquorpos.com as a web address.
Ed from Young's becomes a "Miner"
10/23/2007 noreply@blogger.com (Tony Pitale)Data Mining Vision to Target the Right Customer with the Right Event
Last Friday, we sold five times more single malt Scotch Whisky than “usual” on a Friday in October, despite the unusually warm weather and a torrential rain storm. Even better, we cemented our relationship with thirty of our best single malt customers by providing them with an education/tasting event tailored just for them. By extracting customer sales data from Vision, we were able to target a small, select group of customers and invite them to an event created just for their passion - single malts. Our customers loved it and we proved to ourselves, once again, the value of using loyalty cards and Vision.
Our goal was to invite a “Master of Whisky” from Diageo to come to Young’s to give a presentation and tasting. Unlike our grand wine tastings that we host twice a year, we didn’t want to broadcast this event to our entire customer base for two reasons. One, we didn’t want the event to be too large, where logistics for our space would be unwieldy. Second, we wanted our guests to be our true single malt whisky aficionado’s. The solution, by data mining our customer sales history in Vision, was easy.
First, we extracted through the Sales Analysis tool all customers who had bought single malt scotch in 2007. Then the list was narrowed down to extract only those customers who are regular, high end single malt buyers. We then mail merged their name and address information into a personalized invitation. The total number of invitations was limited to one hundred and sixty because we used a best case expectation that we would get RSVP’s from a quarter of those invited. Those one hundred and sixty invitees represented our best single malt whisky customers.
The personalized invitations were sent out slightly over two weeks before the event. The letter described the event, including products that we knew our customers would want to taste. It also stressed the importance of calling us to RSVP. Within a week and a half, we had thirty-five reservations.
On the day of the event, it took Spike McClure, our Master of Whisky, over three hours to drive the nineteen miles from his office to our store, because the rain and flooding were that bad. Even though the weather was abominable, thirty of the thirty-five customers braved the storm and we had a terrific tasting. Every attendee was enthusiastic, Spike did a marvelous job and we sold a lot of single malt scotch. Our total outlay – about $65 dollars in postage!
When we survey the product categories we have in the store, it seems that our potential for small, targeted marketing of special events is almost limitless. The key, however, is in using the Vision loyalty card functionality to target the right customer for their “right” event. Whereas mass mailings are seen as an imposition by most consumers, targeted, personalized marketing of events and promotions that meet customers’ needs are welcomed by them and profitable for the store.
If you have any questions about Vision and the loyalty card functionality and potential uses, please feel free to give me a call anytime. I’d love to share ideas with you.
Ed Wassmer, Young’s Fine Wines & Spirits, (516) 627-1234