Archive for the ‘Trends’ Category
Future of Retail
Saturday, November 21st, 2009
Increasingly I find people are going into stores with no intention of actually buying anything. They are going to stores to touch, try and ask questions about a product in person then jot down the description of the ones plan to buy so later they can go online to purchase it for less $ and have it sent directly to them. A trend like this which provides so much benefit to consumers is likely to grow, even at the detriment of retail stores.
What if stores just stopped holding inventory or distributing physical products all together? By taking the ‘Experience Store’ concept to the next level, stores could still offer an opportunity for customers to come in, look at sunglasses, try them on, ask if they float – and if they like them, they could even complete the transaction in the store (or opt to have the product info emailed). In this model, no products ever enter or leave the actual store. Instead of making profits from selling inventory, they would make money by leasing space directly to manufacturers who want to drive awareness and get products into consumers hands. Orders placed in the store could be referred directly to fulfillment centers managed directly by manufacturers.
Why stores might love this..
> they would save a great deal of space that would otherwise be taken up by inventory/ stock rooms. Thus allowing them to offer more product variety
> they would no longer have to worry about the risks of managing (theft, loss, damage, returns) / forecasting inventory (overstocking or stocking out)
Why manufacturers might love this..
>By side stepping the need to sell their products wholesale (typically 1/2 the retail price) to store fronts, they will be able to reap much much higher profitability by selling directly to the customer
>getting closer to the customer end consumer means they will be able to ramp up, cut or tweak production faster
Why consumers might love this..
> More product variety in stores
> Since stores will need a much smaller margin to cover their overhead (as they no longer carry inventory costs) the end price to consumers would be significantly lowered
> less shopping bags! 
Despite all the pro’s there are still potential drawbacks to this strategy…
> It completely disrupts the way traditional distribution systems have been built, meaning lots of upfront $$ will be required to perfect it
>there are those times when we all like to have products immediately, in which case this system would not cut it.
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Balsamiq mockups
Tuesday, February 10th, 2009
With all the new web product out on internet, its easy to fall in and out of love very fast. It seems that I sign up for a new product everyday that all offer lots of interesting and cool features. Almost all of these services and apps don’t provide enough value or convenience that persuades users to continue to use it or create a product stickiness.
Basically, there isn’t many products that I cant live without or that I use on a regular basis. I have come across a product called Balsamiq Mockups and it is fast becoming an essential tool in my day to day. Balsamiq is a web and desktop application that helps people quickly create mockups for web products in seconds. The interface is very simple to understand and navigate as the program uses a main toolbar selector for user actions. Balsamiq has compiled a complete list of web elements/controls that let users drag and drop components onto their page to create web layouts. These elements and controls includes dropdowns, sliders, boxes, maps, transition markups, and buttons. Once on the page, the elements can be manipulated with color, size, text and ordering of objects (z-index for the html junkies). The restrictions of certain options allow for concise mockups that convey your vision versus overworking or over-beautifying your mockups.
I really do suggest people give it a try and let us know what you think. At incubaker, we often use Balsamiq to communicate our ideas, share concepts and also give our development team mockups. Below is a sample of what you can do in Balsamiq.
Randy Pausch changed my life
Friday, July 25th, 2008
As many of you may have already heard, Randy Pausch died this morning (Friday, July 25th). For those who are not familiar, Randy was a professor of interaction and design at Carnegie Melon as well as holding a number of other roles throughout his impressive professional career. Randy was diagnosed with Pancreatic cancer in 2006.
Randy’s outlook on life and personality are inspiring, and for those who have not yet seen his “Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dream” I highly recommend taking the opportunity to listen to his mind-opening lecture. The lessons in this lecture will change your life.
The ideas in Randy’s lecture changed my life. His values and beliefs will carry on in all who pursue their dreams. Randy, my thoughts are with you and your family.
idea vending machine!
Friday, July 11th, 2008
Ok, by now I am sure you all know how much incubaker loves vending machines…but to date I have never seen a vending machine that combined incubaker’s passion for new ideas so well!
This vending machine located in the East Village is hitting the top of the list for vending machine innovations.
[via Boing Boing]
social networking trends
Thursday, June 19th, 2008
There doesn’t seem to be a day that goes by that we don’t hear something about the social networking world. Whether its the Myspace’s, Facebook’s, LinkedIn’s and others in this industry, there is no doubt that they are here to stay and their social reach and impact is immense. The great benefit of these networks is being able to further communicate thru messaging, posting on walls and watching updates. These products are also great for sharing photos, videos, and stories. In some cases, social networks can be used for other purposes such investment management. Zecco.com is a brokerage/social network that lets members share actual, verified trading data with each other, in hopes that more knowledge will help performance.
One trend that I am happy to find out about is that online social networking is spilling over into other areas such as weight loss and diseases such as cancer, depression, etc. These online sites really connect people and help ease anxiety related to new medications, surgery and what to expect throughout the whole process. This really bridges the gap that the real world is lacking by connecting people who don’t live close to each other or may feel shy or ashamed of their problem. Sometimes not knowing the other party helps each party really open up and express themselves. Try checking out Traineo, DailyStrength or Trusera.
fast food packaging innovation
Monday, June 9th, 2008
Check out this innovation in fast food packaging:
via: Core77
Planned obsolescence
Friday, June 6th, 2008
Planned obsolescence is becoming more and more of a problem. We live to waste. One film that captures this and other elements of the manufacturing cycle and breaks it down into digestible pieces of information is The Story of Stuff. You can go to the site to watch the whole video. Here is a short teaser…
I understand the competitive advantages of planned obsolescence but what I would really love to see is the inclusion of the by product or end product re-enter the next stage of the product life cycle. So parts are created initially with the intent that they are able to be reimplemented to make a better version of the next product. I am not an engineer, but I would imagine, with more interchangeable parts, the entire unit doesn’t not need to be replaced when one element is dramatically improved.
Subway = captive audience
Tuesday, May 20th, 2008
As I was sitting on the subway the other day, I realized that the people on the subway are great captive audience. For at least 2 minutes (average of 10 minutes) they have no-where to go, and most likely nothing going on. I have seen dance and performances on subways in the past, but what about product sales, or market surveys, or anything else that benefits from a captive audience. With an average of 30 people a subway car, there is a good potential to inform many people of a new idea concept or idea, just by switching subway cars each stop for the length of ride from beginning of the line to the end. (Not sure how legal this is, soo it may need to be guerrilla style 
)
graffiti trends:muto by blu
Saturday, May 17th, 2008
Words cant describe…check out this video by blu. Imagining how long it must have taken to make this stop motion is mind blowing. (PS. its a bit trippy)
MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.
via: core77
The web and its borders
Thursday, April 3rd, 2008
It is a popular belief that thanks to the Internet, the world is getting smaller and smaller. But is it really? Even though the web is world wide, language and cultural borders still matter a lot. A good example is the usage of social networking sites that varies greatly from region to region, as is shown in this map (from the French newspaper Le Monde):
Especially in China, a lot of Western Tech companies have tried to establish themselves – and have failed miserably. The main reason for this, says Jonathan Haagen from the Economist Intelligence Unit in a presentation (found at Read/WriteWeb), is failure to adapt the services to local needs. It isn’t so much the huge cultural divide, but rather small details that make difference (for example, Chinese people have difficulties spelling “Google” and thus switch to a search engine whose name is easier to type for them). Moreover, says Haagen, China is still a developing country, but Western tech companies often fail to connect to the vast majority of Internet users who are not white collars living in Shanghai or Beijing. The most important key to success, says Haagen, is therefore to “give ground operations the freedom to react in a timely manner, and respond to the needs of a specific market”. In other words: The only way for a tech business to eliminate the borders is to be very aware of them.
