Local Search: Should Retailers Make Their Inventory Information Available?
December 22nd, 2006 by Scott Silverman, Executive Director, Shop.org Posted in Multi-Channel | Web 2.0 & User Generated Content
There was an interesting article in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal (the link, however, is to a re-published version in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette because a subscription is needed to read it in the Journal) about local search. The article discusses some innovative local search companies such as NearbyNow and BrandHabit.com that have successfully collected inventory data from retailers to allow customers to find in-stock products in specific stores. A quote in the article nicely summarizes the current state of local search: “Online local searches have been around for a while, but they have been hit or miss, largely because inventory information at the store level is hard to get.” It’s hard to get because retailers are very conflicted about making it available. On one hand, if a retailer makes their inventory information available, it helps customers find products in their stores and can be a great marketing tool. But, making inventory information available to a third party makes that third party more powerful and allows them to get between a retailer and its customers. What’s a retailer to do? If you haven’t decided yet, you can at least get some food for thought by listening to Hung LeHong from Gartner Group talk about the “Pre-tailer Phenomena” at Shop.org’s FirstLook 2007 event, January 31 through February 2 in Orlando. Or, discuss it here.
“It [near-time inventory data] is hard to get because retailers are very conflicted about making it available.”
It may take a few years, but I think consumers will come to expect store-level inventory data, and so most national chains will support offer it. (”Why should I have to drive down to the mall to buy something and then discover after I’ve driven and parked that the item isn’t in stock?”)
If we’re lucky, the industry will find a common standard for communicating inventory level. Such a format could allow consumers to track inventory themselves (”Note to self: don’t go to supermarket until sure wife’s favorite icecream flavor available”). A common format would also serve to reduce the power of the search engine intermediaries by making their supporting inventory data universally available.