Geoffrey Graves MG3700 Mid Term Exam 4/24/2000
             In order to produce an upwards swing in revenue, Toy World must track its customer's buying trends with more accuracy and more detail. The Point of Sale system that they are currently working from can be improved and made to reduce after-market inventory.
             Trend data can be used for a wide variety of purposes. One of the first problems is the store design and layout of items. Sale items and hot merchandise must be as strategically positioned as possible to allow a prospective customer to locate and remove the item from the shelf quickly and painlessly. By analyzing customer data, the new system must be able to sort items not only by popularity, but also by genre. Once data is collected, new stores can be quickly designed around the products. Some trends never die, seen by the toy world market data.
             Comparing one toy with another is extremely important in order to decipher just why it's a big seller. The POS system should be able to lay out all pertinent information about a toy obtained from sales data, and compare it next to a variable number of other "hot" sellers. Data can be compared with toy descriptions after analysis of the item, and research of the toy's advertisements and media exposure. Also by doing this, under- stocking and over-stocking shelves can be prevented. A "hot" toy can be kept in stock if the retailer orders a large quantity ahead of time after POS analysis.
             What of the items that don't sell much when the POS data is analyzed? The system should be able compute the quantity to order, to keep in the stock room, or to totally remove the item from inventory.
             At the "snap-shot" of this case, Toy World's tactical strategic position was decent and had room for expansion, but the tactical position was lacking in many areas. If you ask the CIO of any successful company ...