The Elite Shopper's Competition

Entrepreneurial Idea: The Elite Shopper

• While shopping online, a purchaser places his or her favorite items onto a wish list. The purchaser takes the items that were chosen and while on line makes an appointment time with the store's stylist. The stylist will hold the items and when you arrive for your appointment, places the items into a dressing room for you to try on. When showing up for the appointment, facial recognition of the purchaser is performed by a store computer and he or she is escorted into a dressing room to try on the items. After shopping, the purchaser's finger is scanned by another computer and the selected items are automatically charged to the purchaser's credit card.

My Competitors: The Elite Shopper

COMPETITOR URL: http://www1.bloomingdales.com/about/shopping/personal.jsp

• Bloomingdales personal shoppers is similar to the Elite Shopper Experience because we both identify the customers taste in clothing and pick out pieces that we feel are similar to the customers style. We both keep up with trends consistently and work with the customers schedule. Though we are similar in these aspects, Bloomingdales delivers the merchandise where as the Elite Shopper Experience is an in -store experience wherein the customer comes in to specifically buy the clothing. Bloomingdales also has their personal shoppers register the customers' important dates on their calender; reminding them to come into their store when a birthday, anniversary, or special occasion draws near.

COMPETITOR URL: http://www.cakestyle.com/

• CakeStyle differs from the Elite Shopper Experience because it is a seasonal styling service rather than a shop-when-you-please service. Rather than coming in-store like you do for the Elite Shopper Experience, your clothes are shipped straight to your door where you can choose what you love and return what you don't. We are similar because the styling service is a free part of the experience. Their goal was to make shopping less time consuming and the Elite Shopper goal is to make shopping more personal while also making shopping less hassle free.

After researching for companies and services similar to mine, I discovered ways I can improve my idea greatly. I would possibly add a delivery service, special occasion reminder service, and add an aspect of making returns more quickly to make the experience less time consuming. Through researching companies similar to mine, I've discovered more ways to improve my entrepreneurial idea.

The System Unit and The Elite Shopper

Entrepeneurial idea: The Elite Shopper

• While shopping online, a purchaser places his or her favorite items onto a wish list. The purchaser takes the items that were chosen and while on line makes an appointment time with the store's stylist. The stylist will hold the items and when you arrive for your appointment, places the items into a dressing room for you to try on. When showing up for the appointment, facial recognition of the purchaser is performed by a store computer and he or she is escorted into a dressing room to try on the items. After shopping, the purchaser's finger is scanned by another computer and the selected items are automatically charged to the purchaser's credit card.

The System Unit Lecture:

• The System Unit on a desktop personal computer includes the important aspects that will be used for my entrepreneurial idea; memory, a video card, and a sound card. My ‘Elite Shopper’ idea relates to the System Unit because it will be used in store for memory; an important feature in making customers feel special.  When a customer comes into the store they will be identified by the facial recognition software and with top of the line memory, recognizing the customer by file will be much easier. The CPU in our store’s computers will also hold the basic instructions on what to do when a customer enters through the doors; it will quickly turn on and send out instructions from memory.

• Next, the instructions will be transformed into a command, such as “bring up Kara G’s past shopping file”, and then the result will be written to memory. My parallel processor will implement my ‘Elite Shopper’ program on the computer in the fastest way possible; less of a wait for the shopper means better service. As the ‘Elite Shopper Experience’ says right in the title, the experience is elite. Having a SSD, a solid-state drive, means better everything technology wise for the idea. Though it is more expensive, our elite experience means every aspect of the store has to be top of the line.

• A top of the line, reliable computer system unit is a huge aspect in the success of the business idea. Whilst affording expensive parts for the most impressive of computers is outrageous, in the end customer service will be so successful it will pay itself back. By giving the customers quick service with the assurance that the computer will be less susceptible to shock, we are automatically giving off a good impression. Having the cream of the crop computer technology means that your company has the potential to be the cream of the crop in whatever industry you choose.

Social Media and The Elite Shopper

Entrepreneurial idea: "The Elite Shopper."

• While shopping online, a purchaser places his or her favorite items onto a wish list. The purchaser takes the items that were chosen and while on line makes an appointment time with the store's stylist. The stylist will hold the items and when you arrive for your appointment, places the items into a dressing room for you to try on. When showing up for the appointment, facial recognition of the purchaser is performed by a store computer and he or she is escorted into a dressing room to try on the items. After shopping, the purchaser's finger is scanned by another computer and the selected items are automatically charged to the purchaser's credit card.

Social Media Lecture:

• Social media and customer service now work hand in hand. Compliments, complaints, or comments can be made through Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. and this puts companies in a place where they have an opportunity to interact with customers. If such complaints are made, brands are given the chance to fix the problem. If compliments are posted by satisfied customers, it results in great press for the company. In either event, social media is imperative to the company's clout and online reputation. My 'Elite Shopper' idea relates to social media because of our loyalty to customer service. If someone is unhappy with our organization, they can complain through our many social media outlets.

• Customers are sure to enjoy our new way of shopping as it integrates online shopping with in-store shopping like never before. Shoppers can tweet about our products, share them on Facebook, and we are able to get early warnings of issues before other shoppers see them. We can get feedback from our customers, and learn from that feedback in positive ways.

• More importantly, engaging our customers online is pertinent to success. Getting shoppers involved online means free positive press if our job is done well. Not only does this mean positive posts by shoppers, but this also means that our company can give people an experience that makes them feel unique. By engaging with customers online, they will feel special and important; a key ingredient in making this what I intended it to be - an Elite Shopper's Experience.

Elite Shopper Anonymous

People sit at home doing online shopping for hours. Some find it therapeutic, others find it addicting. Online shopping does not discriminate against gender, race, or location - it is for everybody. I am to create an application for the elite shopper.

It's a normal Saturday afternoon and one browses online at their favorite retailer. Item after item is put on a wish list and once finished, the elite customer hits "send". Where did it go? This wish list is then delivered to a stylist at the customer's choice of store and after, an appointment must be made by the shopper. Why? To try on the clothes picked out from their wish list.

The customer shows up at the chosen time and as they walk in, the store performs facial recognition to greet and bring you to your dressing room. Everything that you picked out online is in the dressing room under the specific regulations you proposed online and ready to be tried on.

After picking out your favorites, you head to the cash register where a worker has you scan your finger, which automatically charges your credit card. No fumbling to grab at your wallet, whilst dropping your new clothes, and you are free to go once everything is paid for. THIS is the elite shopper's experience.