 |
Disney World in Florida now hosts a Pirate and Princess party at it's Magic Kingdom theme park. Their Pirates of the Caribbean ride has been popular since the park opened and is even more popular with the two hit movies of the same name. This is not about those pirates.
But the reference to "Pirate copies" of movies and music connote violations of copyright laws. This is also not about that type of pirating.
The Wallpaper Pirate reference goes back to the 1980's when certain wallpaper retailers started selling wallpaper over a toll free 800 phone number. The way that worked was that a customer would determine the wallpaper desired by using the wallpaper books from a local retailer and then make the purchase over the phone.
It was thus the local retailer who called the 800 number retailer a pirate, taking the sale from him.
But the customer is really the Princess and as thus cannot be made to purchase from the high priced local retailer.
The Wallpaper Pirate may be the enemy of the local retailer but is a true friend of the Princess.
Now the Wallpaper Pirate uses the internet rather than an 800 number. In fact, those retailers who try to do an 800 number and an internet business cannot compete price wise with an internet business that does not do any phone ordering.
BEING A BETTER PIRATE
The Wallpaper Pirate stays in business by consistently underselling the competition. A real pirate would just steal product and sell it for 100% profit. The Wallpaper Pirate is not a thief but a business with costs cut to the bone.
The Princess' main concern is getting the product she wants at the best possible price. The Princess will shop at shabby retail locations in questionable neighborhoods without thinking about it. She will spend countless hours searching through wallpaper books and doing endless internet searches.
The only way the Wallpaper Pirate can survive is to be fully automated. The Princess does all the work. The Princess finds what she wants. The Princess writes up her own order on the convenient order form and just pushes a button to get what she wants at the price she wants.
THE PROBLEMS WITH WALLPAPER
About ninety percent of all orders go through with no problems whatsoever and the Princess gets her wallpaper on the wall and it looks great.
The Wallpaper Pirate promises in writing that it will get the wallpaper to the Princess within 30 days or give the Princess an opportunity to cancel with a full refund should there be a delay. This does not mean that it takes 30 days to get delivery. Some get delivered in a few days, some take a few weeks. But it is impossible to tell in advance how long each order might take because the inventory is constantly changing and there are many manufactures with many thousands of different patterns.
Cutting costs even closer to the bone has been the force coming up with the concept of Customer Self Service.
CUSTOMER SELF SERVICE
Internet business is 24/7 (all the time every day) while order processing and shipping is 8/5 (normal business hours).
This means that when the Princess wants to get an update on her order, someone needs to do something and report back.
Customer Self Service means that the Princess can explain her situation 24/7 and then after the research is done, get her answer 24/7.
