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POPSVirtual Inventory: A Reality for some Retailers.
I spend a lot of time in airline seats. Invariably I wind up looking at the Sky Mall catalog. You know the one. It has hundreds of the coolest items, like spiked sandals for aerating your yard. These are items that are fun to look at but sometimes hard to legitimize for purchase. Nevertheless, people do buy. Sky Mall is a marketing company. If you buy from them the order is processed then transmitted to a vendor for drop shipment to your home or office. The system works well. Two years ago I bought two Christmas presents on Sky Mall. The process worked great. I ordered on-line and the shipment arrived promptly via parcel carrier straight from the vendor. When the item didn’t fit, I processed a return directly through Sky Mall. I was able to return the item with no problem with a credit back to my American Express card. The whole concept of drop shipping or maintenance of a “virtual” inventory was one of the basic ideas behind many dot.coms in the early 20