Google buys Pointy.com (Easy Inventory To Web Integration)

[Tay]

I never knew this existed but this solves A HUGE problem with small businesses. Most small business have literally no clue how to get their inventory online. The biggest challenge is sourcing information for each item, images, and pricing.

Pointy solves all of that by attaching to the bar scanner, and sits there creating an inventory of items being scanned. (Old inventory gets removed after a while if they haven't been scanned in a while).

In real-time Pointy finds the appropriate information and sends that information to your pointy store that then appears in Google organic, Google Shopping, and several other places where customers are looking. Pointy uses an internal cell phone network so you literally don't have to even have internet connection or anything, just connect it to your client's bar code scanner and let them go. Their store populates over time and they'll start noticing "younger adults/kids seem to be coming in more".

This is wild.

Anyways, Google bought the company (Pointy raised $20 million). So that means all that Pointy data and integration is going right into Google My Business (GMB), bam-wham-money-gram.

Source: Google buys Pointy to bring SMB store inventory online

Video Explanation:

If you have Store Front clients they NEED this type of solution - FAST! Amazon is eating them alive!

 

[Ryuzaki]

I saw this and what I found interesting was the problem they solved that's a huge problem for most.

If you don't have a POS system hooked up to inventory, you have to do an inventory check to update the numbers, which means humans creating human error. Even if you do have that, you have to have someone inputting the inventory when it arrives, which often is forgotten. Returns, broken units in store, theft... all of that gets forgotten.

Rather than trying to have an up-to-date inventory, this bypasses the entire problem, if I'm understanding it correctly, by only listing items that are being scanned (being sold) frequently enough to be restocked regularly. So why worry about what you have in stock if you always have new stock arriving? This also stops you from wasting time on items that don't sell that often.

It's legitimately genius just in concept, let alone execution. They sold way too early because this thing will be huge. I could see it as being the Shopify of brick and mortar stores. But then again, you have to sell when the right opportunity arises. Wait too long and companies start stealing your patented ideas and are happy to pay the meager fines associated with it. It'd be a blessing if Google stole your idea and scaled it to the moon though. Anyways, amazing product here.