Case 1: Gateway and AppleQuestion 1:Gateway chose not to carry any finished-product inventory at its retail stores as they want thecustomers to work face to face with the staff and experience some available configurations,whereby, Gateway can enhance their CRM. By carrying inventory as its stores, Apple can meetcustomer needs at once and allow them to experience finished goods.Question 2:Depending on the consumer buying behaviors, the firm's business strategy and the nature of theproducts, the company can decide whether to carry finished-goods inventory. Being mostsuitable to be carried in finished-goods inventory, these products have high demand on themarket and low inventory cost. On the contrary, products which are preferably customized bycustomers' orders and have uncertain demand are bets manufactured to order.Question 3:A wide variety of products requires the firm to spend a lot on inventory maintenance. Also, thefirm needs to consider the quantity of each product and the appropriate business strategy to getrid of backlog.Question 4:In general, I suppose a direct selling supply chain without retail stores is always less expensivethan a SC with retail stores. The reason is that the firm needs to spend much budget on operation,maintenance and finished-goods inventory at stores if necessary. However, the firm can actuallygain more profit from retail stores.Question 5:The factors explain Apple's success: the strategic location of the stores (in city centers), effectiveRM and its finished-product inventory. The factors explain Gateway's failure: the location of thestores (in the suburbs), the lack of customer service, the impression buyer experience and thedecision that no goods are available for inventory.
