Official Press ReleaseDiamond Comic Distributors has announced a broad array of major improvements to its inventory tracking system, providing retailers with a number of exciting benefits designed to simplify many aspects of the ordering process.
Effective January 1, Diamond ceased issuing new Star System codes, resulting in a more streamlined inventory tracking system that will allow new products to carry their original item codes in perpetuity, while simultaneously enabling a number of immediate and upcoming upgrades to Reorders Online, Diamond Daily, and Diamond Online's Retailer Services Area. (Please Note: Current Star codes will continue to be used for as long as their assigned products are available from Diamond.) The decision to eliminate Star codes was put into effect after soliciting feedback from retailers in Diamond Dialogue's June 2003 "Info Please" poll, in which a sizeable number of respondents indicated that such a change would have a positive impact on their businesses.
"Due to the dramatic increase in the number of 'evergreen' products being offered by our suppliers, more than 10,000 new Star codes had been created in the past three years alone, to the point where we now have nearly 16,000 Star System SKUs in stock, with more than 5,500 of those being designated as permanent stock items," said Diamond Executive Director of Order Processing/Purchasing John Wurzer. "At that rate of growth, it became clear to us and our customers that the Star System was becoming increasingly unwieldy, challenging us to develop a new system to better track our inventory. The elimination of Star codes and the resulting improvements to our ordering systems do just that, and opens to the door to future enhancements that will benefit our customers."
Effective immediately, products carried by Diamond are now tracked using a method that provides instant information regarding a given item's stock status. In addition to being displayed in Diamond's internal inventory systems, this data is now available to Reorders Online users, and will eventually be incorporated into Diamond Daily and Diamond Online's Retailer Services Area. Under the new system, each product will be assigned one of the following six status levels:
Status Level | Description |
Stocked Item | Perpetually available, and currently in stock. |
B/O Stocked | Perpetually available, but not currently in stock. |
B/O Not-Stocked | Not a perpetual stock item, but can be backordered. |
Out of Stock; no B/O | Not a perpetual stock item, and cannot be backordered. |
Hasn't Shipped | Has been solicited, but hasn't shipped. |
Unknown Item | Invalid item code. |
Reorders Online users who run an item search can now view the stock status for each listed item, with the data being provided in a new column located at the far right-hand side of a given set of search results. Similarly, retailers who utilize Reorders Online's order upload feature can also view the stock status for each item in a given order upon completing the upload.
In addition to the stock status upgrade, Diamond has also unveiled a number of other improvements to Reorders Online, with others to follow in the coming months. Implemented as a result of retailer suggestions, immediate upgrades to Reorders Online include:
A number of other improvements to Reorders Online will be introduced shortly, including shopping lists, volume pricing indicators, and more. Furthermore, Diamond Daily and Diamond Online's Retailer Services Area will soon display stock status information for referenced products with an easy-to-use, color-coded system, and will also provide one-click purchasing ability with item codes that link directly to Reorders Online's forthcoming shopping list feature.
"For the past several years, we've made upgrades to our online communications and ordering systems a priority," said Diamond Vice President of Marketing Roger Fletcher. "We hope that our customers find these new features useful, and look forward to hearing feedback on how we can continue to enhance our online services."
Retailers with further questions about these improvements should contact Diamond Customer Service Technical Support Supervisor Cheryl Sleboda [phone: (800) 452-6642, ext. 847; e-mail: scheryl@diamondcomics.com].