How do I get my online inventory tool viewed by retail store owners?

March 4, 2015 9:47 AM

I programmed an online calculator tool that generates inventory purchasing recommendations for retail store owners. I would like to get feedback on the tool from people who buy inventory for their retail stores for a living. How do I do that? Short of just walking into stores and bothering the owners to take a look at my program or paying for adwords or some such, I'm not sure how to get the word out about my new tool to people who would be interested in using it. Any feedback would be welcome.
posted by Gosha_Dog to Computers & Internet (8 answers total)

Mod note: Removed link to the website; fine to list that on your profile page if you want to but better not to stick it in the question itself.
posted by cortex (staff) at 9:51 AM on March 4, 2015

Are you trying to advertise it to sell, or are you looking for user testing and feedback? The first part of your question sounds like you just want feedback but the second sounds sales-y. Both are fine, but the approaches would need to be different.
posted by LANA! at 10:05 AM on March 4, 2015

Is there some more casual context you could promote it in, like could it somehow be used by students for school projects or for those bizarrely complicated games like Eve Online, perhaps in a "lite" version, that could spread awareness that such a tool exists?

Or, on the other hand, if it isn't a completely novel tool, maybe examine how your competitors advertise themselves.
posted by XMLicious at 10:10 AM on March 4, 2015

Response by poster: At this point, I would be thrilled to just have a bunch of users. Maybe later on, I would want to sell a version of it.
posted by Gosha_Dog at 10:11 AM on March 4, 2015

Perhaps people who manage tool libraries would be interested in it as a way to analyze the gaps in their "inventory" and solicit donations? Since they're usually volunteers and hopefully don't have as many worries as a business owner, it seems like they might have more time/interest in playing around with something new.
posted by teremala at 10:35 AM on March 4, 2015

I work for a retail equipment company. I have links to several very large retailers as a contractor. If you message me, we can arrange a preview meeting.
posted by parmanparman at 10:48 AM on March 4, 2015

You could try contacting various trade organizations and see if they have a way of passing the information about it to their members (newsletter, etc).
posted by jimw at 7:13 PM on March 4, 2015

Mention it on an open-source POS system forum?
Though touting it while free and then yoinking it to not-free wouldn't be so kosher.
posted by Jack Karaoke at 8:04 PM on March 4, 2015