CARRY Protocol: Blockchain Applied Right to Offline Retail
All my relevant work related experiences as a Supply Chain professional, recent and old, indicate a potential for Carry Protocol (https://www.carryprotocol.io/) to be a rousing success.
10 years ago, while attending a course called Introduction to Generating Demand at Nestlé on the shore of the picturesque Lake Geneva, I learned that data was the holy grail of retail. Coming from a predominantly “Traditional Trade Market” where Point of Sales (PoS) data was scarcely available, I could only dream of what strides our company could make in forecast accuracy and the resulting efficiencies in cost to serve, if we had access to real time data of what the consumers were actually buying.
Just yesterday, the Head of Supply Chain returned from attending a supply chain seminar at the same venue. His debrief included discussions around e-commerce. As opposed to the usual “we need to prepare ourselves for the inevitable surge of e-commerce”, the message this time was subtly different. It does not look like the e-commerce model, especially for low cost food items, is sustainable unless we can bring the costs drastically down, or the consumers accept to pay a hefty premium for the convenience. The conclusion: traditional brick and mortar stores are not going anywhere in the near future. In terms of how data is captured and used, however, offline retail needs an overhaul.
Enter Carry.
With a use case as real as any, a team as stellar as any, and with adoption around the corner, Carry is a definite all-star. I had originally planned to individually summarize the profiles of some of the team members here, but have now realized that could actually be another full length article. For this one, I’ll just mention that the core members and advisors boast backgrounds and associations with McKinsey & Co., Rocket Internet, Spoqa, Johns Hopkins, Cornell, Yahoo!, Hashed, and Facebook. The highlight is that Carry Protocol is operated by co-founders of Spoqa (https://www.spoqa.com/), South Korea’s superstar start-up used by 1 in 4 people now. With blockbuster clients and partners, 10,000 stores onboard and 15 million customers already, it is safe to assume Carry will fly from day 1.
There is absolutely no doubt anymore that data is precious. It’s about time we started paying the generators of data; the public, their due share. Carry will make this happen by allowing consumers to own their data and anonymously monetize it as they make purchases. Merchants will be able to attract and retain customers, and maintain customer data and interactions much more efficiently. Advertisers will be able to make Marketing spending much more targeted and effective. It won’t be a stretch to say that Carry Protocol will help discover and reduce the “other half” of advertising spend that John Wanamaker conceded they were wasting.
"Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is, I don’t know which half" — John Wanamaker
There aren’t many upcoming projects rated “Very High” on ICODROPS, and I have a funny feeling Carry would be the next one. Sign up for updates on the website (https://www.carryprotocol.io/), and give this white paper summary (https://www.carryprotocol.io/static/docs/Carry-Protocol-Fast-Facts.pdf?cachebust=708eb95378faaf46c51c984a8d2ec4a3) a read. You will not be disappointed.