Legacy imrchnt Road Map
The imrchnt you use today, now referred to internally as Legacy imrchnt is not going anywhere. We are still maintaining this system, and we are still developing new features for this system on a daily basis.
It will eventually be replaced by im+ but we are many years away from developing a full replacement.
In upcoming legacy imrchnt releases we will have a new feature at POS to make the addition of a new customer a simpler/quicker process.
We are working on a new model for Customer Rewards that will take advantage of our Coupon module. This work will allow for a coupon(s) to be earned as a Reward and maintain that coupon within our system tied to the individual customer.
We will update the POS window to show our users when a customer is added to the system whether or not they have balance cards / coupons / customer orders available to them. Each of those items will then be capable of being quickly added into the sale. You will finally be able to double click on a balance card from the upper left and apply it as a tender in the sale.
We are working on creating a method to update Retail price and Pub Date when producing a customer order or when entering the properties page of an item. If you go into the item properties we will look up the Retail Price and Pub Date of that item against our Venstock database. If those values have changed we will pop up a prompt asking you if you’d like to update those values in your system. The same will apply when adding an item to a customer order.
In queue for early 2026 will be automating the flow of data to and from im+, and developing a Returns module similar to what we have recently released for Transfers.
Legacy imrchnt and im+
The intention with the development of im+ is that all of you will hopefully move to im+. Legacy imrchnt is now over 20 years old and it is showing its age.
Much of the performance issue you may be experiencing with imrchnt have to do with the size of databases and our use of cursor as a means of retrieving data from the database. A move away from cursor would require an entire rewrite. That rewrite is im+.
We are developing im+ module by module, and that is how we hope to move you away from legacy imrchnt. You will first move your POS operations from legacy imrchnt to im+. This will take the load of the POS module off of everyone’s servers and PC’s.
On im+ you will be able to run your POS from a variety of hardware platforms freeing up space at the cash wrap. Your POS hardware could consist of just a card reader should you choose.
Our goal is to have an in store POS solution ready mid to late 2026.
We will then move towards Customers, Vendors, Buying, Receiving, Returns.
im+ RoadMap
We have just put out a new release this month. In this release we completely changed the database structure from MariaDB to PostgreSQL. This change in databases now allows us to produce search results against inventories of over a million items in milliseconds. Using PostgreSQL will allow us to start using vector search.
You have seen vector capabilities but may not know the term behind it. Utilizing Vectors will allow our users to start typing in Harry Potter in the Search bar, we then will prompt in the search
Harry Potter Books
Harry Potter Legos
Harry Potter Gifts
Harry Potter Author (if there was an author name Harry Potter)
Harry Potter Customer (if you have a customer named Harry Potter
When you select Harry Potter Books the search results will be filtered to show you only items with Harry Potter in the title in the Books industry. No need to set a bunch of filters to get the results you’re looking for.
You have most likely seen this kind of search prompt when using Amazon.com search (don’t worry, we won’t tell anyone you’ve used Amazon).
In taking a step towards vector search we have created a new data structure within im+ to allow for items to be assigned to Industries, tie attributes to industries, and assign variant values that allow us to track individual items to an incredibly unique level.
With this new structure you could scan the label of an item on your shelf and know exactly what invoice that item was tied to. This could lead to a greater acceptance rate of returns and potentially better buying terms since the supplier will know exactly which item on your shelf came from them.
The next phase in building our inventory capabilities is to allow for our inventory import process to take in an imrchnt inventory file and map our legacy fields to im+ fields. Eventually this flow of data between legacy imrchnt and im+ becomes automated similar to how we send and receive data from IndieCommerce.
To enrich this inventory data we are in the beginning phase of developing a database of all the data we can obtain from ONIX files. This will give us access to item meta data, warehouse stock levels, cover images and marketing materials that you can currently see on Edelweiss.
We will create a centralized database that houses imprints to publisher relationships, contributors (Author / Illustrator / Foreward by / Translated by / etc.), keywords, series, bisac categories, Thema subject, Ingram subject, audience age ranges, as well as stock velocity (meaning how quickly an item is moving out of vendor warehouses).
With these data points and our database engine we will be able to do things with search and buying functions we’ve never been able to do. You will be able to search from within im+: Books with a Polar bear for a 3 year old and we will produce functional results of what you have in stock and what other publishers and vendors have available for you to order.
im+ mission
The mission behind our development of this new application is to deliver a POS and Inventory Control application to Independent Bookstores that is open source, modern, simple, efficient, scalable, and affordable.
The way we make this application affordable is not by being the cheaper solution, it is by changing our revenue model. Stores do not have much money to be spending on things other than staff, inventory, taxes, and rent. We understand that.
As a Platform on Adyen we have positioned im+ to take a cut of the money you are already spending. Our primary revenue will be generated from the flow of money in this industry, not in monthly user fees. Any additional monthly fees will be based on the scale of your operation and usage of the application.
As a Platform for Adyen, we now have the power to set your card processing rates. If you are doing more than $50,000 per month in credit card processing through our im+ application we will negotiate your.
Our relationship with Adyen opens up a lot of possibilities that aren’t available to us through other simple integrations we've used in the past with legacy imrchnt.
We can sell or rent card readers. Unlike a rental through our legacy imrchnt / CardPointe integration when your rental period is over, we won’t just scrap the reader. You send it back to us, we put it back into inventory, then assign it to the next store that rents the unit.
We can do things in app that we’ve never had access to. We can add bank accounts, defend chargebacks, automate payout schedules, initiate instant payouts, reconcile payments, order card readers all within our app.
We become your first line of support when it comes to credit card processing. No more of this back and forth with multiple parties trying to figure out who owns the issue. There are only two parties in the equation, imrchnt + Adyen.
Down the road we will be able to offer financial products such as Business Bank Accounts, Credit Cards, and small loans all through imrchnt + Adyen.
For a number of technical reasons we have chosen to be a Platform on Adyen, for a number of personal reasons as well. We aren't really huge fans of Billionaires at the moment. We aren't huge fans of CEO's that make 10's of millions of dollars per year while laying off staff. We aren't hug fans of giant corporations who don't give us the time of day or an actual human to help us resolve issues.
Credit Card Processing fees are a major expense for all of you. This money is going towards Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, Chase, Fiserv, Global Payments and a few other giant corporations.
The CEO to Median Employee Pay Ratio and Compensation for these major players in 2024 is as follows:
VISA - 151:1 - $25.99 million
MASTERCARD - 250:1 - $30.10 million
AMERICAN EXPRESS - 615:1 - 37.16 million
DISCOVER - 188:1 - 10.88 million (2023)
CHASE - 384:1 - $39 million
FISERV - 277:1 - $23.79 million
GLOBAL PAYMENTS - 276:1 - $17.18 million
The 2024 compensation for the Adyen CEO was just over 800,000 Euros.
To put those ratios into values any of us could even fathom. At a 615:1 ratio if you paid yourself $100,000 to be the CEO of your business, you’d be paying your median employees $162.60 for a year's worth of work.
In our development of im+ we are hoping to cut out companies like Chase, Fiserv, Global Payments from the equation in favor of Adyen and redistributing this money back into industry solutions.
Whatever is left on top after we pay Adyen and Interchange fees goes towards paying our staff, hiring additional employees, maintaining servers and applications, and developing new solutions specifically for this industry. We are talking very low .xx% not even close to 1% per transaction.
We have been serving this industry for over 40 years. We believe in the work you do and the role you play nationally and within your community. We want to continue providing you and a greater portion of this industry with solutions that help our customers sustain their missions.
If more of the industries money stays within the industry we will be able to deliver a new application designed specifically for this industry that will include features like:
Invoice Validation
Use your phone’s camera to image an invoice, validate that invoice against receiving and schedule payment of that invoice via ACH in one simple flow, all within your im+ application.
Order Picking
A customer order is placed on your IndieCommerce site, a picker is notified via text that they have a new task, they click on the link the app opens to a new customer order that needs to be picked. The picker is given a list of items to pick sorted in the most efficient path through the store based on a store map and the location of the items in the store. The picker scans the items label with the Phone’s camera, moves on to the next item until all items are picked. Once all items are picked the order is automatically processed through POS. Quantities on hand are decremented from inventory, a shipping label or in store wrapper is produced. The customer is notified that their order is available for pick up or it has been shipped and they are given a tracking number for their order.
Buying
With Stock velocity, inventory turn rates, and estimated delivery dates we can greatly reduce number of days high sales volume items aren't on your shelves. Buying becomes an incredibly powerful tool where the majority of PO's can be produced automatically only to be reviewed and finalized.
Set up decision trees to make system decisions when weighing discounts over average delivery time to place an order via Ingram or directly from the publisher. Add in an additional layer to pass any orders that meet a certain criteria to Ingram DTH.
Returns
We notify you with a system generated list of items in your store that aren’t worth keeping in your inventory. They are coming up against the end of their return window, they’re stale and they aren’t selling anywhere else. All items have been predetermined to be accepted by the vendor. Much like picking orders, you’re given the list on your phone to pick item by item scanning each one in with the phone’s camera. When the picking is completed we print a label or labels and you pack and ship your returns and the credit is ready to be applied on your next invoice payment to the supplier.
Receiving
Staff the receiving department based on Estimated Delivery dates found via tracking numbers supplied in Vendor Advanced Ship Notices (856).
Simplify the receiving process using a new model of license plate receiving. Where you scan the label of one box, unbox all items. If the box has only one or two titles in it, we print all labels for that box. If the box is filled with many titles, scan one, we print out the number of labels for the units in the box. Label those units. Move on to the next title.
Tasks
Assign Tasks to staff based on roles and the days workload. In app messaging notifies Staff when a task has been assigned, then notifies management when a task has been completed. Anything from predefined daily routines to dynamic processes like picking and shipping customer orders as they are placed on your e-commerce site.
Digital Passes
Reduce processing expenses through a new customer experience.
Incentivize cheaper forms of payment by tying your rewards program accounts to debit cards. These balance cards are automatically topped off by the customers bank account when the balance hits a certain threshold.
This reduces the number of credit card transactions, increases the average transaction amount against a card type, and uses a much less risky and therefore cheaper form of payment as an alternative to cash. The balance card then lives in the customer's wallet as a digital pass with your store's branding on it.
At the start of a sale, the customer taps their phone to the card reader. The digital pass is recognized and it enters them into the POS transaction. You process the sale, it’s tendered automatically by the balance card. The customer is notified of their rewards status.
PreAuth everything
With our integration to Adyen, we can use something called PreAuth. It allows us to hold the processing of transactions for a window of time before the card is actually charged. The card transaction has been approved. It just hasn’t been officially submitted. During this window of time we can alter the sale amount to be charged on the card with the customers approval.
If we preauth every transaction this gives us a window of time where we can upsell a customer after they have left your store.
Say the customer just bought a hardcover copy of Lincoln in the Bardo for $29.00 and there is currently a preorder campaign for Vigil coming out in January for $28.00.
After the sale, we send the customer a text notifying them of this new book coming out and ask them if they’d like to preorder that book. A simple reply of Y creates a customer order, and pays for that preorder on the same transaction they just made 10 minutes ago in store and finalizes the credit card transaction. A $29.00 transaction has now become a $57.00 transaction without holding anyone up at the Point Of Sale or any staff interaction.
We could do this with any upsell question that every customer can’t stand answering while standing there at the Point of Sale. Would you like to sign up for a subscription, would you like to join our rewards program, are you interested in preordering book X. All of these questions could be answered, forms filled out, dues paid all by simply responding to a text message.
Last Mile Delivery
The vast majority of you are not in actual competition with one another. The only space you might consider to be competitive is ecommerce, and in reality it's not, no independent bookstore shows up in the first page of search results, and nobody goes past the first page.
Customers have to either know you exist or they are trying to find a bookstore in a certain area to shop your e-commerce site.
The primary driver for Independent Bookstore e-commerce sales is customers who already know you exist and want to support your store. Well, what if they could support you and a store closer to them that they don't know about at the same time.
All brick and mortar retailers are really nice, really expensive warehouses.
What if we could make ever store a Last Mile Drop Shipper for other stores. Stores could even fulfill orders for Ingram (and therefore Bookshop).
This could happen with e-commerce orders, it could even happen with in store inquiries. If you don't have it, the first step would be to see if it could be fulfilled same day by a store close to the Ship To address or even delivered to your store for in store pickup.
If all im+ stores can communicate with each other, your store could earn the sale, and pass on the fulfillment to the closest store to that customer with the item in stock. Both stores earn a little money in the transaction. Turns improve, profit margins improve, Shipping rates go down, delivery times drastically improve, the customer experience surpasses the one you're all competing with and they aren't supporting Billionaires in the act.
Why are we shipping an item from New Hampshire to California, when there might be a store within 10 miles of that customer who sells the same item? Why are we making a customer wait a week for an item that could be instore same day, delivered tomorrow, or even within hours?
If we have greater insight into Customers, Stores, and Suppliers there is a lot of potential for what we could develop into an industry application. We are really excited for what we might be able to produce and deliver.
We can't get there on our own, we need your support in this new development. Get the word out. If you're interested in getting going with im+ please fill out the Request Access form in our website at www.imrchnt.com
We can't wait for you to start using what we have been working on for over a year and half now.
Many Thanks,
Mark Hochreiter