One more thing, Anaxagoras, Yield Management.
Yield management juiced airline margins and it will do the same for EGGS. The cool thing about a web site is that you can do it in real time.
Analysts said Egghead was hit by falling software margins and increasing price pressures from superstores. Orban said the chain also failed to seize key opportunities, like building up a consumer computer trade-show business and opening liquidation outlets.
Orban, known as a turnaround whiz in the business community, stepped in amid losses and engineered the strategy to go online. A 52-year-old former investment banker and co-founder of Ross Stores, Orban started a small office-supply chain call WorkPlace in Florida and then sold it to Staples.
Orban believes Egghead can return to profitability by exploiting discounts, much like the Ross stores do, while still capitalizing on the Egghead brand to attract shoppers to the new Web site.
Perhaps the ultimate test of his theory will come this month, as officials start to market the redesigned site and send the first promotional materials to a database of 7 to 10 million names. The site's first iteration won't have a lot of bells and whistles. Over time, however, Kalasky will harness the power of the back-end system by adding cross-selling and other merchandising strategies. Egghead.com will be able to track sales and efficiency of Web offers in real time. If one offer isn't generating sales, the team can switch it in hours, a process that might take days or weeks in a storefront environment.
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