Features: Difference between revisions

*[[Manufacturer]]

*[[Comment]]s and [[score]]s given by other [[consumer]]s to this [[product]] and its [[quality|qualities]]. (In this [[store]] -> In this [[country]] -> In the whole [[World]]) Possibility to compose comments and scores.

*[[w:NGO|NGO]]'s and [[consumerist]]'s knowledge on the manufacturer

*[[Trader]]s ([[export]]er,[[import]]er, [[wholesale]]r etc.)

*Exact [[location]]s of manufacture ([[country]] -> [[village]] -> [[factory]])

*Exact listing of [[raw material]]s  

*Manufacturers of raw materials

*Locations of raw material manufacturing

*Is a raw material gene manipulated ([[GM]])

*[[Usage instructions]]

*[[Caring instructions]]

*[[w:Recycling|Recycling]] or [[w:waste disposal|disposal]] instructions

*Is the product suitable for [[w:vegan|vegan]]s?

*[[Ownership]] relations of the manufacturing chain (Companies participating in production or trading)

*[[w:Monopoly|Monopoly]]: is the company now or has it ever been in a monopoly situation? Has it come to a market where someone holds an monopoly?

*Recyclability assessment of product [[packaging]] (packaging material weight per product weight, information on usage of recycled materials and future recyclability of packaging material). For optimal results it'd be best to distinguish between [[functional packaging]] and [[decorative packaging]]. Building a [[packaging matrix]] to automatically assess [[pro]]s and [[con]]s of different alterenative styles of packaging for some [[product group]] should be done

*Assessment of the [[energy]] consumption (includes manufacturing and [[transport]])

*Assessment of the material consumption in manufacturing ([[type]]s and [[amount]]s of materials)

*[[Emission]]s during production

*[[Waste]] generated during production

*Assessment of environmental effects of the [[product category]]. Attempts to  describe environmental effects common to all products of same [[category]].

*Assessment of environmental effects of the product comparable to other products in same category

* [[Company size]]: The ratio of [[asset]]s of the producer compared to average assets of all known producers of same type of product. (Is the company a small, medium, or huge one?) In Finland information on LLC's assets from the previous fiscal period are publicly available from The Board of Patents and Registry http://www.prh.fi. '''If you have knowledge of the public availability or inavailability of this information in other coutries, please help us on our [[Research]]'''

*Is the product or parts of it [[fair trade|fairly traded]]?

*Information about how well or how badly the production chain treats it's [[employee]]s. This information has quite different meanings in countries of different development stages. For example in Finland the right to and the ability to belong to a trade union can be taken for granted. Also laws exist to ensure equality and work place safety, prohibit discrimination and granted is also the right to have maternal and parental leaves without the fear of losing one's job and so forth. In less developed coutries such laws may not exist or they are not upheld. If this is the case, then examination of these matters  should be conducted on a regional or per company level. Due to the radically varying [[worker's rights]] situation in different parts of the world it seems impossible to form a unified, comparable indictor.

*Information about massive [[lay-off]]s during a [[profit]]able [[fiscal period]]. (Supposing that the data is available, a numeric, comparable indicator can be calculated. Different formulas for calculating this are being discussed) This is a quite common practise in industrialised economies to boost [[w:share|stock]] value to [[yield]] valueble [[bonus]]es and greater stock option gains to the [[highest management]].

 

 

*Track record of [[Charitable contribution]]s or [[Social service]]s done by the [[company]]. For example some Jordanian merchants donated 40 [[truck]]loads of [[food]] and other supplies to Iraq after the war, which could be used as a reason for [[endorsement]] of the companies responsible

*[[Automatic comparison|Automatic]] price, grading, ecologicality and ethicality comparison to other similar products sold '''in the same store'''.

*[[Intra-shop navigation]] in the store. The consumer can choose a product from a tree-like menu or enter it's name and the system tells on what row, on which side of the row, on what part of the row and on which shelf the desired product can be found. This feature can have a small effect on [[employment]] provided by the store since customers require less service from the store staff.

*[[Inter-shop navigation]]. If a [[product group]] you require is not sold at this store the system can instruct you to the geographically closest store that sells what you need.

*Possibility to watch [[Advertisement Video]]s and [[Informational Video]]s on the product and producer created by the [[producer]], [[importer]] or [[marketer]]. This requires terminals equipped with color displays and powerful video decoding features, which are projected to hit the mass markets in the first decennium of the 21st century. Big producers can utilize their tv-adverts with minor changes, so that they can be streamed to mobile terminals. Small producers enjoy the benfits of being able to convey marketing materials to consumers in a video-form with extremely low cost. Informational videos could deal with eg. working conditions, treatment of production animals and the enviromental and other principles of the company.

*[[Wiktionary|Multi-language support]]. Foreigners and travellers can use the system in their own language, which is a big help when doing shopping in a foreign store. Immigrants can have the system function in two languages simultaneously, which makes adapting to their new homeland and language swifter and less troublesome.

 

*Sending [[feedback]] to the producer. (I bought / I didn't buy your product because... arguments prepared by NGOs, opinions for and against. Of course there is the possibility to compose your own text, but it takes time and effort on a mobile telephone. [[Bluetooth|Bluetooth keyboards]] are emerging to markets at the moment. If retailers offer these for use, then it makes feedback more versatile.  

**You can give feed-back anonymously or with your e-mail address included.) Delievery method of the feed-back is e-mail or direct transfer to the company's database if this has been arranged.

**You can give feedback on your user experience (after you've bought the product). This can accelerate the product development.

 

 

*Connection to the database containing [[Recipies]].

 

*Is the product suitable for [[w:vegetarian|vegetarian]]s, [[w:vegan|vegan]]s, people with [[w:allergy|allergies]], [[w:Lactose intolerance|lactose intolerant]]s or people with religious [[w:list of diets|diet]]ary customs etc.

*Calculation of [[nutritional value|]] of the product

*Calculation of nutritional value of [[recepies]]

*Calculation of [[material-cost]]s for recepies