Decision Diagnostics Corp (DECN)

[loanranger]

Walmart....

"The world’s largest retailer on Thursday gave Wall Street a pleasant surprise by reporting that comparable sales in the U.S. rose 1.6%,...."
http://fortune.com/2016/08/18/walmart-target-results/

"The retailer said on Thursday that online sales rose 11.8% in the quarter ended July 31,...."
"(Walmart’s digital sales were $14 billion last year, or about one-sixth those of Amazon’s.)"
http://fortune.com/2016/08/18/walmart-ecommerce-2/

So online sales at Walmart grew seven times as fast as Walmart's total US sales in the latest quarter. It's not news that online business is growing much faster than "store" sales....it's growing from a much smaller base so that trend has been in place since day one of internet sales.


But how does that matter to DECN and their test strips?
The ease-of-entry for DECN is in the Walmart online business...but that's true for UniStrip and Equate, the other two JNJ compatible strips (both of which are competitively priced).
The first half dozen search returns on the Walmart site for "glucose test strips" come back to the house brand, ReliOn, the basic version of which (Prime) is priced right along with Genultimate. That brand only works with the ReliOn meter, which they will happily provide for 9 bucks.
Sure, satisfied GenUltimate users can find their product on the site easily enough by searching for "GenUltimate", but JNJ users have other choices...competitively priced strips or a brand new meter for 9 bucks and cheap strips "made" by the same company that makes that meter. And a JNJ meter owner who enters "OneTouch test strips" in the Search box will first see listings of JNJ's strips at over $100 per 100 and in short order trip over the ReliOn strips at $18 for the same quantity, which if I was doing the search would lead to a big "WTF???" and a search for the meter that they work with.
Whether one searches for "OneTouch test strips" or simply "glucose test strips" they'll need to be VERY patient and willing to wade through a lot of results before they run into GenUltimate.

DECN doesn't use the word "glucose" in the product description, so a search for "low to high price" in "glucose test strips" doesn't help much...the search returns exact matches first, so items merely described as "test strips" appear down the list. The quickest way to bump into GenUltimate, which I think would be the goal of DECN (creating NEW customers), is a "Low to high price" search for just "Test strips". Of course one then has to get past the urine tests and the ReliOn strips and UniStrips, etc. but it IS the quickest way.


Being in the world's largest retailer, whether that be in stores (where the bulk of their revenues still come) or online, isn't all puppy dogs and rainbows.

At least Amazon, on the other hand, doesn't have a house brand. And a Search for "OneTouch Test strips" gets one to GenStrip50 and Genultimate quite quickly. No Unistrip, no Equate and no ReliOn. Virtually no competition...obviously there's JNJ itself, but the price spread makes it an easy choice for those who have price as a priority. DECN loses out again at Amazon when a customer searches for Glucose Test Strips by leaving "glucose" out of the main product description. Take a look at the BRAND listing on the left:
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=glucose+test+strips&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Aglucose+test+strips

ps. Here's the results list for the "OneTouch Test strips" search:
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=OneTouch+Test+strips&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3AOneTouch+Test+strips