News

You say you want a revolution?

September 27, 2004

With more than 70 percent of buying decisions made at the point of purchase, the need for retailers to differentiate their products and keep up with a new generation of Internet-educated consumers is more important than ever. According to Gartner's Retail IT Spend Trends and Business Priorities Survey, retailers are looking to leverage IT as a way to cut costs and gain efficiencies as well as drive revenue. It's about time for a revolution, and I believe we've found it.

One way retailers are incorporating technology to achieve these goals is through self-service display-based systems. From airport and hotel check-in kiosks to check stands at home improvement stores, sales and buying patterns are drastically evolving thanks to new technology in the retail environment.

Planar Systems, with more than 20 years experience in flat-panel displays, recently announced the introduction of the DS15 - the first of several innovative, flat-panel-based marketing solutions that bring a new twist to the interactive shopping experience. Industry pundits are hailing this new product as a leap forward for kiosk technology and a turning of the corner for retail environments. Industry analyst Francie Mendelsohn of Summit Research Associates said, "I think it has a lot of potential, and I hope to see it fairly soon."

The DS15 is part interactive kiosk, part digital signage, and part everything in between. It includes a flat panel display built on Tablet PC architecture. It comes with speakers; a universal mount feature for any type of countertop, wall, or end-cap; and a ruggedized display built to withstand demanding environments. What's so cool is that it's all bundled with an integrated software package, with a price point of $3,999 per unit.

Designed around the modernization of visual merchandising, the system also addresses not the needs of the technologist, but the hopes and objectives of the marketing professional. For example, the software can easily be used by a professional of modest technical background to load applications built around industry standard media files such as Flash, MPEG, etc.

As Planar's first major customer, Nike has begun to implement the DS15 in its NikeTown stores in Beverly Hills, Chicago, New York City, Portland and San Francisco, as well as the NIKEgoddess store in Costa Mesa, Calif. At these stores, the DS15 - through its easy-to-use, fully interactive touch-screen capabilities - enables consumers to personalize athletic shoes with color schemes and design elements. Previously, the service was only available for Web purchases at nikeid.com.

Tom Byrnes, marketing director at Planar, said that over two years ago the company struck out to create a device that would reinvent the kiosk.

"There were many vendors and steps to get a kiosk program out, such as hardware, software, integration, deployment, installation and maintenance," said Byrnes. "That meant added costs, and in one case we heard of an experience where a rather simple kiosk concept took six months to deploy." The solution just unveiled has answered about every major problem not yet tackled in the quest for a turnkey kiosk.

Byrnes also pointed out that traditional static displays of the past just don't cut it anymore. He addressed the issue of trying to build brand and marketing awareness with a teenage segment accustomed to their electronic devices. "One retailer told me a story about a store employee who said the printed point of sale signage just wasn't working and he threw it in the garbage."

The final issue of this revolutionary kiosk system was putting control of the system back where it belongs.

"Now control over the retail environment is back in the hands of the marketing director with this kiosk system," Byrnes said. "It works well with any existing planogram, and takes no more experience to install than being able to plug the cord into a socket."