…CompUSA’s new owner is turning the stores into Internet entrance ramps. PC and television monitors not only display eye-catching clips, as they do in most retail chains; each points as well to the device’s product page on the compusa.com Web site. Shoppers can also check store inventories and even browse competitors’ sites to compare prices. “We want to give people the rich experience of buying online,” says Gilbert Fiorentino, who heads the chain’s retail strategy.
…So Gilbert Fiorentino… turned to making better use of existing assets. He had in-house programmers write software linking computer monitors to each store’s inventory database. TVs were hooked up to hard drives and equipped with keyboards to make them Net-accessible, too. … The chain, which now has 24 sites, mostly in Florida and Illinois, plans to update every one this year.
The company plans to go further with interactive gear. In four stores, CompUSA has installed stations where people can scan merchandise bar codes that trigger information to pop up on a computer screen showing user manuals and accessory suggestions. The retailer is testing a motion-sensor-driven display that launches product-specific infomercials on a nearby monitor when a shopper picks up a digital camera.
