CompUSA is forging ahead with the Retail 2.0 concept – and people are noticing. Today a BusinessWeek article on HP, Intel mentioned our “innovation” as “one of the more inventive approaches to tech-product merchandising right now.”
That’s quite a compliment – and we will continue to lead the market through our hard work, innovation and thinking outside of the box how to provide a better experience to our customers!
Article exercpt below….
PC Marketing Gets Some Jazzing Up
CompUSA, now owned by TigerDirect (SYX), is trying to bring the online shopping experience into its stores. The chain is experimenting at a handful of stores in Florida and North Carolina with PCs and laptops that display videos and charts with information about themselves, reducing the need for shoppers to quiz sales staff. “The machines are doing the talking,” says Intel’s (INTC) U.S. retail marketing manager, Steve Peterson, who points to the program as one of the more inventive approaches to tech-product merchandising right now. Retail innovation, he says, is “less to do with a futuristic sales environment that looks like it came out of Scandinavian design,” and more about getting consumers pertinent information during the typical month-long shopping period for a PC.
Amid the tough environment at home, U.S. tech companies are looking overseas for new ideas. HP has opened company-branded stores with retailers in Mexico, Brazil, and South Africa. Local retailers hold the inventory, reducing HP’s risk, while the computer maker provides merchandising and sales-staff training. The stores have yielded higher-than-average sales and profit margins, and HP has pitched the concept to Best Buy and Office Depot (ODP), says Chahil.
Yet the weighty influence of Best Buy and other large stores can also stifle innovation. For example, consumers have had a hard time finding HP’s Vivienne Tam computers at Best Buy, since the chain stocks only high-volume items, HP says. Best Buy couldn’t be reached for comment. That frustrates Chahil, who wants to push the retail envelope even further, reaching more women by presenting products in environments that look like shoppers’ homes. “We are not presenting our products to consumers in places they want to buy,” he says. “We’ve been very sensitive to cutting out retailers, to the point where it upsets consumers. This is an internal challenge we’ve had forever.”
Ricadela is a writer for BusinessWeek in Silicon Valley
