I often fantasize about stores that would combine the best of online shopping (convenience, ability to research purchases, plentiful stock) with the key strengths of offline shopping (ability to see and touch merchandise, more immediate problem resolution)……
Yet a similar strategy is boosting sales at the first CompUSA store to try it … At the behest of Gilbert Fiorentino, chief of technology products group at Systemax, parent company of TigerDirect.com, which bought CompUSA last year, the store began putting product information from TigerDirect’s Web site on its TV and PC monitors….
Will this idea improve sales at other CompUSA stores? It’s too early to say, and the sinking economy certainly isn’t going to help. But at least TigerDirect/CompUSA is trying to inject something new into a shopping experience that has remained static for too long. Customers accustomed to shopping online want some of the same benefits when they venture into stores. Says Fiorentino:
The retail experience is a bad experience. It hasn’t changed in 10 years. It occurred to me that the entire experience had to change.
Source: IT Business Edge: Can Online Elements Boost Sales in Offline Retail Stores?
Author: Ann All
Publication Date: January 14, 2009
