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Defining The Business Value Of Technology
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August 28, 2000 |
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Staples To Improve Product Access With Kiosks
Retailer moves an online channel into its brick-and-mortar stores
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taples Inc. kicked off a program last week designed to give in-store customers access to thousands more products and business services. The company will incorporate its online retailing channel into its brick-and-mortar outlets.Staples, a $9 billion retailer of office supplies, furniture, and technology to consumers and businesses, is putting Web kiosks into more than 1,000 U.S. stores. The kiosks are expected to boost Staples' sales by blending its brick-and-mortar, catalog, and online channels into one, something Jupiter Communications analyst Ken Cassar says is essential. "Kiosks offer the glue between the online and offline shopping experiences," he says.
Customers who shop in all of an office-supply store's channels spend more, says John Burke, senior VP of business services at Staples. "When someone shops in a retail store, they typically spend about $90 each year for every person that works in their office. If they shop two channels, catalog and retail, that goes up to about $150," Burke says. "When you add the dot-com channel, the number goes up to about $300."
The kiosks, developed by NDI International Inc., have been tested in 20 stores. Staples hasn't decided on the technology partner or hardware it will choose for the full-scale rollout. The kiosks will feature Staples.com, which sells as many as 100,000 products, including medical filing systems, and services such as custom printing.
"Staples is all about satisfying our customers," says Mike Ragunas, Staples.com's chief technology officer. The trial kiosks are already making a difference in customers' shopping experience, he says. Recently, for example, a school janitor shopped at Staples and, though the store didn't have every supply he needed, he was able to find more supplies on the kiosk and order them online for next-day delivery to the school, Ragunas says.
An increasing number of companies are adding kiosks to their stores. Recently, Ace Hardware Corp. partnered with OurHouse.com to roll out 2,000 kiosks in its stores. According to a June study by Forrester Research, 60% of 30 retailers interviewed were implementing or testing kiosks. The retailers pointed to costs and technical challenges as obstacles to more-aggressive rollouts.
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