STORES Magazine - December 2008 - (Page 27)

the number of SKUs involved – approximately three million books, CDs and DVDs are available online. The stores carry only a fraction of that total, but store kiosks – representing the next phase of the rollout – will afford in-store shoppers “all of the functionalities available in the online forum,” Ertell says. “Think about customer reviews,” he says. “That’s a huge feature point on a lot of websites. With those, you’re able to hear from real people, who seem to have more credibility than experts these days. “Let’s say you’re looking for travel books on Amsterdam. I was just doing that last week, and I looked up customer reviews — people who have used different books and gone to Amsterdam and talked about their experiences. If that’s available on a kiosk in the store, that can help you make a selection while you’re there.” The kiosks also give consumers the ability to create wish lists online and access them in the store (although they’re not yet available for others to see without password access). “This is a really popular feature with customers, since they don’t have to have lists on paper jammed into their pockets with titles and authors,” Ertell says. “These are just some of the things we’re doing to try to bring together the channels.” But what of store staff? They often provide a vast reservoir of experience, and “we want to take advantage of the knowledge of our 30,000 employees,” Ertell says. “The staff review feature on the site is a way to do that. We’re now able to leverage that expertise across the chain. It would be physically impossible to do that otherwise.” WWW.STORES.ORG Shortlist, shopping shortcuts Another section on the site, Guest Shortlist, asks celebrities like the authors and musicians that make in-store appearances to share their top picks. Shoppers can interchangeably use search and navigation to browse categories, products, keywords and refine results lists down to relevant items of interest. To make the shopping experience at Borders even more unique, the company has become the first major retailer to combine Endeca’s information access capabilities with Allurent Details. That means shoppers can do things like reserve a copy at the closest store, add an item to their wish lists or put an item in their shopping carts without having to go to a specific product page. “We were excited by the type of data Borders has,” Goldman says, as well as by the retailer’s willingness “to collaborate with us on the roadmap to a solution. We’re continuing to innovate together.” Borders and Endeca mapped out dozens of features, recommendations and merchandising options for the initial deployment. The intimidating part, according to Goldman, was the “ambitious scope” and the “opportunities for first-of-their-kind features.” The goal was to pack as many of the innovations as possible into the initial launch, rather than introducing them later with refreshes and updates. Endeca also counts The Home Depot, PETCO, Nike, Walgreen, Crate & Barrel and Wal-Mart among its clients. Because it introduced dynamic merchandising capabilities to the online marketplace, Goldman says, the company had a “head start” when it came to developing innovative, integrated search capabilities for retail. And Goldman has especially enjoyed his own Borders Magic Shelf. “I spend a lot of time online,” he says, “but I’m very much a browser. When I go shopping, I’m looking for inspiration.” On one visit, the robotics enthusiast was “just playing around on the site” when he discovered “Rossum’s Universal Robots,” a play by Czech author Karel Capek that was the work from which the term robot originated. “So I bought the book and read it, and it was pretty funny,” he says. “It was all about technology and the fears from the 1920s. I’m not sure I would have StORES found it otherwise.” Fiona Soltes, who splits her time between “retail therapy” and freelance writing, lives near Nashville, Tenn. STORES / DECEMBER 2008 27 http://WWW.STORES.ORG

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of STORES Magazine - December 2008

STORES Magazine - December 2008 Contents Executive Editor's Page President's Page Wrap Rage Unraveled What Shoppers Think Courting a Comeback 10 Things You May Have Missed Numbers Worth Counting Full Price/Markdown Retail People Cover Story: Navigating the Road Ahead Website Strategy Concept2Watch Online Customer Service International Marketing Green Retailing Online Merchandising Signage Operations Online Strategies Pricing Strategy Kiosks RFID Human Resources Loeb Retail Letter ARTS Update Point of View NRF News Retail Crossword Retail Industry Calendar Last Laugh

STORES Magazine - December 2008

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