Phil Schoonover told the CTAM Summit audience that Circuit City could provide a special store to sell the hardware, with the retailer’s service division, firedog, providing installation and support services.
Concept stores include “The City” in Virginia. Schoonover demonstrated a customer experience where a buyer is approached by a sales associate with a tablet PC. The associate uses the computer to hone in on the buyer’s needs: Which room will house the TV? Where will the hardware be placed? The PC enables the associate to sketch the room, placing furniture and determining what type of TV is best: LCD in Schoonover’s case, due to bright daylight in the room.
Circuit City has 650 retail locations. With all of its TVs turned on all day, that equals 90,000 potential billboards for cable-provided services, he suggested.
This year has not been good for the Virgina based retailer. In March they announced a plan to replace over 3,000 senior employees in a move to save money.
Since then the electronics market has faced lower sales of high margin items. Even larger rival Best Buy has seen lower profits during the first part of the year.
Sources:
TWICE
MarketWatch
Written by: Rich Fiscus @ 29 Jul 2007 19:12
