Growth Through Innovation

Whether they are communicating with consumers, suppliers or store associates, retailers are realizing the importance of sharing information with key stakeholders. Kiosks are becoming a ubiquitous vehicle for providing information and assistance to shoppers and store associates. On the supplier side, many retailers are working to improve business processes by sharing customer data with key vendors.

At CompUSA, the operator of 246 stores across the United States and Puerto Rico, a kiosk program is augmenting sales by allowing customers to purchase items not available in the store. The retailer partnered with Hewlett-Packard (HP) for the project.

"Through the kiosks customers can configure their HP purchase, pay for it in the store and have it delivered to their home," says Cathy Witt, CIO, CompUSA. "Now we can give the customer what they want the way they want it. We don't have to maintain the inventory if we are providing the kiosk, so customers can build their computer and then have it shipped directly to them out of one of HP's facilities."

CompUSA went live in October 2005 and now houses a kiosk in every store dedicated to HP.

"Most customers, we find, do like an assisted sale when they are doing configuration on a laptop or desktop. The kiosk is extremely easy to use. It far exceeded our expectations on sales," says Witt.

To smooth the checkout process for customers, the CompUSA kiosks can also suspend final transactions and send them to the POS checkout area until customers have completed their shopping.

The kiosk transaction also provides HP and CompUSA with important customer data.

"HP is getting all of the customer information so they can ship the product and we get the information because it is coming through our POS or Web site," Witt notes. "We have traditionally shared information with HP and some of the other big manufacturers because we know it's important for them to know about their customers."

Real-Time Data Sharing

Armed with real-time sales information, retailers and suppliers can make smarter inventory decisions. For Smart & Final -- which operates approximately 250 stores in seven western states and northern Mexico -- the sheer volume of its business precipitates the need for information sharing.

"We have a 480,000-square-foot warehouse and we turn that sucker every eight days wall-to-wall," says Zeke Duge, CIO, Smart & Final. "All of that goes out into small boxes. We make a penny-and-a-half on a gallon of milk so we have to watch those half pennies. If we can get to a spot where we are sharing the information about who is buying what and with which and for whom and when, we can get ourselves out of the logistics loop." Real-time information also helps business customers monitor their transactions.

"A high percentage of our customers are businesses," Duge says. "We provide real-time transaction information to any of our customers who want to sign up online. Then they can send a store associate out to buy items for the business and they know that the associate isn't buying Jack Daniel's, for example."

Smart & Final offers the same service to its key vendor partners. "We can filter the information by product line so we can tell Coca-Cola or Pepsi, or the Ice Man, what they are selling in real time by item and by store," he says. "By sharing real-time sales information with the ice vendor, the vendor now manages its own sell-through on the ice," says Duge. As a result, Smart & Final's ice sales increased 40 percent in the first year.

In-Stock or In Trouble

Real-time sales information helps Smart & Final to keep its shelves stocked, which is a key marketing point for the retailer.

"Customers don't shop at a Smart & Final looking for a deep discount," says Duge. "We are about 15 percent less expensive than a supermarket, but we are about 4 percent more expensive than a club -- but we are in stock."

When up against Wal-Mart, if bananas are a good deal, it has bananas at 25 cents a hand and while Smart & Final may have them at 28 or 30 cents a hand. If bananas aren't a good deal, Wal-Mart won't have them, but Smart & Final will carry them even if they are 60 cents a hand, according to Duge.

"We know our customers need certain items to be able to run their businesses," says Duge.