Web sites and in-store Internet kiosks allow retail customers to have it their way

DSN Retailing Today, Jan 10, 2005

In-store Internet kiosks have been around almost as long as online shopping itself, but several retailers are taking the technology to another level with the help of outside tech companies that specialize in custom ordering.

Home-improvement giants Home Depot and Lowe's are using technology created by a Tennessee-based company called EdgeNet that allows customers to custom design their own window treatments, countertops and entire rooms online. Customers start by choosing a room template similar to one in their home and, with the click of a mouse, run through a list of options to change the carpeting, windows, doors, cabinets and anything else they want to alter.

Once they've built the room or design element they want, they can click the "buy" option, have their purchase delivered directly to their home and even have it installed. The company boasts that the point-and-click design program not only helps customers visualize how they want to transform their space but increases sales by "adding an average increase of 30 percent in ticket size."

While this type of technology is a natural for retailers in the home-improvement business, it also is being used increasingly in the apparel business. A company called Planar recently installed touch-screen systems in Nike stores that allow customers to build their own athletic shoes by choosing the fabric, style and design.

Nike and other footwear companies like Timberland already offer custom design on their Web sites, but the in-store kiosks stock materials such as shoe fabrics, soles and other elements that help shoppers make decisions and give them a better idea of what the finished product will look like. "We wanted to give the customer an enhanced experience," said Nike spokesman Rob Aldinger.

Starbucks got into the custom CD business this year when it opened its first Music Cafe in Los Angeles. The coffee shop features an additional room stocked with 70 Hewlett-Packard computers equipped with high-speed Internet access and CD burners that allow customers to browse a massive music library and make their own CDs for about $1 a song.

NPD Group analyst Marshall Cohen said the computer custom-design business has been around for awhile, dating back to the 1990s when Levi Strauss opened an Internet-based design kiosk in its San Francisco store.

"It's been around a long time but it's really growing now, especially in apparel," said Cohen. "Eventually, just about every store is going to offer some type of self-serve technology."