Hastings to expand e-commerce site

Discount Store News, May 3, 1999 by Robert Scally

AMARILLO, TEXAS -- Hastings Entertainment plans to use an expanded Internet presence to help grow its bricks-and-mortar store network.

Hastings, which operates a 130-store chain of home entertainment superstores, will launch an e-commerce Internet site, www.gohastings.com, in mid-May. Hastings' new site will enable customers to electronically shop for more than 10 million new and used entertainment products, gifts and toys.

But Hastings' management hopes to make its Web site a vehicle to help grow the chain's locations in the real world while competing with the likes of Amazon.com in cyberspace.

"Our bricks-and-mortar stores are what we're about," said Dennis McGill, vp, finance and cfo at Hastings Entertainment. "Our store concept is too good to give up."

Hastings' retail concept is to place its free-standing entertainment superstores of about 25,000 sq. ft. into small markets where it can become a dominant player.

A Hastings store typically contains about 40,000 book titles, 20,000 music titles, 6,000 videos and video games, 800 DVD titles, 2,000 periodicals, 1,500 software titles and 1,500 other products, such as clothing, greeting cards and stationery, for sale at discounted prices. Hastings also rents videos and sells used videos, audio CDs and video games.

Hastings already has a Web site, but the company wanted to upgrade its offerings to make its site a mirror image of its bricks-and-mortar stores.

While it is growing in cyberspace, the Amarillo, Texas-based chain is planning an aggressive campaign to grow and enter new markets.

Hastings developed its current superstore format in 1991 and currently has 130 locations in 18 states with more than 2.7 million square feet of retail space under lease.

Key elements of Hastings' growth plan include:

* Opening 19 more stores this year;

* Opening a total of 47 stores by the end of fiscal 2000;

* Entering new markets in the Midwest and Southeast.

The chain will probably grow West and begin opening stores in California sometime after 2001, McGill said. The company has identified at least 50 potential locations in California alone.

In many of the more rural areas where Hastings operates, going shopping can be a day-long event. Hastings prides itself on being a destination for customers and making shopping for home entertainment an entertainment experience unto itself.

"Our stores offer such amenities as free gourmet coffee, comfortable chairs for reading, CD listening stations, video game preview stations, interactive information kiosks, telephones for free local calls, children's play areas and instore promotional events," said John Marmaduke, Hastings Entertainment's chairman and ceo.

Launching the new and improved Web site will also allow Hastings to have a national image as an Internet retailer as it expands its physical store base, McGill said.

The company plans to aggressively price its merchandise on gohastings.com and do numerous promotions and its first-ever national advertising campaign, McGill said. National print advertising will be ongoing to help build awareness of the new site.

The Web site launch will be supported by special offers such as best-selling books at up to 50% off list price and a limited-time, free-freight offer.

The Hastings Web site will eventually include features that will allow its customers to interact with their local stores and receive information about events and new releases.