Interactive Display Features Camera Equipment
Tiffen, which manufactures camera filters, is featuring this futuristic interactive kiosk to educate consumers on how to use camera filters to take better pictures.
"This exciting new way to sell camera equipment, shifts the retail business toward interactive selling and away from having a product sell itself," said Michael Smith, President of Linx Communications, Hauppauge, NY, which created the display for Tiffen.
Consumers view the effects of various kinds of filters by simply touching a screen that contains original black/white and color photos. Each photo changes its appearance to feature the Tiffen HFX filter product line that softens images, converts color and balances light. Each filtered image is compared side-by-side with the original photo.
Provident Features Listening Centers
Provident Music Distribution, Brentwood, TN, offers retailers this Interactive Listening Center featuring colorful graphics, multiple product shelves, a touch sensitive pad with product pictures and sampler disc.
The special sampler CD allows customers to select one of 32 featured titles and hear nearly 2 minutes of sampling of various cuts from the selected recordings. Customers may select another sampling on the display by touching the picture of the recording. Retailers receive a new CD sampler update twice a year allowing them to change featured products for a new promotion.
The Interactive Listening Center is made of solid wood construction measuring only 76"H x 26"W x 20"D. It features high fidelity speakers and headphones. A restock product storage drawer provides quick access and the unit is on wheels for easy mobility.
Kmart Solutions Offers Hundreds Of New Products And Services Via Intranet
Kmart customers can now enjoy a new type of power shopping through a simple "point and purchase" system on in-store computers. The new intranet-based, in-store, interactive application called "Kmart Solutions," gives customers the ability to order hundreds of new products and services and then have them delivered the following day. The national rollout that began in Detroit’s 48 stores will expand to 100 stores by year end.
Kmart Solutions gives customers the ability to buy new products previously too large to display, more models of lines already offered, and services never before offered by the retailer.
Gateway Provides Customized Kiosks For Barnes & Noble College Bookstores
Gateway North Sioux City, SC, is providing customized kiosks to Barnes & Noble College Bookstores, which students and faculty can use to configure Gateway computers to best meet their personal computing needs.
Chris Scarpa, Barnes & Noble Divisional Merchandise Manager, said, "PCs are fast becoming a basic item for all college students and it’s logical that computers be sold in campus bookstores with other basic items such as books and school supplies."
OfficeMax Opens Prototype PDQ Store
OfficeMax, has launched its new PDQ concept store in Woodmere, OH. This 7,500-sq. ft. store, which is about a third of the size of the company’s superstores, offers a full-service, CopyMax hub combined with over 3,000 office products, as compared to more than 8,000 in a full-size OfficeMax superstore. PDQ store customers will also be able to obtain over 20,000 products through an electronic, in-store kiosk.
"OfficeMax PDQ is a unique ‘quick-shop’ format in a convenient location for when customers don’t have the time to shop one of our full-size OfficeMax superstores," said Michael Feuer, OfficeMax Chairman. He added that the PDQ format will allow OfficeMax to penetrate high-density urban locations and to locate stores in office parks, office buildings, and on or near college campuses.
Paragon Group offers a complete line of service friendly off the shelf interactive kiosks. Paragon’s kiosks come with a 17" ELO touch screen and stereo speakers. Components such as a computer, printer and credit card reader can be integrated. While most kiosks require the touch screen monitor be removed before color adjustments can be made, this system is designed for simple and fast service without moving the kiosk. For more information, contact Paragon Group Inc., 117 Montair Drive, Danville, CA 94526; (Tel) 888-234-1538; (Fax) 925-855-9857.
Route 66 Productions offers a new lightweight kiosk that provides easy mobility, for retail or trade show applications. The kiosk incorporates a Pentium MMX computer and a touchscreen interface. This entire unit fits into a 12" x 10" x 3" package and weighs only 14 lbs. "This sleek design allows for an extremely small footprint for valuable retail or trade show floor space," said Jane Shore, V.P, Route 66 Productions. "Since all components are incorporated into one very small unit, maintenance and trouble shooting are reduced dramatically." For more information, contact Route 66 Productions, Inc., 6374 Arizona Circle, Los Angeles, CA 90045; (Tel) 310-342-5900, (Fax) 310-342-5901, (Web) www.digital66.com.
Panasonic Commercial Products Company has unveiled a new TV-based interactive multimedia player which incorporates its proprietary M2 technology. Offering fast, high quality 3-D graphics, high resolution MPEG digital video and digital stereo, the Panasonic FZ-21S Interactive Media Player is about the size of a notebook PC. Its "plug and play" capability allows for easy hook up to a standard TV monitor or LCD projector. By effectively combining sound, still images and full-motion video with 3-D computer graphics, it enables marketers and retailers to promote products with dramatic impact. For more information, contact Panasonic Home and Commercial Products Company, One Panasonic Way, Secaucus, NJ 07094; (Tel) 201-392-4493, (Fax) 201-392-6005.
Fors France is introducing its PlayFors CD listening system which eliminates the need for CD players and headphones in stores, allowing customers to hold a CD-sized terminal to their ear to hear up to six minutes of music from selected CDs. The system consists of a microprocessor based recorder and a series of CD-sized recording units that sit in a special rail holder. Customers browse through the offerings in the rail holder, and hold one to their ear to listen to the offering. For more information, contact Fors France, 3 Rue Ledru Rollin, 94107 St. Maur des Fosses, France; (Tel) 011.33.1.48.86.62.
The Gem City Kiosk Group offers a total kiosk package. Standard kiosk options come in a variety of attractive, ergonomic and secure enclosures. Materials include aluminum stainless steel, carbon steel, plastic and wood laminate. Design personnel can also assist customers in creating proprietary kiosk enclosures. For more information about the company’s kiosk packages, contact Gem City Kiosk Group, (Tel) 937-223-6554, (Fax) 937-223-1074.
CD World And Sprint Launch CD Kiosks
CD World, New York City, has formed an agreement with Sprint to produce interactive kiosks that allow consumers to create their own "Personal CD." Consumers make their selection from hundreds of thousands of music tracks that are centrally stored on the Music Works Bank(TM). Shoppers can select 45 minutes of music for $18 a CD
The kiosk is a data terminal connected by Sprint’s high-speed fiber optic network to a central music data base. Each kiosk is equipped with a video screen that can play music promotions and ads as shoppers wait four minutes for their custom-made CD’s.
The kiosks, called Music Point, will appear in about 400 retail locations in early 1999.
NBO Offers Gift Certificate Kiosk
Neighborhood Box Office Inc. (NBO), Salt Lake City, UT, has announced an agreement with Urban Retail Properties to provide electronic interactive kiosks to distribute mall gift certificates in its regional shopping centers.
NBO’s CEO/Chairman, Keith Guevara said, "Difficulties currently facing consumers when purchasing certificates, such as long lines and hard-to-find distribution points, will be eliminated. Attractive kiosks located in the common area will also raise awareness to customers who aren’t aware that mall gift certificates exist."
HTS and ModaCad Bring Kiosks To Fashion Retailers
High Technology Solutions Inc., San Diego, and ModaCAD have announced an alliance to bring ModaCAD’s e-business initiative, www.FashionTrip.com, to fashion retailers. HTS, through its TouchMedia division, will create PC kiosks designed to deliver ModaCAD’s online fashion shopping experience to stores.
Kellogg & Joe Boxer Run College Promo
Kellogg and Joe Boxer have teamed up for "Kellogg’s Boxer Bonanza.."
College students who purchase convenience items at campus bookstores receive bar-coded cards to be run through a talking scanner unit that announces winners. At each school, 20 instant winners receive a pair of boxers and 100 win a single-serve package of Kellogg’s cereal.
Virtual Celebrity Productions creates interactive virtual performers for trade show presentions. These photo-realistic digital actors are created with innovative software applications. For more informatin, contact Virtual Celebrity Productions, 3679 Motor Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90034; (Tel) 310-253-5131, (Web) www.virtualceleb.com.
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