Mining a moving market:

www.rtmilestones.com

Home Depot is Testing a Kiosk in Two Atlanta Malls That Extends Its Brand Beyond the Store.

Consumers have certain expectations from retailers, whether they're in New York or New Mexico. They see the same fast-food restaurants, the same big box retailers, the same department stores, the same electronics outlets - in the same types of environments.

So when one of those icons of American retail pops up in an unexpected place, it takes consumers a while to get used to it. That's what's happening in Atlanta, where Home Depot Direct has set up a unique kiosk in two shopping malls - Mall of Georgia and Perimeter Mall.

Ann Marie Campbell recently promoted to vice president in-store services for the giant retailer, said that initial reactions from consumers have included shock, surprise and smiles.

"We've had zero negative feedback," Campbell said. "Consumers aren't expecting it, and it looks different. One consumer said it was the best experience she'd ever had."

In October, the four-month process of creating, building and installing the kiosks was completed, in what Campbell said was a record-setting time for a new initiative at Home Depot. Working with Frank Mayer and Associates and Netkey, the kiosks feature three ordering kiosks, a staff member, and a handful of featured products.

The two-store pilot is scheduled to last six months, after which Campbell said the retailer will decide the future of the project, which could include a rollout across the country. The mall stores feature intuitive, touch screen computer interfaces connected to home depot.com. Mall shoppers can browse and purchase products online: then, as an added convenience, purchases are shipped directly to customers' homes.

"We didn't want to spend a lot of time on testing, we just wanted to see what it would do" she said of the rapid deployment.

To accomplish the conversion of the existing Web site to a kiosk environment, Netkey built a software application and created the application interface. Netkey software also monitors, manages and updates the kiosks, as well as providing ongoing reporting services.

"It's exciting to see the nation's second largest retailer leverage self-service as part of its multi-channel initiatives," said V. Miller Newton, CEO of Netkey. "Netkey is proud to have been chosen by The Home Depot as a partner to help extend the Home Depot brand, increase sales and improve the customer experience through these innovative kiosk projects.

The kiosks promote Home Depot's e-commerce and online product catalogue, and thus Campbell said the test of its effectiveness is not that it produces massive amount of sales. In fact, she said one goal is to educate the customer to learn that home depot can be a source for products not traditionally associated with the store.

Home Depot Direct stores are staffed with associates to assist customers in browsing homedepot.com, to educate them on Home Depot Direct's products and services and to process gift card sales. Other than gift cards, Home Depot Direct stores carry no inventory.

"We have 30,000 items and want to use online channels to complete sales," she said. "The online piece has been slower that we anticipated. People associate us with certain product lines, and we were trying to promote other products."

That list includes electronics, spas, exercise equipment and furniture.

She said the kiosk fulfills three key Home Depot strategies - enhancing the core business in order to add value at the store, extend the business by promoting "logical adjacencies" such as installation services, and to expand market.

"We get a different type of customer than we get in the stores. People want convenience, so they shop with us and ship from the kiosk," she said.

One of the most important features of the kiosk, Campbell said, 'is its portability'. She thinks the number of locations is unlimited, including temporary spots like consumer Garden and Hardware shows, even airports and hotels.

"Once we have proof of concept, we hope to see deployments beyond malls," she said. "And it has to do very little in sales to be successful. We believe it has the capability to go so many more places. The mall is a conservative test."