Europe’s top electronics retailer Media-Saturn unveiled a new store with access to more products via a giant video wall and a drive-in collection point for online orders, aiming to better link online and offline shopping and fight back against internet specialists.
Media-Saturn, whose sprawling stores selling everything from washing machines to laptops generate about a third of the revenues of retail group Metro, has seen online competition from the likes of Amazon steadily erode its business in recent years.
A dispute between majority owner Metro and Media-Saturn founder, Erich Kellerhals, delayed the company’s move online until 2010 and it is now playing catch-up, trying to integrate its e-commerce business with its stores.
“Big stores and low prices ...are no longer a guarantee of success,” Wolfgang Kirsch, head of Media-Saturn in its home market Germany, told a news conference on Thursday.
The new Media Markt store due to open next week in the southern German town of Ingolstadt is part of a broader trend among traditional retailers to use technology to make better use of costly store space to present a bigger range of goods.
British clothing retailer Marks & Spencer has developed a “virtual rail” that allows shoppers in a small Amsterdam store to browse its full catalogue on large screens, while German sportswear firm Adidas uses digital “shoe walls” to present all its styles and colours.
Electronics firm Samsung has also recently launched a life-size, touch-screen interface that allows customers to check out its full range of fridges, washing machines and dishwashers.
The new Media Markt store features a huge video wall where customers can navigate through all 60,000 products on offer online - compared to the 45,000 available in the store - as well as a drive-in facility behind the store where shoppers can collect orders made online or by telephone.
It will offer shoppers free Wi-Fi and charging stations for smartphones as well as digital navigation of the store.