Sony Launches Vending Machines
Update: ATRACLife is going to visit one of these machines (in Georgia) and take pictures/movies for your pleasure this week. Stay tuned.
San Diego — Sony Electronics will bring its chairman Howard Stringer’s “Sony United” directive to airports and shopping malls as it tests a new Sony vending kiosk to sell products from many of the company’s disparate operations. The vending kiosks, which will be maintained and operated by Zoom Systems, will showcase and sell multiple formats of Sony recordable media, batteries, headphones, Walkman MP3 players and CD players, Sony digital cameras, Sony Pictures DVD and UMD videos, Sony music CDs, Vaio PC accessories and PlayStation games and PSP players. Sony is calling the new retailing approach “Sony Access,” and will use it to both sell Sony goods and promote its brand name and products, said Joe Stinziano, Sony Electronics media and applications solutions division senior VP.
Sony will roll out the test program Monday, starting with units in Atlanta’s Mall of Georgia, Flatirons Mall in Boulder, Colorado, and the Santa Rosa Mall in Santa Rosa, California USA. Next month a unit will be added in the Indianapolis Airport. Six additional locations will be added in the test period during July and August.
Initial venues include airports and shopping malls, but Stinziano said he expects it to branch out to upscale grocery stores and other non-traditional high-traffic areas.
“There are places today where we are not satisfying a need,” said Stinziano. “It may be a latent need, but it is a need, we believe.”
Each machine will hold about 50 SKUs, he said. Also, Sony will test a pair of double machines, which will sandwich between them a BRAVIA LCD monitor running clips of Sony content, such as trailers of upcoming feature films.
Double units will accommodate a wider selection of categories and SKU assortments.
Ease and speed of each transaction was considered paramount in developing the system, Stinziano said. Each unit is equipped with a 15-inch touch panel to take user selections.
“Within three clicks and two minutes you can be in and out with your item and your receipt,” he said.
The cashing out process was simplified to a swipe of a credit or debit card.
To prevent any snafus in delivery, each machine is outfitted with an array of sensors to track the movement of the product as it travels by an electronic arm from the display slot to a bucket dispenser. The transaction is quickly canceled if any anomalies are detected.
Each machine will carry a product assortment tailored to the location where it will be placed, Stinziano said, adding that kiosks placed in airports, for example, would contain noise-canceling headphones, because they are perfectly suited for air travelers.
Sony will use third-party research firms to periodically intercept customers and ask about their experience and how they liked the product selections.
In addition, each kiosk will be connected to the Internet, allowing Sony to monitor SKU turns and fine tune product offerings as required.
“This is all about learning, and all about developing a total brand experience for the customer,” Stinziano said, “We will use this to learn such things as: Are there sensitivities by location? Are there sensitivities that are seasonal? Are there sensitivities by price?”
“We believe that we will find that these are purchases that would not have occurred if these machines were not sitting there,” he continued. “The object is not to transfer a sale from location A to location B, whether those were going to be any of our retail partners or any of our direct establishments like Sony Style Stores or Sony.com. The thinking is there are additional purchases that could occur if we can reach customers more effectively.”
Pricing for products in the kiosks will be comparable to those in Sony Style stores, said Stinziano, adding, “It will be a little higher than the lowest street price.”
Sony worked with Zoom to customize the uni-branded vending machines and product assortments. Zoom will be responsible for stocking inventory and maintaining the machines.
“We felt that Zoom provided us with the best back-office capabilities to help us with replenishment and after care, as well,” said Stinziano.
He said Sony views Zoom as more than just another retail partner or another approach to direct selling.
“Zoom is a capabilities partner because they allow us to do this the way we want to do it,” said Stinziano. He added that Sony’s Sony Style division was consulted in developing the program so that the machines would “mimic the look and feel of a Sony Style store, as well as our Web site and our advertising.”
[From TWICE]
I can see this working in airport settings… where parents buying PSP for their kids before flights.
Other than that, we will see how the experiments go. Anyway, I like seeing new approach to reach consumers.
“Pricing for products in the kiosks will be comparable to those in Sony Style stores, said Stinziano, adding, “It will be a little higher than the lowest street price.””
That means MSRP, c’mon Sony, just say it straight out. Since when Sonystyle doesn’t charge MSRP?
Definitely a good idea for PSP games/movies, assuming Sony will actually work on releasing more PSP games in the US. I don’t know how good it will work with anything that requires rechargable battery though, like an iPod (How would you charge/fill your newly acquired iPod from at the airport, unless you have a laptop with you). It would be really cool if Sony brought back the MD vending machine that allow you to obtain music for your MD form the machine.
Good idea, but what are the selections? Sony USA only have outdated electronics, except for maybe digicams and PSP. Maybe Sony should focus more in actually releasing products (RH1?).
MD is dead in the US, as well in canada, flash and HDD based players are the way to go, and flash mp3 players should be the ones sold in the machines and no hdd. How would warrenty work in this case? just go to any sony store near you?
Honestly, I find this idea totally ludicrous. Who just decides casually to spend $250 on electronics at an airport? Sales will likely be minimal. Airport sales are generally about convenience. Breakfast, coffee, lunch, dinner, snacks, memorabilia, souvenirs, magazines, books. Charging would not be the only problem anyway. What will you play when you get your brand new player you just absolutely have to have ASAP? Once again, I suppose you need a laptop…and songs encoded in MP3 or ATRAC3(plus) already on it. Of course, if you have that, you likely already have a digital music player anyway. In the case of PSP, how many would really engage in a spontaneous $300 +60(1 game) expenditure? Give me a break. BONE HEAD IDEA. Sell headphones. That would actually work. The ones they sell in the airports are brutal.
Well at amsterdam ther are stores where they sell electronics, sony included, among various other brands. prices cheaper? depends, somethings are but on the majority they are not cheaper, and sometimes more expensive.
I’d agree with vincent, who is going to plop down so much cash right there and then when they buy something from these “vending machines”. If there was an option to purchase music in mp3 format and then transfer it to one of the devices perhaps then it would be a better idea, but that would still lead to problems, like being able to re download the tunes to another pc when you get back home, drm issues.
Unless sony is using the vending machines not as a tool to sell the product to you, but for you to buy it as a gift for someone where you are heading?