Atlanta, GA, February 7, 2006--According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Home Depot is testing small kiosks at local malls where shoppers can surf the chain's Web site and look at its catalogs. They can also buy gift cards.
The newspaper said that the company has test kiosks at two Atlanta area malls. The report said its expects the next stop could be Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, the world's busiest.
"We have spoken with Home Depot," said airport spokeswoman Felicia Browder. "We like the possibility of having them as a concessionaire in the airport. But [most] of our retail space is under contract until 2007. Therefore, Home Depot will have to wait until then to competitively bid for space."
Home Depot rolled out carts inside Mall of Georgia and Perimeter Mall last November, right alongside the cellphone booths and other retail stands found in such emporiums. The test is expected to last about six months but could go longer, said Tom Casey of Frank Mayer & Associates, the Wisconsin company that designed the interactive mall cart kiosks for Home Depot.
Except for gift cards, no actual merchandise is sold at the kiosks. But customers can get one-on-one attention from an employee staffing the booth as they look through catalogs or consider a website order.
Home Depot offers about 30,000 items online, including many non-store items such as dining tables, home gyms, couches and other home decor items. The number of products could grow to 50,000 this year, said Harvey Seegers, president of Home Depot Direct, during a recent online retail conference in Atlanta.
"We have an experiment with kiosks in malls and airports," Seegers said. "But that model has not proven out yet."
Start-up costs for carts are about $15,000 for a basic model, according to industry estimates, versus millions to build a new store.
Home Depot is also putting smaller kiosks in some of its own stores, where it believes there's broader potential because many customers already order things there.
"We are going to be using kiosks extensively ... and we will begin deploying them in strategic locations in stores where customers are placing special orders in the next couple of years," Seegers said.
Selling more gift cards helps retailers ring up more sales, though they're not counted as revenue until redeemed. Most shoppers redeem gift cards within six months and spend more than the face value, according to industry research.
Nearly 10 percent of consumers never cash them in. Last year, Home Depot cashed in on unused gift cards, reporting a $43 million income gain for the period of 1998 to 2001.
