Sony's Store in a Store

Joe Wilcox | August 17, 2004, 03:36 PM

Last Thursday I headed to my local CompUSA to buy a new UPS for my cable modem and wireless hub. Local storms had knocked out the power and revealed that I didn't have enough battery power for a several-hour power outage.

While exploring the CompUSA, I stumbled onto something that wasn't there during my visit two weeks earlier: A Sony store within the store. I can't say whether it's a test market operation or something CompUSA is rolling out nationwide. But the setup was appealing.

The Sony area consisted of five kiosks--one in the middle with four others squarely around the centerpiece. Table-top dividers separated the products on each kiosk, with complimentary accessories visibly placed in shelves underneath. Products included notebooks, PCs, DVD players, DVD burners, photo printers, desktop speakers, headphones and digital cameras and camcorders. Adjacent to the kiosks: Sony TVs and home theatre gear.

The Sony store setup definitely crowded out the competition. HP PCs that had dominated floor space weeks earlier took up modest space along the back wall; that's not prime real estate. Non-Sony notebooks crowded into the Apple Store within the store, acting more like a mote separating its products from rival Sony.

I laughed at how many Sony staffers brought back-to-school shoppers to look at the Vaio VGN-S150 notebook; I bought that same model last month. Maybe the store had a bunch on hand, or maybe the sales folks recognized the S150's diminutive size, light weight and entertainment features would appeal to students.

The in-store approach makes lots of sense, particularly for a company like Sony, which sells products in so many categories. During a Saturday return visit, CompUSA staffers would pull back-to-school buyers to the Sony area. From the spiels I heard, they found selling one product easier when in context of others. Then there was the up-sell potential for more products, of showing how two Sony products might be better than one.

I’d recommend that HP take a hard look at the Sony store-in-store setup. A similar approach would be a good way of showing why a HP printer, camera or DVD burner would be better than just a Media Center PC or notebook sold alone. That’s something shoppers won’t get when the single vendor’s products are scattered throughout the store.