Let's See, Three Musketeers or MP3

Sony Corp. of America (New York) will install new, automated kiosks in three shopping malls this week, to dispense a variety of its electronics products.

The first locations will be in malls in Atlanta; Boulder, Colo.; and Santa Rosa, Calif. They're said to be part of a bigger test by Sony to increase sales by melding the simplicity of online buying with the immediate gratification of a store purchase. Sony is calling them “robotic stores.

On Sony's branded kiosks, which will come in versions four feet and eight feet wide, a touch screen will display product information and specifications, as well as movie trailers and music videos. Sony products like cameras and batteries will be visible behind a glass wall. Customers will select a product using the screen, swipe a credit card and a robotic arm will deliver the item.

Product and pricing information is updated by an Internet connection. As sales are made, purchase data is transmitted through the web to a fulfillment center for analysis and rapid product replenishment.

By the end of this year, the company will install 10 Sony-branded automated stores in malls, airports and grocery stores throughout the country, promoting a wide range of Sony products that consumers could make as impulse buys as they dash onto a plane or run errands.
 
Other products to be sold include Memory Stick flash memory, MP3 players and cassette tapes, along with CDs and DVDs from Sony Music and Sony Pictures. Prices will be similar to those at other retailers.

Only credit and debit cards will be accepted. To ensure that a customer gets what he or she pays for, remote sensors will confirm that the product has been retrieved by the kiosk's robotic arm and removed from the tray before the credit card is charged. If the customer forgets to remove the item, the tray will close after a set time.

The kiosks are similar to those recently announced by Federated Department Stores Inc. (Cincinnati), to sell iPods and Apple Computer accessories in 180 Macy's branches. And the technology for both is being provided by Zoom Systems Inc. (San Francisco).