Retailing December 6, 2007, 5:00PM EST

More Clicks at the Bricks

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David Butow/Redux

Today's consumer doesn't always have the patience for traipsing around a store looking for the perfect cashmere scarf or obscure French novel. So Barnes & Noble and other retailers are installing kiosks that allow people to search inventory, locate merchandise, and order out-of-stock items. Consumers also want to know about special sales and trunk shows, and retailers have become increasingly adept at figuring out who is most likely to show up and alerting them by e-mail. Veteran Nordstrom personal shopper Nader Shafii now keeps 5,000 customers in a database and routinely blasts come-ons to 500 of them. Shafii says he's selling 37% more merchandise as a result. Now Nordstrom is experimenting with text-messaging the cell phones of younger customers.

Few retailers are attempting to give customers more control than grocer Bloom. Visitors to shopbloom.com can key in a shopping list and get a printout of the aisles they need to hit. That can be risky, because when shoppers know what they want and where to find it, they may be less likely to buy on impulse. Echoing the Internet's user-generated craze, Bloom also lets people "build your own six-pack" of imported brews. Throwing away decades of habit and convention hasn't been easy, says Bloom marketing director Robin Johnson: "It's a paradigm shift."

Another retailing convert is Melissa Balas, who helps oversee customer service at a Best Buy store in Durham, N.C. For years, Balas's employer didn't put as much emphasis on getting its sales staff acquainted with what it was selling. That won't fly anymore. Few products are more zealously researched online than digital gadgets; numerous sites are dedicated to that very purpose. Balas says her people were having a hard time keeping up with increasingly savvy customers.

In October, Best Buy overhauled its entire sales force. Now 30% of store staff have been redeployed from specific departments to roam the entire floor. They're supposed to know the whole store and how gadgets work together: which printer to choose for a certain laptop, the best memory card for a digital camera, how a gaming platform works with a given TV. To get her employees up to speed, Balas has them meet with manufacturers' reps for a rundown of their products, attend storewide and department training programs, and, when customers are scarce, play with the products. Reps are in the store as often as every other week giving demonstrations and group instructions on features and improvements. "I would say we are always training," says Balas.

As retailers battle to stay one step ahead of their increasingly impatient and informed customers, many are dabbling in Web-like experiments. Who would have imagined that Bloomingdale's (M) would find a way of bringing social networking into the store? Earlier this year, design firm IconNicholson ran a three-day test at Bloomingdale's featuring the designer Nanette Lepore. Shoppers participating in the test tried on outfits in front of an interactive mirror that connected them with friends via the Web. Thanks to a camera in the ceiling, their pals could see the outfit they were trying on, instant-message their thoughts, and suggest alternatives from Lepore's inventory, all of which popped up on the mirror for the shopper to read. The technology also markets matching accessories and provides a store map showing where shoppers can find them.

MOB SHOPPING

Nordstrom, meanwhile, has been testing perfume kiosks at 20 Southern California stores. With a few touches of the screen, a customer can find out which celebrities favor a certain perfume, the high and low notes of their favorite scent, and such details as the artist who designed the bottle. Creator Jan Moran, an author and consultant to fragrance companies, compares fragrance fans to wine aficionados. But Erik Nordstrom says he hasn't seen much impact on sales and suspects the kiosks can't compete with his staff's vaunted customer service. "Our focus is less about the latest supercool technology," says Nordstrom, "and more about the customer interaction."

Still, retailers will keep experimenting because the next generation of technology will turn consumers into even bigger control freaks. Already, shoppers can use their cell phones to access a Web-generated list of nearby stores selling a certain product. Dial frucall.com, enter a product code, and you can get immediate info on the lowest price available online. In China, Web sites amass large numbers of customers interested in a certain product and then bargain with retailers on their behalf. It's called "mob shopping"—a perfect metaphor for how the Web has empowered the consumer and left retailers scrambling in their wake.

Byrnes is a senior writer for BusinessWeek in New York .

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