Distributor Capitol released its holiday flier for dealers with a focus on TVs and connected home gear. Lead products on the opening page include a TCL 55FS3850 LED Roku TV (dealer price, $569), Panasonic DMP-BD93 Blu-ray player ($82), Onkyo TXNR545 AV receiver ($372), Sunfire HRS12 subwoofer ($498) and URC MX980 remote control ($299). The URC remote also includes $25 back in Capitol Bucks, the company said. Among 4K Ultra HD TVs, a Philips 65-inch 65PFL7900F7 is dealer-priced at $1,429 and Sharp 55-inch at $837, it said. A Classic Flame 59-inch AV fireplace stand with powered subwoofer is $399. Among smart home products: the Nest thermostat and IP camera ($199 and $163), Schlage connected door lock ($139) and Lutron Caseta light switch ($48). Dealers buying three, five or seven different models of the connected home products get 5 to 10 percent back in Capitol Bucks, the distributor said. Prices are good through Nov. 25, and price protection isn't available, Capitol said.
Best Buy held the grand opening of its technology development center in Seattle Thursday. The center is focused on mobile development, cloud engineering and the “omnichannel customer experience,” it said. The center staff of 25 is expected to grow to 100 over time, Best Buy said. “Our customers are shopping both at our stores and online, and we want to create a connected experience,” said Bala Subramanian, chief technology officer. So far the center has produced the BlueAssist app that brings service via live-chat “to the palm of the shoppers' hands” and a redesigned Geek Squad app that makes it easier for customers to identify services offered and how to use them, said Best Buy. A new iPad app will launch soon, Best Buy said.
The retail holiday shopping season went into gear Thursday as Walmart said it's kicking off “eight weeks of deep savings and holiday retailtainment” beginning Sunday. Pushing the integration of low prices with app-based shopping motivation features, Judith McKenna, chief operating officer, Walmart U.S., said “high-low retailers and pricing games have led to frustrated holiday shoppers who second-guess their purchase decisions throughout the season.” The retailer will be “doubling down on its everyday low price promise through the season,” McKenna said. It promised more Rollbacks that run for at least 90 days, including on electronics, and fewer “this weekend only” holiday offers. Savings will last “all season long” and are matched by Walmart’s price match guarantee, Walmart said. The price matching doesn’t apply in certain situations, including competitor pricing on one-hour guarantee items, misprinted ad prices or closeout sales, Walmart said. Nearly 75 percent of traffic to Walmart.com is expected to come from a mobile device this holiday season, due to new promotions designed to integrate online and in-store shopping. Customers who buy online and elect to pick up in-store can use "mobile check-in," which alerts them when they arrive at the store to tap the “I’m ready” button to pick up the product. A video demonstrating the feature shows a customer pushing a shopping cart and doing more shopping rather than simply picking up the online order. A “search my store” app feature points shoppers to the aisle where a product is located. A wish list feature allows Walmart customers to share wish lists with friends and family, it said. Walmart expects more than 210 million app experiences during November and December, up from 18 million two years ago. To promote its tech offerings “at unbelievable prices,” Walmart said it's selling an Apple iPad Mini 2 for $199. An iPad Mini 2 was selling for $269 at Best Buy Thursday.
PowerHouse Alliance met with custom integrators at the CEDIA trade show as the consortium begins to build a network of authorized and trained Vizio dealers to sell the TV maker’s recently announced line (see: 1510070059) of Reference Series high-dynamic-range 4K Ultra HD TVs. Executive Director Dennis Holzer outlined some of the PowerHouse guidelines and strategies that will apply to Vizio at the group’s CEDIA booth in Dallas. Training covers “accurate and safe installation” processes including mounting, wiring and calibration, the company said. Quality control checks for aesthetics and operation are in place for both the 65-inch and 120-inch flat-panel TVs, Holzer said, and a TV with any visual defects or that doesn’t power on properly upon delivery will be put back on the truck for return to the factory before the truck leaves the customer’s home. Vizio is the first TV vendor in the PowerHouse portfolio, and though PowerHouse typically has two companies per category on its roster, it doesn’t plan to add another TV brand, Holzer said. “Vizio is a first for us that presented a unique opportunity,” he said, citing Vizio’s initial entry into the custom market. “For me to bring on more lines would just be watering down the process,” he said. PowerHouse training for Vizio products is expected to begin in Q1, and the TVs are expected to arrive by year-end. Holzer told us the 120-inch TV isn’t available directly to consumers and all leads “come through us.” PowerHouse passes on leads from the Vizio website to installers to reach out to consumers, he said. In response to our request for information, PowerHouse dealer Jason Maggio of JM Sound & Integration told us by email: “We offer all stages of installation including full control options. Or we can just get you the set if you don't need any other service.” Holzer couldn’t say how many of PowerHouse’s 16,000 dealers would have access to the Vizio Reference Series line. The Reference Series TVs will go to the group’s top installers first, Holzer said. Authorized dealers are required to go through training, including site selection, which will take place at the 38 PowerHouse warehouses across the country, Holzer said.
Microsoft’s Oct. 26 grand opening of its first U.S. “flagship” store in midtown Manhattan moves the company “one step closer to expanding our direct, face-to-face connection with Microsoft fans,” said David Porter, corporate vice president-worldwide retail and online stores, Wednesday in a blog post. Microsoft also plans to open a shop Nov. 12 in Sydney, Australia, which will be the company’s first international flagship store, Porter said. The five-story, 22,269-square-foot Manhattan location, the largest in the Microsoft retail chain, “will be a premier venue to learn about, experience and shop for the products and services from Microsoft and our partners,” Porter said. The location at 677 Fifth Ave., just north of 53rd Street, will take over the property vacated by Fendi in February when it relocated its flagship store to Madison Avenue. Flanked by a Tommy Hilfiger flagship store and a Stuart Weitzman shop, the store is situated among many expensive boutiques that form an active shopping hub year-round, but especially during the holiday selling season. Microsoft plans a hard opening of the New York store at noon Oct. 26, but wants shoppers to begin lining up at 6 that morning in advance of grand opening ceremonies that begin at 11:30 a.m., the company said in a “Look out, New York!” announcement posted online Wednesday.
Conn’s was slated to hold grand openings Saturday at its first Georgia store in Augusta and its fifth in the Denver area. The retailer said both stores would celebrate with gift card giveaways, promotions and a chance for local customers to enter to win a $10,000 shopping spree. The 50,000-square-foot Conn’s HomePlus in Augusta is one of the largest store formats in the chain and created almost 30 local jobs for the area, Conn’s said. The 46,000-square-foot Conn’s HomePlus in Thornton, Colorado, created 27 local jobs for the area, the retailer said. The openings are part of Conn’s national 12-month growth plan to open nearly 20 stores through February. Conn’s operates more than 90 stores in 12 states and will open the hundredth later this year, it said.
For people who want to record HD videos inconspicuously, Hammacher Schlemmer has introduced the Video Recording Cap, a $99.95 baseball cap with a “pin-hole” lens embedded in the front of the crown, the New York gadget retailer said in Thursday announcement. The cap’s camera captures 720p video at 30 frames a second and takes 1600 x 1200-resolution still photos in JPEG format, it said. The cap, which comes with a Hammacher Schlemmer "lifetime guarantee," supports storage of captured content onto an SD card up to 32 GB in size, it said. Three buttons on the rim allow one to easily start and stop recordings and snap pictures, the retailer said. It’s powered by a rechargeable battery that provides up to 70 minutes of recording from a four-hour charge using the included USB cable that also allows one to transfer content to a computer, it said. Hammacher Schlemmer representatives didn’t comment on what they see as the likeliest uses of the cap, but the announcement emphasized that the product is a Hammacher Schlemmer exclusive and that the retailer has a 167-year history of offering “the best, the only and the unexpected.”
AT&T and Verizon joined Samsung and Sony as the latest Best Buy vendors fronting stores within a store at the big-box retailer, the companies said Tuesday. “Verizon Experience” stores at 250 Best Buy locations will let shoppers "experience the latest wireless connected devices, tablets, smartphones, apps and services,” Verizon said in an announcement. As with the Samsung and Sony Experience stores, the Verizon Experience stores will be staffed by Best Buy employees, Verizon said. As for AT&T, by the end of 2015, 250 Best Buy locations across the country "will have a new AT&T space to further help customers personalize their connected experience," Andy Shibley, AT&T Mobility senior vice president-national retail, said Tuesday in a blog post.
The Home Technology Specialists of America added two dealer members, the group said Tuesday. They include the Stereo Shoppe, Boise, Idaho, led by co-owners Raymond Verveckken and Craig Adams. Also joining HTSA is Dallas-based Stellar, formerly known as Starlight Home Theater, which operates six design centers in Texas.
Macy’s will test Best Buy CE departments in 10 stores starting in November under a license agreement the department store chain announced Tuesday. The departments will average 300 square feet of floor space in various U.S. markets, Macy’s said, without naming the markets. Best Buy employees will staff the departments, which will spotlight Samsung smartphones, audio devices and accessories, it said. “We are delighted that consumer electronics will be returning to selected Macy’s stores through this test, which will allow us to learn how we can best serve our customers’ needs in this very sophisticated category,” said Macy’s President Jeff Gennette in a statement. “Our customers have expressed interest in electronics for self-purchase and gift-giving.” Macy’s and Best Buy will assess the test results through the holiday selling season and into 2016 “before deciding on next steps,” he said. Macy’s was once a prominent retailer of CE products and figured big in the 1983 U.S. launch of the first Magnavox CD players from Philips, before abandoning the CE business years later.