Retailer Case Study

Large Retailer Adds Virtual Aisles of Digital Entertainment

Situation: For one of the country's largest big box retailers, selling music instore generates more traffic than any other product line. Recently, store executives observed that sales of music had slipped as much as 20% across their hundreds of stores. They attributed this decline to competition from home computer and downloadable music. The retailer's analysis indicated that a digital music solution could help tap existing store traffic, decrease shelf space requirements, and allow shoppers the flexibility to create their own, rights-managed music compilations.

Challenge: After running an in-store pilot program for more than two years, the retailer was convinced that offering digital music was the right strategy, but there were some concerns. The solution they had installed for the pilot was not delivering the best experience for shoppers, and did not offer scalability that met their needs.

The company went searching for a scalable, enterprise-wide digital music solution that they could leverage in the future to offer other media such as movies, video games, and cell phone applications.

Solution: After a thorough technical review of solutions on the market, the company replaced their existing solution with MOD Systems' digital asset management system. The driving forces behind their decision to select MOD Systems were:

  • MOD's focus on the customer experience: from content, to features, to search capabilities, to the way it integrated with the merchant's reward program.
  • MOD's system architecture and business model. The distributed network and component architecture offered flexibility and minimized the risk for them, as well as offering the scalability and performance they needed.
  • MOD's roadmap for the future. The retailer needed to ensure it was well-positioned to add other digital assets both instore and from its website. MOD's vision and expertise assured the company that they would be able to flexibly expand into the future with new services and offerings.

Results: Today, the retailer is rolling out the MOD Systems' solution on a large scale. Shoppers can now relax at one of the many touchscreen kiosks, securely compile custom albums from millions of music tracks, and burn personalized CD within minutes. As a result, customers have a very engaging and fun environment. Store associates even report that the "happy boxes" make their jobs more fun.

Looking forward, the company plans on building more momentum with MOD Systems' digital media asset solution by offering digital downloads to handheld devices, integrating the system with its website, as well as offering many other types of media through its new holistic media environment.