Home computer shopping is on-line to grow - column

Home computer shopping is on-line to grow

Will remote shopping through home computers forever change the way products are bought and sold by many customers and retailers? I believe it will.

Computer shopping is already happening, of course, through services such as IBM, Sears' Prodigy, and Compuserve. Now with 400,000 subscribers, Prodigy's program boasts nine major grocery chains, including Great Scott! in Detroit, Kroger in Atlanta, King Soopers in Denver, and D'Agostino's in New York.

Compuserve's "electronic mall," available to 600,000 members, has well over 100 "storefronts." One of those is Court Pharmacy, a one-store Bridgewater, N.J. outfit billing itself as "the first international on-line pharmacy."

Despite this early participation, I don't see these programs as having much significance yet for the mass market channels, even though some participants say the programs have been well-received by consumers, and are non-disruptive--even cost-efficient--for the retailer.

These "electronic bulletin boards," which provide an array of information including news and weather, will remain curiosities, until computers take a firmer hold in the home. I expect that home computer shopping will grow into a significant portion of mass merchants' sales, once the computer becomes an everyday home tool.

But first, the often-predicted home computing revolution has to catch fire.

The home shopping idea is intriguing in the same way the nascent trend of working at home via computer has promise. Employees who work at home often report dramatic productivity increases, having cut out office distractions.

For better or worse, many--led by the two-income family with children--will find the convenience of "walking" the "electronic aisles" irresistible.

Dual-income families have been major users of Prodigy at Great Scott!, where the service cuts a one- to two-hour-a-week shopping period to 10 minutes, says Mark Keller, store system coordinator.

While Keller won't reveal the number of shoppers on the system, he said Great Scott! is expanding the number of store SKUs the program offers users, who have the option of typing in their own choices. Users, many of whom are new customers, according to Keller, pay a fixed $9.95 monthly fee to Prodigy, plus $7.50 to Great Scott! for home delivery, or 10 percent of the tab up to a maximum of $5 for store pick-up.

A reenergized home PC market, perhaps charged partly by IBM's new assault on the home with its PS/1, should speed progress towards home shopping. PCs in homes numbered 22.7 million, or 24 percent of total homes, in 1989. That will reach 33.2 million, or 34 percent, in 1993, Link Resources predicts.

Smart telephones

Meanwhile, another alternative will emerge: "smart telephones" which could eclipse PCs for home shopping, some analysts believe. AT&T will go to market trial with a "smart phone" in early 1992, according to Michael Grisham, manager of strategic planning, AT&T Network Systems.

The phone, said Grisham, is a "PC in phone clothing." The user, leasing it for $10 to $20 a month, can program a touch screen, with "layers of buttons," to access services or make retail purchases, autodialed, at the push of a single button.

For now, retailers like Bob Lukasik and Tom Santisi of Court Pharmacy have found brisk interest among PC owners in Court's 1,000 SKUs and other services offered via Prodigy.

One of the most popular of eight Prodigy menu items for Court is "Ask Pharmacist Tom," in which the user can consult with the pharmacist and remain anonymous, says Lukasik.

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