NO ONE ANSWERED when interactive retailing technology first knocked at the automotive aftermarkets door in 1987. We cannot ignore today’s louder knocking by the newest technology and the Internet with their promising new sources of profit for auto parts sellers.

It’s true. I exhibited the Autronix Video Shopper at the (then) APAA Show in the fall of 1987. It was an interactive system that let customers order the vast array of accessories, including dress-up items and installable performance hard parts not stocked in the regular parts store. The Video Shopper received incredible national TV, newsprint and trade press reporting, drew positive attention from show attendees, generated enthusiasm and actual orders from the early adapters of the marketplace — and flopped.

Why? The idea was 10 years ahead of its time. Also, I was only two years into concentrating my efforts on the automotive aftermarket, and not willing, as I am now, to be painfully aware that our marketplace is reluctant to adopt and copy the successes of other retail marketplaces.

Back then, implementation of the complete Video Shopper idea would have required 1) an enormous influx of capital funds, 2) mind-boggling logistics to create an on-screen accessory-and-performance show using slides and full-motion video supplemented by puppet animation produced on a live soundstage, and 3) a different aftermarket configuration.

It was a great idea. The exact same concept worked for a while in other industries with smaller inventories. Florsheim Shoes used interactive selling with an on-store floor unit that men could use. It allowed them to order a style or another color in their shoe size from the Florsheim warehouse when that store didn’t have their preferred shoes in stock . It allowed Florsheim to sell its entire inventory without having to stock every store completely.

Today we in the aftermarket are better prepared for this interactive consumer-seller concept, now migrating from the store floor to the Web. We can capture the newest technologies in-store, too.

Technology has moved far beyond the 286-chip and the laser disk technology of the mid-80s. The market has consolidated into larger entities, and one or two chains can claim coast-to-coast coverage. Back then, there were no megachains: even Pep Boys and Western Auto had large geographic gaps in their locations.

Now aftermarket business people are embracing technology which will, in the not-too-distant future, allow the new SUV or truck buyer to walk into your store (or your customers store, if you’re a manufacturer), punch or say the make, model, and specifications of his or her vehicle into an in-store customer-use computer, and accessorize the vehicle piece-by-piece, and view it from any angle.

This video merchandiser was introduced at the APAA Show in 1987. It was ahead of its time.

That’s not all! The vehicle will appear as a hologram, not only on the users’ small computer screen but on a projection wall. Imagine the crowd that will gape at the changing image as the customer adds aerodynamics, a running board, stripes or lighting to the vehicles exterior. Then watch the crowd interest as the customer moves to the interior, adding new technology like a rear-seat-area TV and video games, standards like specific application floor mats, and the other comfort accessories that improve the in-vehicle lifestyle!

Once the customer goes underhood to rev up performance or brighten with chrome the excitement will become contagious.

If they really engage, people in the crowd will offer the vehicle owner suggestions for additional purchases. That’s selling up, not by the store associates, but by other customers. What a concept!

Now, add dynamic sound to the computer, and picture this tricked up vehicle traveling down a mountain road — in store, on a wall, in the air, down the aisle. Talk about creating an experience! I guarantee you that the smart retailers won’t limit that accessory-buying image only to in-store, they’ll put the same image into their display window, or on a large video screen projection or hologram atop the store. (Watch out, city councils! You probably haven’t thought to prohibit a hologram display. Too late!)

Wanna bet that the in-store crowd will be excited and buy products for their own vehicles? How about the window passersbys, or drivers and passengers who see the above-store image? Will they be lured in-store?

In-Store Merchandising & Marketing Tip of the Month Check other industries’ use of interactive and computer technology to sell products or services. Adopt their methodology to our industry. It may work for you!

One of the biggest dilemmas we aftermarketers face now is how to generate in-store traffic from, and purchases by, the younger customers. The younger generations love computers and prefer to DIY with their PC or Mac rather than DIY on the driveway or in the garage. They have lots of competing lures for attention; young people hear innumerable calls for attention.

The automotive aftermarket has big competition for discretionary purchase dollars. It comes not from within our industry, but from many other marketplaces. Many are more current in their sales tactics and techniques than we are as an industry.

Interactive retailing technology has steadily crept toward consumer acceptability in other marketplaces. How many women do you know have stopped in the cosmetics aisle of a big-box store to specify their complexion and choose the correct blusher from a shelf-edge merchandiser?

Have you been in a hotel lobby where guests can use an interactive screen to locate nearby restaurants? What about those kiosks which let people play with configuring DaimlerChrysler vehicles in malls?

See? Interactive activity is accepted in many places!

When interactive shelf-edge technology is used in the aftermarket, it drives sales up by at least 10 percent and often as much as 20-25 percent.

I believe that what I pioneered in 1987 will revisit us, this time successfully, in a different format as we cross into the next century. Retailers who seek to attract more return customers to their selling environment (in-store or on-line) will adapt these new technologies to their store floors — and reap the benefits. They will be able to limit their investment in inventory yet sell the entire array of aftermarket products. There will be fewer shelves. In-store inventory may be limited to the fastest, most popular SKUs and impulse, immediate-need items such as additives and chemicals.

Yes, on-line direct shopping by consumers will continue to grow. However, the parts and accessories stores as you know them will remain, although in altered status. They will be physical stores, and also on-line stores.

This has always been a participatory in-store business for our end-user customers — it will continue a very high extent.

What we need to discover and implement are the magic technical keys to delivering attractive and acceptable product sales pitches in the right way.

The Autronix Video Shopper was then. I believe that we’re ready to create our own now to make sales, and profits. Let’s go for it!

Stephen J. Alexander, president of Automotive In-Store Marketing, is a member of Aftermarket Business’ Retail Advisory Board. To reach him at his Sanibel Island, Florida headquarters, call 239-395-9203, or e-mail, salexander@autoinstore.com.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE:"Reprinted with permission from Aftermarket Business, November, 1999, page 94. Copyright by Advanstar Communications, Inc. Advanstar Communications, Inc. retains all rights to this material." To subscribe to Aftermarket Business, call 1-218-723-9477 or email fulfill@superfill.com.