The Scentsa kiosk, a collaborative effort between Crescent House Publishing LLC, Apunix and IBM, garnered the win at the 2007 FiFi Awards for Technological Breakthrough of the Year. It had been nominated at Self Service Expo Las Vegas for Best Retail Deployment.
The Fifi Awards are presented by The Fragrance Foundation. It is the fragrance industry's equivalent of the Oscars.
The awards were presented during a breakfast for finalists April 27 in New York City. A formal awards ceremony will take place May 31, also in New York City.
The flat-panel, touchscreen device contains a database of over 7,000 scents. A sales associate enters search parameters such as country of origin, year of launch and flowers which are used as ingredients. Scentsa returns a list of the closest matches.
Frederick Linsk, managing director of Crescent House, said stores may lose up to 8 percent of sales if store associates are unable to locate a particular fragrance and don't have the knowledge to suggest an alternative. If the Scentsa isn't able to make an exact match for what the consumer wants, however, alternate scents with the same qualities and which Nordstrom's carries are listed.
"We've virtually eliminated the walkaway," said Linsk.
The database was compiled by authors Michael Edwards and Jan Moran. Edwards has authored "Fragrances of the World" and "Perfume Legends." Moran is author of "Fabulous Fragrances." Moran is also the chief executive and president of Crescent House.
Scentsa features software developed by San Diego, Calif.-based Apunix with a Linux operating system. The IBM Anyplace Touch Screen comprises the hardware.
The Scentsa is currently deployed in 21 Nordstrom's in Southern California. The kiosk will roll out nationwide to all full-service Nordstrom's by the end of summer. Linsk said once the kiosk's agreement of exclusivity with Nordstrom's ends he expects Scentsa to appear in other high-end retail fragrance departments.
