With more than 70 percent of buying decisions made at the point of purchase, the need for retailers to differentiate their products and keep up with a new generation of Internet-educated consumers is more important than ever. According to Gartner's Retail IT Spend Trends and Business Priorities Survey, retailers are looking to leverage IT as a way to cut costs and gain efficiencies as well as drive revenue. It's about time for a revolution, and I believe we've found it.

One way retailers are incorporating technology to achieve these goals is through self-service display-based systems. From airport and hotel check-in kiosks to check stands at home improvement stores, sales and buying patterns are drastically evolving thanks to new technology in the retail environment.

Planar Systems, with more than 20 years experience in flat-panel displays, recently announced the introduction of the DS15 — the first of several innovative, flat-panel-based marketing solutions that bring a new twist to the interactive shopping experience. Industry pundits are hailing this new product as a leap forward for kiosk technology and a turning of the corner for retail environments. Industry analyst Francie Mendelsohn (Summit Research Associates) said, "I think it has a lot of potential, and I hope to see it fairly soon."

The DS15 is part interactive kiosk, part digital signage, and part everything in between. Yes, I know you've heard it all before — some technology company has created an amazing all-in-one, turnkey technology solution that will save the day. In this case, though, I believe we may be looking at the holy grail of retail — a system that will be used to awaken the senses of a static-POP-desensitized consuming public.

The DS15 is a flat panel display built on Tablet PC architecture. It comes with speakers; a universal mount feature for any type of countertop, wall, or end-cap; and a ruggedized display built to withstand demanding environments. What's so cool is that it's all bundled with an integrated software package, with a price point of $3,395 per unit.

Designed around the modernization of visual merchandising, the system also addresses not the needs of the technologist, but the hopes and objectives of the marketing professional. For example, the software can be easily used by a professional of modest technical background to load applications built around industry standard media files such as Flash, MPEG, etc.

Once the marketing professional has loaded the files, he can simply schedule the media files to play on the system. To deploy, a DVD can be burned and loaded into the kiosks, or content can be uploaded to a network server. It's like narrowcasting for dummies: By virtue of the intelligence already built into the unit (or should I call it an appliance?), it's no more difficult than sending out an email with attachments.

As Planar's first major customer, Nike has begun to implement the DS15 in its NikeTown stores in Beverly Hills, Chicago, New York City, Portland and San Francisco, as well as the NIKEgoddess store in Costa Mesa, Calif. At these stores, the DS15 — through its easy-to-use, fully interactive touch-screen capabilities — enables consumers to personalize select athletic shoes with color schemes and design elements. Previously, the service was only available for Web purchases at nikeid.com.

So let's do the math. Nike is the No. 1 shoemaker in the world. They rake in $12 billion in annual sales. They control 20 percent of the athletic shoe market. This all equates to an ongoing desire to stay on the cutting edge. The company believes it has found a way to revolutionize retail by giving the option of customization and dynamics back to customers often forsaken in a world of commoditization. At the kiosk, customers can build their own pair of Nike shoes. If they want pink shoes with a blue tongue and red laces, it shall be so. They can build their shoe from the ground up at the kiosk and pay for it at the store. The kiosk order is transmitted overseas to a manufacturing plant where the custom shoe is built and then dropped shipped to the customer's address. Now if that isn't revolutionary, what is?

Of particular interest to me was how a system like this came about. I had the opportunity to speak with Tom Byrnes, marketing director at Planar. He said that over two years ago the company struck out to create a device that would reinvent the kiosk.

"There were many vendors and steps to get a kiosk program out, such as hardware, software, integration, deployment, installation, and maintenance," said Byrnes. "That meant added costs, and in one case we heard of an experience where a rather simple kiosk concept took six months to deploy." The solution just unveiled has answered just about every major problem not yet tackled in the quest for a turnkey kiosk.

Byrnes also pointed out that traditional static displays of the past just don't cut it anymore. He addressed the issue of trying to build brand and marketing awareness with a teenage segment accustomed to their electronic devices. "One retailer told me a story about a store employee who said the printed point of sale signage just wasn't working and he threw it in the garbage."

The final issue of this revolutionary kiosk system was putting control of the system back where it belongs.

"Now control over the retail environment is back in the hands of the marketing director with this kiosk system," Byrnes said. It works well with any existing planogram, and takes no more experience to install than being able to plug the cord into a socket,"

DS15 Features

Hardware - 11 lbs, 3.5 inches deep — adapts to planogram changes - VESA mountable — slat wall, endcap, wall/pole mount, etc. - High bright XGA screen — varied lighting conditions - Capacitive touch-screen — scratch resistant - Fanless table-PC based CPU, CD/DVD, hard drive — rich media - Retail-ready industrial design, modular design options - Multiple ports for connectivity to peripherals Software - Designed for the brand marketer — simple to use - Load, schedule and deploy rich media content - Create schedule in calendar format - Exceptions for special promotions, etc. - Digital signature for security - Deploy option — CD or network