Drooling over possibilities

CHICAGO - At a time when shopping has lost most of its glamour, the star power of Apple's iPad has retailers' hearts beating faster.

Merchants from Gucci to J.C. Penney are experimenting with ways to use electronic tablets in their stores to boost sales and dazzle jaded shoppers.

No retailer has the formula quite figured out yet, so most have limited their tests to just a few stores.

But experts predict that within the next year iPads and other electronic tablets will make their way into all manner of merchants, from supermarkets to mattress stores to luxury jewelers.

"Everybody has something in development," said Ken Nisch, chairman of JGA, a retail design firm in Southfield, Mich. "This is not going to be a novelty. It's going to be a sea change in how retailers transact and interact with customers."

Since Apple Inc. unveiled the iPad in April, a spate of retailers including Burberry, Puma, Things Remembered, Converse and Nordstrom, to name just a few, have rolled out tests of tablet computers at select stores around the country. The move is all part of retailers' response to how consumers are shopping everywhere -- online, on their smart phones and in the stores.

Retailers are using iPads as mobile catalogs so sales clerks and shoppers can browse inventory not available on store shelves. They are fastening the tablets to counters so shoppers can design their own products. They are arming sales associates with the electronic clipboards to gather customer data. And they are testing the device's potential as a portable cash register.

"It is taking retail outside the four walls to where the customers are," said Sandeep Bhanote, CEO of Global Bay Mobile Technologies, a South Plainfield, N.J.-based mobile retail software firm. "You're talking about changing the way you do business. That's what this is all about."

Make Up For Ever, a unit of French luxury conglomerate LVMH, was among the first retailers to give the technology a try. The cosmetic company set up iPad stations in October at its boutiques inside Sephora stores in New York's Soho neighborhood; Costa Mesa, Calif.; and Las Vegas.

The iPad is fixed to a gondola and allows shoppers to update their Facebook pages, tweet about their shopping experience and access face charts for browsing makeup combinations. Eventually customers will be able to upload a digital photo of their own faces for a virtual makeover.

Jessica Hair-Anderson, a Make Up For Ever store manager in Costa Mesa, said having Apple's hot gadget on the counter adds a "cool factor" that helps attract younger shoppers.

"When people come into the boutique, it's all very new and exciting visually," said Hair-Anderson. "It also makes our jobs easier, because if we are busy with another customer, it gives our clients something to do, so it doesn't feel like they're waiting."

Nordstrom is testing the iPad at its bridal shops and special-occasion dress departments in several full-line stores. Sales associates rely on the iPad as a personal shopper, helping customers search for dresses in colors and styles that aren't available in the store.

The Seattle-based retailer is measuring the iPad's efficiency as a roving cash register at some Nordstrom Rack outlet stores, including a store in Burbank, Calif., that opened last fall. Shoppers were able to purchase products without having to stand in the traditional checkout line, and they could log on to Facebook and tell their friends what they were buying.

"We're now in the process of developing additional mobile capabilities on our sales floor, including testing mobile checkout and equipping our sales people with better tools at point-of-sale," said Blake Nordstrom, president of the department store chain, in a February earnings conference call. "We should be able to implement this on a broader scale later this year, and we will continue to explore ways to make our sales floor more responsive to the mobile customer."

J.C. Penney announced last month that it will roll out iPads to 50 of its fine jewelry departments, giving shoppers access to ring styles, cuts, sizes and metals not in the store and allowing them to compare ring features side by side on the iPad.

Converse and Puma are using iPads in their stores to allow shoppers to design their own shoes.

Deloitte predicts that in 2011 more than 1 in 4 electronic tablets sold will be bought by businesses. And the New York-based consulting firm forecasts the figure to rise in 2012 and beyond. Retailers are among the most likely early adopters of the device, Deloitte said in a January report, projecting that retailers will purchase and deploy more electronic tablets than any other industry this year.

"A picture is worth a thousand words," said Jon Watschke, retail strategist at Kurt Salmon Associates. "So when a salesperson shows a customer the item they want on a brilliant screen like an iPad, that's much more compelling. If someone's on the fence, you can show it on the iPad and say, 'We'll have it delivered to your home tomorrow.'"