Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 22, 1995 TAG: 9501200064
SECTION: ECONOMY PAGE: 6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KNIGHT-RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
Not so fast, the experts are saying now. While electronic shopping still looms with boundless applications for retailers and consumers, don't count on it for buying gifts next Christmas.
Christmas 2005 is more like it.
``If you can't afford to wait the five or 10 years ... then perhaps the electronic mall isn't for you,'' Gerald Hogan, Home Shopping Network's chairman and chief executive, said this month at the annual National Retail Federation convention in New York.
Leaders in electronic shopping - Home Shopping Network, Time Warner Interactive Merchandising and QVC Electronic Retailing - indeed continue to explore expansion possibilities.
Today, electronic shopping exists in two formats: channels that display one item at a time with a number to call to order, and computer services that display little more than lists of items and prices.
But for PC shopping to take off, it has to be more vivid and exciting. And, there have to be more home computers. Online services such as Prodigy and America OnLine count about 6 million subscribers. Less than 5 percent subscribe to shopping services.
And for TV shopping to explode, it has to give the viewer more to do than just wait for an item to appear on the screen.
``For electronic shopping to become a way of life, it needs to evolve from current televised services that give viewers relatively little control,'' said Douglas S. Briggs, president of QVC Electronic Retailing, which operates a home-shopping cable channel. ``And that's not possible without advances in current technology.''
The stumbling block is the development of cost-effective interactive technology.
The costs of such technology - recently launched by Time Warner in a 4,000-home pilot project in Orlando - are unknown, experts said, as is the price consumers are willing to pay for it.
Gordon Cooke, president of Time Warner Interactive, said the pilot project, which began in December, focuses more on whether the technology can work than on consumers' response. And it's too early for results.
Briggs said the strategy for QVC, which had 1 million new shoppers in 1994 and December sales increases of 18 percent, will be to apply new technology slowly.
Hogan said Home Shopping Network will continue to strengthen its cable TV technology, explore online computer services and add more brand merchandise.
Major retailers are adopting different strategies for interactive shopping.
Miami-based Burdines, for example, will offer TV shopping Feb. 18, when it will televise a fashion and makeup show. The one-hour show will broadcast a number for consumers to call in orders.
Burdines also will present its catalog on the Time Warner test system this fall, said spokesman Carey Watson.
``Although we don't think interactive TV will be widespread for several years, we think it's important to understand these technologies,'' Watson said. ``You need to be involved and be prepared for what will happen.''
Saks Fifth Avenue, on the other hand, has taken a wait-and-see approach.
``What we've decided is to watch that industry evolve further to identify customers'' and costs, said Philip B. Miller, chairman and chief executive of Saks.
Many retailers just don't see electronic sales becoming the preferred way to shop.
``Consumers are human beings and human beings have to be tempted,'' said Robert E.M. Nourse, president and chief executive of the Bombay Co., which runs a home furnishings chain. ``And there's nothing like the merchandise sitting right under your nose.''
by CNB