So our original approach was to go after both equally-using the Web to drive traffic into the stores and using the stores to drive traffic to the Web. It's been a rocket ship to the moon in terms of people being very satisfied. The kiosks are Windows CE thin client terminals that host an in-house Web application. If the title exists in-store, customers will be directed to the shelves. The POS database is updated in real time at the store, so if the last copy from the shelves was sold three minutes before, then the kiosk order process kicks in.
Customers can pay with a credit card online or in cash at the sales counter.
Confirming the strategy's success is nearly impossible, since Chapters Online would not share meaningful performance metrics. While Chapters Online would not release these details, it's still fairly easy to see how such an implementation makes sense in this industry as well as others. For starters, special orders via the kiosk are money in the bank for the retailer at the time of order. Historically, customers would pay for a special order if and when they returned to the store to pick up the book. Another benefit is cycle times have been reduced exponentially.