By Matthew Henry
SYDNEY: Sony will open its largest Sony World store-within-a-store early next month in the Sydney CBD David Jones which will target ‘neo-shoppers’, which the brand has identified as its key consumer profile.
Sony has established seven Sony World locations around the country in the 18 months since the concept was piloted, within electrical retailers including Retravision, Radio Rentals, Bing Lee in New South Wales and a number of independent retailers in Victoria.
Sony World is a dedicated Sony showcase within a multi-brand retail environment with an emphasis on enabling customers to experience Sony products working seamlessly with one another.
This is the first time Sony has worked with David Jones to create a Sony World installation, and according to the company, the Sydney CBD store is an opportunity for the brand to speak to its key demographic.
“The Sydney CBD is one of the most vibrant centres in the Australian retail market in terms of number of shoppers, but also looking at the area it has a high proportion of ‘neo-shoppers’ – people with a high propensity to spend, particularly on electronics products,” Sony Australia senior manager – strategy and business development, Colin Woodward, told Current.com.au.
“The ‘neo-shoppers’ will often come into the CBD to do their shopping and it is in a huge catchment area for people working around the location as well. Finally, there is a strong link between the Sony customer and the David Jones shopper in terms of consumer profiling. All in all, there is a really good mix between David Jones, the location and the Sony brand.”
Sony provides specialist training for Sony World sales staff with an emphasis on solution selling and add-on sales.
Retailers maintain control of stock and ordering but are expected to display a wide range of premium Sony products such as the brand’s high definition X-series Bravia TVs, HD Handycams, HD compatible Cyber-shots and HD Vaio computers.
Sony claims the program has been a success to date for both retailer and supplier.
“We try to measure the evolution of sales before a Sony World and after, and in every case so far the performance has been greatly improved,” said Woodward.
“What we have also worked really well is that the ratio of HD products within a Sony World environment has also improved. That is particularly relevant in our TV and camcorder business where we see excellent HD ratios where over 50 per cent of sales in our Sony World stores are HD, and that’s considerably higher than you would get a non-Sony World environment.”