Tesco has unveiled a new fixture that would allow even the smallest stores to stock thousands of DVD or CD titles.
Discs on Demand is an electronic kiosk equipped with a touch screen that lets shoppers browse a library of music, film and TV titles.
Consumers select the product they want to buy and the kiosk burns it to a disc in minutes, printing the title’s original artwork onto both the disc and inlay sleeve. Prices start from £2.97 for CDs and £5.97 for DVDs.
The system has gone on trial in two stores – Maldon in Essex and Dudley in the West Midlands. Tesco is planning to roll it out further in coming months.
Currently, even the biggest supermarkets stock only recent releases on shelf, but this would allow Tesco stores to carry a large catalogue of older titles.
Tesco said it expected Discs on Demand to increase the number of CDs and DVDs carried by its stores from hundreds to tens of thousands. The system can also be used to stock computer software, with the trial kiosks carrying 37 Adobe programmes.
“We can offer an incredibly wide range of albums and movies without taking up space in stores,” said Rob Salter, Tesco category director for entertainment.
If successful, the kiosks could help to stem the decline in sales of physical media. Value and volume sales of physical music albums have fallen more than 12% year-on-year, according to the 2012 Entertainment Retailers Association handbook, while DVD sales have dropped almost 9% by volume and 7% by value.
1 Readers' comment