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We give buyers the kinds of multi-media tools that favour a more intelligent purchasing process. Be sure to be there... SDI - Sustainable Development Initiatives SMARTreport and cleversdi.org are your company’s chance to promote its environmental policies in a purpose built publication that targets retailers in the Consumer Lifestyle sector. By the Publisher of IFA International cleversdi.org CONTACT Jooree Cho Project Manager Sustainable Development Initiatives Tel: +33 (0)4 42 77 46 00 jooree.cho@cleverdis.com cleversdi.org
Trade News An e-merchant adventure Pixmania offers access to ‘10 years of hardwon know-how’ Since 2000, the Pixmania Group has been building an online infrastructure and gathering a wealth of e-commerce knowledge. Today, it is a leading brand in multichannel retail, present across 26 countries and 17 languages. The company is now offering a complete and integrated suite of software and services that covers all the e-commerce work streams and key processes in the form of e-merchant. “Our outsourcing process means we take care of all the online business of our clients and provide the necessary back-end for them,” said Jean-Emile Rosenblum, Vice- President and Co-Founder Pixmania Group. “E-merchant is the e-commerce platform and services department of Pixmania. But it is more than an e-commerce platform: it represents 10 years of hard-won know-how and expertise. This has been put at the disposal of clients such as Curry’s, Dixons and PC World which, between them, run over 2,100 retail outlets in Europe. The group has also been a multichannel pioneer, opening pick-up stores in major European cities.” Pixmania is now one of Europe ’s largest e-commerce businesses, with a turnover of e 897m in 2009/2010 and nearly 1,400 employees. Its B2C (Pixmania.com; Webhallen.com) and B2B (Pixmania-pro.com) websites generate over 30 million unique visitors a month. Ulric Jérome, Executive Director of Pixmania.com (left), with Jean-Emile Rosenblum, Vice-President and Co-Founder of Pixmania A year of evolution, not revolution Consumer manufacturers will keep hustling, but consumers themselves might be ready for a break, according to veteran consumer electronics expert and industry consultant Victor Jachimowicz. As this bustling 50thanniversary edition IFA winds down, it’s time to take stock. “We need to have a period of quietness, and this year is a year of quietness,” Jachimowicz said. “There is no revolution. There are better products and better design. And that’s good.” The whirling pace of new formats and products is hard for consumers to track and, while the pressure to innovate is constant in consumer electronics, mainstream buyers take a little while to catch up. “Ten years ago, there were no flat screens,” Jachimowicz observed, adding that the TV that caught his eye has no wires. This is the Haier No-tail set, which relies on wireless video transmission and can send 1080p in the 5GHz band up to 30 meters. “That was the best TV at the show for me,” he said. “But it’s for the future.” Until recently, Jachimowicz was the lab test manager for Fnac, the big Paris-based CE retailer. Only five years ago, he was watching DVD home recorders take over from players, and Fnac was selling more than 100,000 DVD products a year. “DVD is now dead,” he added. “Blu-ray is here.” Jachimowicz said one next step could be a 500GB or 1TB USB output from the television, transmitting a signal for recording. “We had VHS and then DVD, but now nobody cares about physical support. So what I can see is an easy USB connector from the TV, giving an output signal for recording. I’m surprised this is not on all TVs. It should be.” Jachimowicz is grateful that some innovative attention is finally being paid to the actual TV remote control, which has long cluttered up living rooms with incompatible formats requiring multiple devices and puzzled consumers with 20-button arrays. “The new one from LG is very interesting,” he said. “It’s like a computer mouse. Very clever.” The buzz he is hearing from the exhibition floor — hybrid TVs, connected devices throughout the household, 3D — has the lab expert thinking about bigger questions: “What will the connection be used for? That’s interesting. Some answers are starting to come. Google TV, Apple TV, things like Places from Toshiba…” "Content is content", he added — and the way to access it is where the action is: “With millions of video content choices out there, how do we find what we want? And who will take Victor Jachimowicz: the advertising money? The content-provider, the content access generator, the TV channel? That will be very interesting.” “There are better products and better design. And that's good” www.ifa-international.org IFA International • Wednesday, 8 th September 2010 39
