Online service helps bring inactive customers back to Blockbuster stores
Coupons given to Blockbuster Online customers for two free movies per month are not only attracting new customers to Blockbuster’s brick-and-mortar locations but also bringing back old ones, says Shane Evangelist, senior vice president and general manager. More than half of the online subscribers hadn’t visited a Blockbuster store for six months or more, Evangelist says. “From a strategic perspective, we are getting customers who haven’t shopped with us in a while, and now they’re back in our stores seeing a whole bunch of new offerings that we have,” Evangelist says.
Blockbuster offers online subscribers coupons for two free in-store movie rentals per month. Subscribers pay $17.95 for unlimited rentals of more than 25,000 DVDs and games. Titles are delivered to customers within three business days and there are no due dates.
Blockbuster started the online service because of customer demand. “Consumers were really asking for an online offering that also had some sort of store benefit,” he says. Blockbuster has been adding subscribers at about 10,000 per day.
Blockbuster fulfills the online orders through 23 distribution centers nationwide, but plans to ship products directly out of its stores by year-end, Evangelist says. “It will allow us to send an order to a local store, and have that store deliver it to that customer in the local area,” he says. “What it allows you to do is almost get next day delivery everywhere in the country.”
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