Vann's Turns It ON

Seeking to expand beyond its CE/appliance legacy, Vann's is partnering with Apple, Sony and other vendors to launch a new retail brand and format this fall: ON, a mall-based store focused on convergence and content-driven products.

The store will practice what it preaches by using the latest business processes and ecommerce tools, such as cloud-based computing, custom POS solutions and proprietary networking applications, which will allow customers to share their thoughts about the store and its products with others.

"The growth in CE is in these emerging categories where we don't do business today," said George Manlove, Vann's CEO. "It's time to pursue those categories in a non-traditional model."