Inside Redbox

Recently I created a Facebook page for all things Redbox, and if you use Facebook, I need your help!

Simply visit the Redbox page on Facebook (link below) and click “Become a Fan” on the right-hand side of the page…

I want to see if we can get at least 500 fans added in the next 24 hours, so Become a Fan right now and tell all your friends about it…

Click Here to Become a Fan of Redbox on Facebook

Thanks, everyone… I plan on doing something fun with it if we can get enough Redbox Fans on Facebook, so be sure to tell everyone you know!

According to my previous post, Redbox said they would file for IPO by the end of Q2 of this year. However, with June ending over a week ago, there has been no word on an IPO filing.

Redbox will not comment on their IPO plans, which is normal just before an IPO is filed, but we have to wonder what is going on, and when the IPO will happen.

The reason they have not filed is likely due to bad market conditions right now, which would force them to keep their offering price low. That would be great for those of us who would like to invest, but not so great for Redbox’s valuation.

Redbox is growing quickly, and I have no doubt they will continue to do so, but I do hope they get their IPO moving sooner rather than later.

I read about these DVDs a few weeks ago, but then quickly forgot about them until seeing this article in Time this morning.

The concept is simple enough. You buy these DVDs from airports, travel centers, and Staples across the country. As soon as you open it, you have about 48 hours to watch it before it becomes unreadable by your DVD player.

Here are some technical details from the article:

The DVDs, which were created by the Georgia-based company Flexplay Entertainment, look like regular discs, but they are made with a special glue that is sensitive to oxygen. Once the disc is exposed to air, a chemical reaction causes the glue to darken so the laser in the DVD player can no longer read the disc. Sealed discs can last for about one year. “It’s like DVD on demand,” says Joe Fuller, Flexplay’s executive vice president of marketing. “You can get Flexplay at the store today, but your rental period doesn’t actually start until you’ve opened the sealed package.”

Sounds pretty cool, so what’s the problem then? Well, the price… These DVDs sell for $5 each. So, it costs more than even renting a DVD from Blockbuster, and the same as the 2-per-month Netflix membership.

Of course, we savvy Redbox users can get 5 (or more with promo codes) movies for the same price. So, why would anyone use these?

The company hopes these DVDs will appeal to business travelers who don’t usually rent movies because their busy schedules make it hard to find time to return them. In addition to Staples, which has never offered movie rentals before, the discs will be for sale at Flexplay’s own Web site, Travel Centers of America, Love’s and at about 200 Hudson Group–owned newsstands at airports and travel hubs. “You can pick up a couple of movies and put it in your briefcase,” Fuller says. “And the next time you are stuck at an airport, you can pop it in your DVD player or computer and you can enjoy a movie.”

I do like the idea of buying them, and then having up to a year that you can just leave them in your briefcase or bag before watching them, but I don’t think there are enough users who would need this. Perhaps I underestimate the needs and DVD watching habits of business travelers…

Personally, unless they can get the price down to a more reasonable price (maybe $2.99?), I don’t see how these will ever take off. And, if Redbox can get itself in all of the airports across the country, this idea will be grounded for good.

Of course, if we can just put our DVDs and players in a room where there is no oxygen, then these things will theoretically last a lot longer! In fact, how long will be until some young hacker creates some sort of “wrap” or case that you can stick these things in so they will not “self-destruct” at all?

Now you know what I think - how about you? Will this idea work? Would you ever find yourself in a situation where you would buy one of these?

Back in April we reported on the credit card skimmers Redbox had found on a few of its kiosks.

Redbox did a very good job of informing its customers of this issue, and it looks like they are being proactive to keep it from happening again.

The photo to the right was taken yesterday at a Redbox near my home. Notice the red “blocks” that have been placed above and below the credit card reader. These blocks prevent the placement of credit card skimmers close enough to the card reader to be effective. They are welded into place, which should prevent them from being removed.

I think this a a step in the right direction, and likely the best they could do without redesigning their kiosks entirely. Perhaps future kiosks will employ even better measures to prevent this problem.

What do you think, is Redbox doing enough to protect your privacy and the theft of your information?

Last week I posted about some changes Redbox is making to their rental selection screen, which I believe improve the overall user experience at the kiosk. I had more thoughts to share on this and other improvements Redbox could make, so I thought I would share some of those now…

Yesterday I ran across a blog entry by Mark over at GoodExperience.com regarding his review of Redbox’s website. I added some of my thoughts in a comment there, and thought I would share them (and a bit more) here as well…

First off, Mark’s review was somewhat critical of the Redbox website, and called for some changes to the interface. Here is one excerpt:

After I click to “find a movie,” I see a page that has all of ten - ten - movies. And no search function. So finding movies really means clicking the “next” link to see page after page of ten movies each, and then deciding if anything in that long stream of pages was the one you wanted to find.

I agree with him here that the Redbox website needs a search function to find movies, but there is more to it than that. More on this below…

Next, he mentions an interesting “bug” that I just noticed a few days ago as well…

Here’s another strange problem: When I moved on to Step 3, to find a kiosk in my area, I viewed the inventory of one particular kiosk and found over 200 movies available. So the homepage leads me to a list of 77 titles, but clicking into the depths of the site, I find a hidden treasure trove of almost three times that number.

I do find it interesting that one link (Find a Movie) leads to a smaller selection of movies than looking at the actual inventory of a specific kiosk. In any case, Mark’s review is a good read, so take a look at the whole post if you have time, using the link above.

A couple of comments on the blog reveal an important point, though, that Mark overlooks (to his credit, he only reviewed the website without looking at the actual kiosk) - the kiosk and website interfaces match up nicely. This keeps things simple for users in that they see a familiar interface when moving from the website to the kiosk, and vise versa. But, this doesn’t mean there isn’t room for improvement…

Here are a few of my ideas on ways to improve the interface of both the kiosk and the website…

First, add “search” functionality to the website. I do not necessarily think this is needed on the kiosk, as it could increase wait times, but it should definitely be available online. Let me type in the name of what I want to see, and Redbox can show me details on the title, and if (and where) it is available.

Second, add a “similar titles” section the the movie info screen. This should be done both online and at the kiosk. This will allow customers to find other movies that are similar to the one they are looking at, making the customer happy to find new movies to watch, and increasing sales for Redbox.

Related to the above idea, I also think a simple change to the return screen would do wonders for increasing the likelihood that someone returning a movie would rent another DVD on-the-spot. Currently, when returning a movie, all it does is say “Your return has been accepted” or something similar. What I would like to see is an immediate listing (with cover artwork and names) of “similar titles” that I can simply touch, see the info, and add to cart. All of this could be done while the return is still being processed, thus cutting down on the time that is wasted staring at a blank, red screen.

While Redbox is not really much like Netflix, except that they both rent DVDs, I think that a careful look at the Netflix system will yield some great ideas that Redbox can use for their own system.

I will share more thoughts in a future post, but now I would like to hear your thoughts. What do you think of my suggestions? What suggestions do you have for Redbox?

I ran into an interesting post on Craigslist a few days ago that I wanted to share. Check it out…

I have ten DVD rental machines available for trade + several hundred DVD’s. These units are similar to the REDBOX machines you see at McDonalds, Smiths, and Wal-Mart. They hold 648 DVD’s, BluRay, HD-DVD, and can also rent gaming system media (WII, PS2, PS3, etc.) - This is twice the capacity of REDBOX - They also have the capability of playing movie trailers. They are currently wrapped in EVOBOX graphics; however they can be re-wrapped to suite your needs. I also have the domain name and active trademark available if interested. These are estimated to bring in $1000+ monthly each if placed in a high traffic area, such as supermarket, apartment buildings, military bases, gas stations, etc.

This guy is selling these kiosks for $7500 (each? for all 10? I don’t know). You can see the full post here.

The question is this: Do you think buying your own DVD rental kiosk could be profitable? Is there still someone who can compete with the Redbox brand?

While there is always room for competition (and innovation), I am just not sure it would be a smart move to try and compete with Redbox at this time. What do you think?

Here is your top 10 list of rentals for June 16 to June 22:

1. Fool’s Gold (Warner)
2. Bucket List (Warner)
3. Jumper (Fox)
4. Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins (Universal)
5. Semi-Pro (New Line)
6. Eye (Lions Gate)
7. National Treasure: Book of Secrets (Disney)
8. Meet The Spartans (Fox)
9. The Other Boleyn Girl (Sony)
10. Rambo (Lions Gate)

Here is the latest list of the top 10 DVD rentals from Redbox for the week of June 9-15, 2008.

1. Bucket List (Warner)
2. Jumper (Fox)
3. Semi-Pro (New Line)
4. National Treasure: Book of Secrets (Disney)
5. The Eye (Lions Gate)
6. Meet The Spartans (Fox)
7. Rambo (Lions Gate)
8. 27 Dresses (Fox)
9. Untraceable (Sony)
10. Mad Money (Anchor Bay)

I asked last week where this list was coming from, and someone posted a response but it accidentally got deleted before I could read it. If you have more info on this list, please leave a comment.

I noticed a very interesting comment on the site today and thought I would share it with you. This comes from Todd in Kansas… (formatting added)

Of all the arrogance…

I own and operate 5 DVD rental machines in Hays, Kansas. They were here months before Redbox came to McDonalds. Now, Redbox customers are returning DVDS to my machines and causing damage.

I suspect this is largely due to the ‘can return our movies to any redbox’ feature. I need Redbox to place signage on their machine, further educating their customers. Redbox assumes there are no other machines in their world, which is inaccurate.

We were told that it isn’t a problem nationwide….well, it’s a problem in Hays, Kansas and as other makers, such as the ones I have, begin showing up across the country, it will be a growing problem.

Typical Corporate America arrogance!

This is a very interesting perspective that I had never considered…

I am pretty sure I would never try and return a Redbox DVD to a non-Redbox kiosk. Although, it would be similar to renting from Hollywood Video and then returning to Blockbuster (or vise versa), I suppose, which I am sure does happen from time to time…

What do you think, is this really a problem Redbox should try and do something about? Is it their responsibility?

Have you ever tried to return a movie you rented at Redbox to a non-Redbox kiosk?

I was just over at the Redbox this morning and noticed they added a few new features to the “Rent a DVD” screen…

First, you now will see the “Coming Soon” banner across movies that are in the box but not available for rent yet. This is definitely a welcome addition and should help with those who get confused about the inability to “Add to Cart” those new releases before Tuesday.

Second, you will now see new sorting options for DVDs. It defaults to “Release Date” now, and then adds the “All”, “Genre”, “A to Z” and “Hit Movies” options. I couldn’t test them out as that side of the screen of my Redbox was not working right, so you will have to check them out and let us know what you think.

So, do you like the new changes? Do you hate them? What else could Redbox do to improve on their service?