Never has it been more important to battle for shoppers’ attention in retail spaces. Consumers are spending more money online, so how do you get customer engagement back in stores? Says Wimborne based Quad Vision Ltd
Digital display is reversing the decline of instore sales, in fact it’s creating a significant boost. Retailers are experiencing the benefits, take the new Primark Store opening in Birmingham for example, a vast array of digital signage used here from shop window attention grabbers and wayfinding solutions to product showcases and information points.
1. Brand reinforcement
By using digital display from screens to interactive modules around a store, retailers can quickly advertise their products and emphasise the promotions they are trying to push. One of the main benefits of this is the ability to show specific products to customers, regardless of where they are situated in the shop, or perhaps even from the outside looking in.
However, the ability of retail digital display to engage, is much deeper than showing off a product or service. The most successful retailers are boosting sales through brand-centred digital signage campaigns.
Using content to encourage customer loyalty to a brand, rather than a specific product, has a much greater pay off in the long-run.
Video has had a significant impact within social media as a strong marketing tool and it makes sense to boost your brand using digital display. Marketing spend to boost your brand awareness goes much further when you add in store digital display to you other inbound marketing channels and provides a richer return on investment
Recommendations and public feedback, through reviews and such like, are powerful methods of exposing your brand. Building brand advocacy through customers who can share images instantly from your store with digital display will spread awareness of your brand for you. It may be difficult to specifically track each interaction but there will be a positive impact on spreading your brand to new audiences.
2. Power to the people
Consumers have more power than ever before due to the explosion of social media and the internet. Right now, consumers have the ability to research, compare and refer anything before making a purchasing decision to get the best value. The reality is that many shoppers have abandoned the shopping centre or high street altogether, the convenience of online shopping along with a simple digital purchasing process has advanced this.
Digital display provides a significant effort to re-engage with customers and improve the customer experience. With interactive touch-screen technology, retailers are beginning to win back shoppers by linking the online and instore experience.
Allowing customers to flick through products and services by using digital display instore can be incredibly effective.
Retailers are now able to personalise each and every interaction without interference from staff in the store. This makes the shopping experience more relaxed and provides the consumer with the time and information to make considered purchases because they stay longer.
3. Enhancing the customer experience
Digital display for retail not only transforms customer experience, it provides a way for retailers to influence decision making by customers. From showcasing particular products, best selling items for example, to recommending on a live feedback basis by social sharing. The principle is of course the same as having printed banners in your shop window or stand-alone displays up in aisles. The key difference, however, is the space-saving benefit of digital display. The ability to quickly alter products and promotions on display is another huge benefit as time and cost is massively reduced.
Smaller retailers have the ability to compete with larger brand names by attracting shoppers in with digital display.
Taking up a fraction of the area compared to traditional promotions materials, digital display takes up a small amount of space. Promotion through digital display from your shop window provides a huge space to advertise your business.
Digital display also influences the customer experience by directing footfall around a store. An interactive map on a provides shoppers with real time information of the store’s layout and guide shoppers to what they are looking for quicker. Add some sensors then your digital display system can begin to measure and manipulate footfall.
4.Promoting special offers
Need to boost your sales? Traditionally retailers offer special promotions on products and advertise these deals in store on printed materials (leaflets, posters). Digital displays are an excellent tool for this, as digital advertisements can be a lot more engaging than paper alternatives, through video.
Taking things to a new level is interactive retail display screens. Developments in the technology can now allow customers to enter the product identity code (SKU code) of an item and receive its information and availability on screen.
With QR codes, retailers can capture consumers attention online and then to scan their screens to unlock special offers which are only available instore.
Becoming more creative and using technology needs to be simple. When reviewing your strategy, it’s important to think about rewarding customers for loyalty and especially consider more favourable promotions instore to boost regular footfall.
5. You can’t manage what you can’t measure
Big data, small data, it can come with negative connotations and make your shoulders sink at the thought of having to wade through spreadsheets but having a set of analytics based on actual customer experience will help boost your business. Digital display analytics can join up with your online data to better understand your shopper. Filling out a paper-based questionnaire is so 1990’s.
Capturing – consented of course – data about your customers your customers has never been easier with a point and click using technology.
Developments in digital display technology now mean that screens are able to track with a greater understanding who’s walking past and who’s stopping to engage with their content. Every mobile phone nowadays has Bluetooth or NFC (Near Field Communication). This provides retailers the ability to personalise messaging, promotions and adds to an enhanced instore experience. For those who want even more detail, eye-tracking and facial-recognition technology is available to allow you to get very scientific indeed.
Using digital display and targeted marketing is surely the future of advertising.
Want to find out more?
Our specific case studies will help you learn more about our digital display for retail.
For more information call us on 03300 419019 or www.quadvision.co.uk.