Today’s consumer requires a comfortable and seamless move back and forth between your business’s in-store and online experiences. As a retailer, this new outlook requires that you rethink what you do and offer within your physical space. You want your retail space to be more than just a showroom. 

Think of it this way. Your storefront should be more than just a brick-and-mortar address that’s simply a transactional space. To stay competitive, you’ve got to explore the perfect opportunity that is this retail space as it pertains to uniting both your in-store and online images into one powerful omnichannel marketing tool.

That’s where retail digital signage comes in. 

What is Retail Digital Signage?

Static content is slowly but gradually being replaced by engaging digital signage with dynamic multimedia content. This dynamic content is capable of adapting to customer behavior and preference. 

Digital signage can be updated in real-time. The motivation is capturing a consumer’s attention and delivering messages that improve their overall experience and interaction with your brand. 

This technology is gradually changing the way that products and services are sold. Using advanced AI and smart technology, it becomes possible to detect and target audiences in real-time based on their behavior and physical demographics. As a brand, this evolution in tech gives you the opportunity to better target and curate content for the right audience. 

How Major Retailers Use Digital Screens in Stores 

According to Grand View Research, the global digital signage market size was estimated at $18.85 billion in 2018. It is anticipated that this market share will reach $31.71 billion by 2025, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8% between 2019 and 2025. 

As a retailer, you can make good of this market opportunity that is digital screens in-store to: 

Draw in Window Shoppers and Increase Foot Traffic 

Let’s be honest. It’s an uphill task to pique the interest of the customers walking by your store. Oftentimes, these potential customers will have their eyes glued to their devices. Investing in dynamic and engaging digital signage can help you capture their attention, and drive them into your stores.

According to a survey by FedEx Office, eight out of 10 customers entered an unfamiliar store after seeing a digital sign. Digital signage provides stronger visuals that have the potential to affect purchasing decisions, boost sales, and increase customer engagement. This is in line with research by MIT neuroscientists that point to digital content becoming the primary trusted source when it comes to consumer purchasing decisions. 

Digital signage does more than just inform window shoppers of the product’s benefits. The digital display hardware can provide these shoppers with video demonstrations of how the product works. This way, you provide your customers with a real-world connection of just how the product can fit into their lives. You could also provide a virtual sampling station that would facilitate an increase in foot traffic. Altogether, these strategies increase in-store growth. 

Share Your Brand’s Story 

The benefits of digital signage don’t stop at simply getting traffic into your storefront. You can display targeted content that facilitates the sharing of your brand’s story. This should be part of your retail storytelling that hooks shoppers in an ideal manner enough to push them into a purchase. 

By sharing your brand’s story, you are able to tap into your customer’s emotions and aspirations.

Digital signage can ensure that you have the attention of people coming in to do business. Using cloud-based digital signage, you should be able to design visuals that tell your story, including a how the business has grown from its inception. Consider also including different types of signage throughout the retail space to reflect your brand’s message, values, products, and services. 

Incorporate Online Experiences in Your Store 

A neat tip would be to create a playlist of all of your highest-ranking content and have these displayed in-store. These could be connected to your live social media feeds. This helps extend the reach of your social media and other digital content.

You can reuse your social media content with a little tweaking which should further attract younger shoppers who spend a majority of their time on online platforms. 

The idea is to get all your marketing channels to work together seamlessly, thus providing a consistent user experience. You simply want to make sure that your customers experience what they feel when they visit your website at the retail store. 

Consider adding a social media wall that could feature live Tweets, a gallery of your latest posts, a social media dashboard, or even a breakdown of results filtered with your brand’s campaign hashtags. Finally, you could also feature influencer videos where popular new or trending products are showcased to the target audience. 

The idea is to have a connected relationship between your digital and in-store branding without having to spend money generating new material. Overall, this represents a win-win for your brand. 

Entertain Your Customers 

Ultimately, the goal of digital signage and the encompassing digital display hardware is improving sales. Still, not all selling needs to be hard selling. A less-explored means of achieving just that is entertaining your customers. 

You can customize messaging alongside videos that entertain your customers. The idea is to create an immersive in-store shopping experience that increases sales and engages customers without coming off as forcing a purchase. 

Video Walls 

Huge screens that often stretch from floor to ceiling or beyond are simply hard to ignore. Couple the sheer size of the screens and bright lights and fast-paced graphics, and you essentially create a backdrop to the shopping experience that’s hard to forego. 

Video wall technology is an increasingly engaging and beneficial tool for retailers. Often, these will be multiple screens with extra small bezels which can be daisy-chained to create an expansive display. The consequence is that as a retailer, you end up creating somewhat of a stand-out experience that extends beyond just purchase. 

There’re a number of exciting technological developments that are anticipated within the video wall space presently. You could include content-triggered sensors, which utilize motion sensors to detect when a customer approaches a particular location within your store. 

An available content-on-demand solution is touchscreen tablets, where customers or sales assistants can control the content playback on a video wall. 

Want to Learn More?

At ComQi, we offer your business cloud-based digital signage solutions in combination with EnGage CMS to enhance customer experience, potentially elevate your brand and drive more revenue. Get in touch and learn more about ComQi’s retail digital signage.