The world is going digital and if retailers want to stay in business, they need to integrate the best of digital technology into their business model. Real-world retailers are feeling the pressure from their online counterparts and may feel that they’re doomed to finding themselves on the losing side of a price war. In reality, however, price is only one factor customers consider when making purchases. The overall purchase experience matters too. Digital signage can help with both of these.
Digital signage can help to lower costs
While the headline, upfront costs of digital signage can be higher than printing costs, this is only part of the story. First of all, printed material needs to be transported and stored, both of which involve time and money.
Even if you can store your printed materials on your own premises, there is still an “invisible” cost to this since you could otherwise have used the space for something else and these days, for many people, space is at a premium. Secondly, printed materials need to be designed from scratch each and every time, whereas there are a lot of free, online resources for creating digital content.
Finally, anyone who has ever ordered paper material from a printer has probably had the experience of making a mistake on the order and having to pay for useless materials or having to bin materials because they have gone out of date. Digital signage puts an end to this pain.
Digital signage can increase brand visibility
Brand visibility has to be managed with a bit of delicacy these days. On the one hand, you really want to avoid being one of those brands which just bombards customers with adverts. On the other hand, you want and need to get their attention.
The way to square this circle is to provide, fresh, engaging content, which is targeted to your customers’ needs and wants. In very simple terms, on a like-for-like basis, it is massively quicker, easier and often cheaper to keep updating digital content than to keep updating print content. Depending on your business model, digital signage may even make it possible for you to jump on trending topics, while they are still in the moment. These can be short-lived opportunities so you really need to make the most of them when you can.
Digital signage can plug the gaps in your customer’s experience
Let’s look at some ways the best online retailers really enhance the customer’s experience and how digital signage can help online retailers to follow their lead. They make it really easy for customers to find what they want and if what they want isn’t in stock they make it really easy for the customer to order it. Use strategically-placed digital signage to help customers navigate their way around your store and order any out-of-stock items for later collection or delivery. They are masters of upselling. As soon as you show any interest in one item, online retailers immediately start showing you other items they think might interest you.
Again, strategically-placed digital signage can fulfill this role and interactive signage can take it to a new level. They provide relevant special offers, similar comments apply here, this is essentially a variation on upselling.
They make the actual purchase process as simple as it can possibly be. There are lots of ways to do this in practice, even if you are uncomfortable with a full, self-service checkout. One way could be to use interactive digital signage to request a member of staff, who could then go to the customer to assist with payment while the customer waits in a comfortable area.
