Retailers are always looking for new ways to get more customers through the door. Competition is thick, and it’s about to ramp up for the season with Black Friday and Christmas shopping just around the corner. Retail digital signage draws in customers, allows retailers to advertise their offerings, improves overall customer experience, and streamlines internal communications.
Focusing on Customer Experience
Focusing on customer experience and bringing a digital element into shopping ultimately allows retailers to stay modern and competitive. Interactive digital signage software gives retail customers more control over their experience. Customers view digital content from their phones after scanning QR codes, or interact with kiosks in-store to find the products or services they’re interested in purchasing. If the product they want is unavailable on location, they often place online orders through kiosks, and their items ship right to their doors.
Giving customers more control reduces the need for help locating items. This results in an improved customer experience, but it also allows employees to focus on other tasks like picking and packaging online orders or merchandising.
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Greater Convenience
Consumers are looking for faster and more convenient shopping experiences, now more than ever. Many prefer not to leave their cars, or even their homes if possible. The drive for more convenient retail experiences was present before the pandemic, but convenience and zero contact shopping became dramatically more important after the onset of COVID 19. Retailers are adapting, introducing curbside pick up for merchandise, food orders, and groceries, as well as buy-online-pickup-in-store options.
Retailers use digital signage software to show customers their place in line and when their orders have been fulfilled. They offer add-on or similar products on screen as well. Experts believe digital experiences will continue to increase in importance.
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Entertaining Customers
In addition to convenience and speed, shoppers and diners are looking for more fun in their retail experiences. Retailers are introducing new rewards programs and individualized coupons to add excitement. Retailers use social media feeds and content feeds on digital signage to keep customers entertained and up to date as they shop. Shoppers browse through weather feeds, live sports, news feeds, and videos.
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Task Assignment and Tracking
There is a lot of delegation and teamwork that goes into a successful retail venture. Keeping track of tasks and progress can be difficult. Teams need to be ready to unload trucks, set merchandise properly, process online orders, and of course, take care of customers who are on location. Retail managers use digital signage software to assign tasks, check for completion, and to report progress in meetings. Managers are able to schedule tasks for the week, month or year, and set up recurring tasks. Making tasks and progress more transparent leads to more accountability and, in turn, better results.
Training and Onboarding
Working in retail can be overwhelming, especially for new hires. Retailers have sophisticated training and onboarding procedures designed to show new hires the ropes and grow confidence quickly. A variety of different methods are used in the process, from E-Learnings, to buddy training. Retailers use digital signage software in the onboarding process to help new hires keep up to date with company news, current promotions, and best practices.
Advertising Applications
Digital signage software gives retailers the ability to customize their advertisements by region, store, and department. Advertisers use digital signage software to stand out with custom animations, QR codes, and interactive displays. Digital signage allows retail advertisers to be more flexible and efficient, which is important because opportunities move fast in the retail industry, and goals change constantly. Updates to ads on digital signage take seconds to deploy, far easier, faster, and more environmentally friendly than traditional paper counterparts.
Staying Modern and Relevant
While retailers still use paper advertising to some extent today, the future is digital, and customers want the ability to access coupons and retail content from their phones. Customers are going to continue to demand better experiences. That means retailers need to deliver more convenience, entertainment, speed, and simplicity. Digital signage software is and will continue to be an excellent tool to deliver better retail experiences thanks to its flexibility and end user focus. Digital signage extends from screens in store to customer cell phones, putting the user experience in the palm of each customer’s hands. Retailers will need to continue to focus on improving digital experiences if they want to stay modern and competitive moving forward.