Where does Digital Signage fit in Omnichannel Retailing?

The Evolution of Retail Digital Signage

The digitization of the consumer world is well underway, with technological advancements making it easier than ever to deliver personalized, effective customer outreach. The growth of digital signage from a simple advertising medium to an effective strategy for retail engagement highlights this trend rather well.

Starting with basic information delivery, digital signage quickly expanded into providing personalized information based on region, time of year, and other demographics. This empowered retailers to segment their market for more customized service.

Digital signage didn’t stop there, though – with personalization well established, the next logical step was direct customer interaction through kiosks and platforms that could proactively address consumer needs.

As the cost-effectiveness, personalization, and flexibility of retail digital signage progressed, it began to take shape as an effective way to drive customer sales, promote brand awareness, and reconcile the customer journey through the transition from digital to physical channels of purchase.

Consumer Digitization

Increasing reliance on technology has shaped the way consumers view the world. Online purchasing, mobile apps, and social media have created countless new opportunities for consumers to connect to retailers. Millennials know this better than anyone, having been born into an age of developing tech and growing up alongside the evolving channels that now define our communication.

They have already begun to shape marketplace trends with purchasing power that rivals the baby boomer generation. Their preference for mobile options and innovative tech outreach has created unprecedented digitization of the marketplace; data from the 2015 Internet Retailer Mobile 500 report showed that shopping applications alone provided 42% of all mobile commerce.

Brick and mortar businesses must account for this trend by joining the digital experience of their consumers with the experience they find in-person. Conveniently, brand apps that allow mobile shopping, discounts, and personalized outreach are one of the best ways to create an environment that is both customized to the consumer experience and optimized for the digital age.

Understanding the needs of the tech-hungry millennial market is necessary to create in-store shopping experiences that reflect the changing priorities of a younger marketplace.

Bridging the Digital Gap

There’s no denying that physical locations are still essential to business, even with the wealth of tech adoption that has taken place in the past 20 years. When Amazon, eBay, and other digital retailers started crossing the multi-million dollar market share threshold, the world was up in arms over the fact that the brick-and-mortar business model was on its way out.

Clearly, this is not the case. A study by A.T. Kearney indicates that traditional shopping still makes up the vast majority of all retail sales. A whopping 90% of all retail sales occur in physical store locations, and 95% of retail sales overall go through businesses that maintain a brick and mortar presence. While the convenience of online retail is hard to beat, the value of an in-person shopping experience may be impossible to replicate.

Retail digital signage can be used to turn a store from “a place where people just go shopping” to a destination for interaction. Social apps may be essential to today’s market of digital users, but replacing in-person socialization with technology has created widespread social isolation. With digital signage, the brick and mortar store is performing a type of entertainment duty, allowing consumers to engage with each other through their brand. This is the experience that increasingly tech savvy consumers are looking for.

Digital signage also helps “continue” the customer journey as they transition from digital platforms (apps, websites, mobile) into brick-and-mortar establishments. Think of digital signage as the “face” of a business when customers enter the store. What better way to display unlimited amounts of marketing materials, engage an audience, and showcase a brand than a digital display system that’s as easy to use as a TV screen?

Digital signage offers a way for retailers to get the best of both worlds—the flexibility and accessibility of digital data paired with the personal touch of in-store customer service. Customers can be empowered with instant delivery of product information, tech specs, and retailer discounts that may be easily accessible online but are a chore to dig through on paper. This fusion is essential to providing an omnichannel customer experience.

Omnichannel Outreach

While some venues (we’re looking at you, Times Square) use digital signage merely as a gaudy advertising tool, savvy retailers view digital sign systems as an essential part of an omnichannel marketing strategy. According to NCR Global Consumer Research, 87% of customers want similar ways to access products and services, regardless if they’re online, on mobile, or in-person at a physical store location. This highlights the importance of retailers finding ways to bridge the gap between the online services they offer and the in-store customer experience.

The 2013 Cisco Customer Experience Report had some pretty compelling points to make about the state of the multichannel shopping experience: 34% of global buyers used more than one channel while shopping, with 23% of consumers having recently made in-store purchases based on online research. 34% percent may not sound like a lot, but consider that we’re talking about global buyers, here. That’s a third of all potential buyers across every industry, every country, and every demographic. Clearly, the digital revolution is here to stay.

Having said all of that, the Cisco report made another interesting discovery: 58% of shoppers still preferred to receive help from an in-store associate. It seems that physical store locations haven’t quite been killed by the digital world yet, and retail digital signage solutions may be the best way to facilitate a transition between the two.