Displays of Attention

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Warren Lewis, LG Business Solutions Sales Director, looks at how high street retailers are looking for new and innovative ways of enticing consumers into their stores and encouraging them to make purchases.
 
This has proven difficult for many outlets. The recession has seen the loss of some of the high street’s best known brands – their demise partly blamed on reduced footfall due to losing touch with customer expectations.
 
With the advent of more sophisticated communication devices, such as Apple’s iPhone, consumers are becoming more in tune with technology and expect to see businesses using the latest techniques to make shopping experiences more enticing. Shoppers are no longer as sceptical about IT as they once were.
 
Indeed this is evident from the fact that the high street is facing ever-growing competition from the Internet. Figures from the Office for National Statistics in December show that Internet sales make up 10.5% of all sales, which is an increase from 7.9% for the same period in 2009.
 
One way the high street is fighting back is through digital signage. This gives retailers many advantages over static displays and signage. First and foremost it grabs the customers’ attention and influences their purchasing decisions. Through the use of digital signage high street retailers can give shoppers the information they need to make their purchases. The technology also helps to enhance consumers’ shopping experience, which could make them more likely to return to the shop.
 
High street retailers are starting to recognise this as the use of digital signage has nearly quadrupled in the last three years.  A new survey commissioned by LG Electronics, polled UK retailers, brand owners, shopping centres and network operators about their digital signage use. The survey conducted by POPAI, the international trade association for companies involved in point of purchase and retail communications, found that just over 46,000 stores are now using digital signage, compared to 12,500 in 2007. This is expected to rise to 58,000 by the end of 2011.
 
If retailers are to positively influence consumers’ buying decisions, the precise location of screens within shops will be critical. The survey shows that the point of purchase is one of the most popular locations. This is a key location as it is where consumers spend time waiting to be served, therefore making their attention easy to capture. Equally popular are digital displays in a shop window. This choice is becoming more popular with the advent of equipment that can operate in direct sunlight. Window placement is designed to capture the attention of the browser shopper and entice them into the store to make a purchase.
 
 
Displays of Connection
 
The digital signage market is becoming more sophisticated, which can be seen in a number of ways. First, due to the growth in new networks in place and because these networks are predominantly mute, there has been overall reduction in the proportion of networks with audio.
 
Retailers have also come to realise that the use of recycled adverts from broadcast media is often ineffective, not only because it is inappropriate in a retail environment, but also because it quickly becomes an irritant to staff, who typically sometimes even turn the feature off.
 
Bespoke content for the displays is generally visual, short, eye catching and updated regularly. Most content (58%) is now updated weekly with 25% updated daily and over 20% live or hourly. 
 
The second sign of sophistication is the increase in usage of WAN/LAN and internet to deliver content. More than half of those surveyed used such networks to transmit their material to screens. This area has seen one of the greatest changes since the last survey in 2007, when DVD was the most popular method of distributing content to screens (45% of the total).
 
Along with this sophistication can be observed an increasing importance in the role of IT in the decision making process and the emergence of ‘Digital Signage Specialist’ roles within marketing departments.
 
 
A Sign of Things to Come


Retailers have realised that they need to play catch up with consumers who are now expecting a more interactive experience. With the spread of touch screen mobile phones and tablet computers, many people have become used to using touch screens as part of everyday life. This is something that retailers are starting to recognise, with the POPAI/LG survey finding that consumers’ experience of digital signage is set to become increasingly sophisticated as more touch screen technology is introduced. Currently only one in five retailers use interactive screens, but nearly half of those surveyed said they would install touch screen technology in 2011, with a further 25% considering it as a possibility.
 
By using touch screen technology designed with the retail market in mind, consumers’ interaction with visual media has become second nature to many, meaning they are more engaged with the material presented to them. Therefore, the use of this technology on digital signage is no longer being seen as an added bonus – it has become a necessity.
 
Touch screen technology has the potential to bring huge benefits to an organisation’s customer service. It can act as an interactive guide to a product or as a service finder in a department store or shopping centre. This aids the consumer in making purchasing decisions. Designed specifically for the retail market, LG’s range of touch screen monitors helps drive customer engagement and gives stores the competitive edge needed to raise footfall and lift sales.
 
It is also worth noting that a substantial minority of retailers are considering the possibility of 3D digital signage. This looks to be the next must have in technology and demand is likely to increase over time.
 
 
Looking to the Future

Retailers’ are realising that their advertising and information solutions will have to cater to increasingly sophisticated tastes of the consumer. To achieve an increase in footfall and ultimately also of sales, stores and shopping malls will have to provide their customers with a more engaging shopping experience that they will not find elsewhere. LG digital signage solutions offer a high-quality yet cost-effective way of doing this.