In-Store Marketing: When Visual Communication Comes Into Play
The marketing strategies of companies include communication characterized by a combination of physical and online channels, called touchpoints, now more than ever managed through an omnichannel approach to replace the multi-channel one.
What's In-Store Marketing?
For a company, adopting an omnichannel strategy means being reachable from all touchpoints, transmitting a coordinated image of its brand identity. The result is the construction of a stable and consistent relationship with the customer along the purchasing process (advertising, pre-sales, payment, and after-sales), optimizing the experience with the brand.
After using the communication channels and bringing a potential customer to enter the store, in-store marketing comes into play: digital communication through screens integrated with that spread through other channels.
What are the Pros of an In-Store Marketing Strategy?
Customer Service Optimization
Providing excellent Customer Service through both offline and online channels is still an unattained goal for most companies. Digital communication, through screens, is a resource that indeed leads more quickly to achieve the goal.
Having screens in your shop means providing support to the team that works there, making the management of customer needs more effective and efficient.
Our platform is integrated with a web app called Launcher, a real shop assistant:
do you need to show a specific product to a customer, for example, a sneaker model, immediately and on a specific screen placed in your shop? A few clicks on your tablet, pc, or smartphone, and Launcher will do it.
The Customer Experience can also be optimized through indications on the screens of the location of a specific product, or, if it is a very large store, also the indications of the location of the different product categories (for example: garden tools department, department furniture for outdoor / indoor furniture, kitchen utensils department etc).
Our platform has a feature aimed at satisfying this type of needs: it is called Automatic Wayfinding – Directional Signage, a tool to guide your customers in the store in the simplest, clearest and most immediate way possible.
To improve customer support, you could also share on the screens a series of descriptive information about the products, regarding the most frequent issues related to them!
Inform the Customers
Consumers’ awareness of the traceability of the products they buy has increased dramatically in recent years and, now more than ever, transparency in information represents the terrain on which retailers are playing for the conquest and trust of consumers. Logistics, pricing, quality, consumer, e-commerce, multimedia and marketing information are collected because 86% would like to have different access to traceability, a fundamental requirement to ensure compliance with the supply chain.
Securing it is the responsibility of the physical store, the site and the staff.
Logistics, pricing, quality, consumer, e-commerce, multimedia and marketing information are collected because 86% would like to have different access to traceability, a fundamental requirement to ensure compliance with the supply chain. Securing it is the responsibility of the physical store, the site and the staff.
In most cases, today’s consumers buy after a long search for information about the product they intend to buy.
When they buy something they want to know everything about that product.
Fortunately, there is an easy solution to satisfy their curiosity and at the same time create affinity with the brand: use in-store screens to show video clips that revolve around your brand identity.
It has been shown that brand storytelling is 22 times more effective than presenting facts or numbers that do not tell a story.
Discounts advertising, new product launches and special announcements
Thanks to digital signage you can announce special promotions, the launch of a new product or to announce upcoming discounts or future events to be held in the store. Screens can also be used to create or increase product awareness, that is, to make a product better known or launch a new one.
This feature is particularly useful in sectors where there are products linked to seasonality, such as in the fashion sector.
Thanks to the use of screens within the store, you can easily achieve an increase in the sales of a certain item by drawing attention to that specific product, or by offering a promotion on items near the end of their life cycle, so as to clear the shelves for the next season.
Increase in loyalty
A fair message that appears on a screen near the cashier can encourage the customer to register for a loyalty card, to use loyalty programs and to download the Brand App for online shopping tell the story and the values of the brand.
Placing a screen next to the most popular products can encourage customers to sign up for the newsletter. This way they will receive all the latest information on discounts, special offers, events and news. The more dynamic it is, the more it requires the active participation of the user who, by touching an option on the screen, contributes to “giving shape” to the content and the more digital signage also succeeds in an objective such as that of physical and sensory involvement of the person, contributing to create an enjoyable and memorable brand experience, regardless of its nature.
Use screens to educate your customers
According to a study, 47% of those who have seen a digital signage screen in the past 30 days remember much of the content; a feature for example that gets lost with other communication tools such as printed paper (which most of the time ends up in the trash can). New or little-known products, or products that are difficult to use sometimes require to be presented to the customer in detail and with due instructions. Why not take this opportunity to lend a hand to the customer?
If the item for sale can benefit from being presented through a small tutorial, you can use the screen to present an instructional video.
The video can also be used to show product features that are not evident at first sight, or to show a list of FAQs with related answers on the product in question.
The accessibility of this information presented on the screen can help the customer make an informed decision about his purchase and return home with an item that satisfies him.