Improve Customer Experience – Use Digital Signage To Cut Through The Clutter

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In-store signage can offer a tremendous sales boost for general merchandisers, but how much is too much? Whether through direct feedback to store employees, through focus groups or marketing surveys, consumers have made their voices heard about in-store signage. What are they saying?

At the very least, consumers report a certain fatigue when entering a store. Having been bombarded with advertising on their way to the store, they find it overwhelming to be faced with the clutter that traditional in-store signage can create. Large signboards and displays can make it difficult to move through aisles, leading to a poor customer experience. Too many messages can disorient a customer, causing them to tune out in-store advertising altogether.

Retailers are seeing tangible evidence of these negative customer reactions. Studies have shown that the “merchandising lift” once associated with traditional in-store price, feature and display ads has dropped significantly. As a result, retailers like grocery stores are reducing the number of displays in their stores.

Branding and In-Store Signage

We’ve all heard about branding. A strong brand helps a retailer carve out a unique identity so that they can stand apart from other businesses that offer similar products and services.

Building a brand requires attention to every detail of a customer’s interactions with a business, including their in-store experience.

Traditional in-store signage does little to enhance the brand of a retailer. No matter how carefully planned, in-store signage often appears as a hodgepodge of messages that offer information of little real value to the customer. Cluttered aisles and large signs can create a more downscale image of a retailer. Clean spaces and simple messages connote quality and a give the store a more upscale feeling.

That is why retailers, including general merchandisers, have started to consider the aesthetics of their stores and the appearance of their in-store advertising when devising their marketing plans.

Enter Digital Advertising

Having seen the effectiveness of traditional in-store advertising decline and aiming to keep floor space clear of clutter, retailers are looking for new at-retail advertising options. Digital signage is a very promising solution that leading retailers have begun to embrace.

Digital or electronic signage is, very simply, a multimedia message that is displayed on monitors of varying sizes, from large Plasma screens to small shelf signs. It has many features that appeal greatly to retailers looking to get customers’ attention and build their brand:

• Digital signage reduces clutter. It takes up no floor space at all, leaving wide aisles easily accessible to customers.

• Digital signage turns heads. People find moving images far more compelling than static displays and are much more likely to look at video than a poster.

• Electronic signs can be easily tailored to local demographics. Instead of using a print campaign devised in another city, retailers can base marketing messages on unique sales data from their location.

Digital signage is an ideal option for general merchandisers trying to enhance their image and cut through consumer apathy about advertising.

Digital merchandising is designed to help you respond to your marketplace and drive your sales, whether you are in the retail or restaurant and hospitality industries, or operate service stations, convenience stores, or banks.