Martijn Bakker, Director of Sales & Marketing, Limited Space Solutions spoke to The Grocery Trader.
“We believe that many retailers are currently trying to address the upsurge of online transactions and are trying to explore ways to create more “experiential” shopping environments to retain cutomers.
Consumer expectations have evolved as a result of online and mobile influence and consumers now expect access to large amounts of product information, personalisation and recommendation and the ability to shop “socially” (share and compare).
How can “bricks and mortar” retailers compete with the ease and convenience of online, where customer service is provided through software that can process information quickly and provide it on a targeted, real time basis.
One way of “levelling the playing field” is through investing in the latest in digital screen and mobile technology – creating new ways for retailers to communicate with the people visiting their spaces.
Technology makes retail environments ‘smarter’, opens up online possibilities and creates a significant convergent media opportunity, improving access to information for consumers, guiding customers through a shopping “journey” and creating an opportunity for retailers to increase average order value, customer loyalty and candidly, to better monetise the footfall their spaces attract.
There are several points to consider:
Exploit digital
• The world is becoming progressively more digital: a picture is worth a thousand words.
• The continuing development of digital screen technology and connectivity opens avenues for screen information to be easily incorporated into a space in a cost effective manner
• Digital screens can be used to provide data points where users of the customers can receive internal or external communications and product and brand information
• In essence, digital screens can be used to host location specific content relevant to each space in a retail environment (point of entry, point of decision, point of sale) – allowing retailers to better exploit their own internal media channels
Think holistically
• There is no sense in “in- situ” brand messaging becoming mere noise
• The communication infrastructure within a property creates one “convergent” media opportunity, that is often worth more as a whole than as the sum of its parts
• Mobile is an increasingly important element of any marketing strategy and these are also digital screens that can be utilised both independently and in conjunction with the larger screen network
• Static, digital, mobile and experiential media can all be utilised extremely effectively together to create extremely high impact “messaging” both for internal communication and advertising
Manage and measure your media effectively
• Achieving the right mix of format and content is only possible if in-built communication solutions are implemented and managed by professionals
• This can mean hiring an experienced in-house team who understand technology, content and media or outsourcing the expertise to achieve maximum results, to those well skilled in deploying this type of media infrastructure, like Limited Space Solutions
• Measuring and analysing the response is also becoming easier give the advances in measurement technology (face recognition, mobile interaction, touch data caption, etc.)
• In turn, these results should allow retailers to adapt the infrastructure and content to keep visitors engaged and entertained, creating a more connected environment
• The potential for digital and other messaging solutions to enhance retail is vast but retailers, with the assistance of new media professionals, must integrate them in an effective way
Limited Space Solutions
Tel: 0207 637 7957
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