David Venus, director of marketing at PixelFLEX, reveals how retailers are using digital signage to compete for customers’ attention through interactivity and different display configurations.
How can digital signage help retailers deliver experiences to customers and something beyond a transaction?
In today’s retail marketplace you are constantly competing for your customer’s attention both in and out of the store. Finding ways to not only attract customers into the store, but push and pull them to certain areas is important to sales growth. With interactivity, you have the ability to capture the attention of your customer as well as gather analytics just like you do online about your customers.
With the increasing levels of competition in the retail space, how willing are retailers to look at alternative display configurations to attract customers?
We have a lot of clients come to us because they are looking to create something truly different, and not just a traditional digital display. Though large format displays can be very effective, we find that a lot of companies are interested in architectural statement pieces that create a different experience than that of their competitors.
What would you say are the factors that have the biggest impact on the success of a retail project?
In most situations, we find that the most successful projects are well thought out on every level from its vision to content management, content creation, and ultimately the goal of what you are trying to reach. It’s important to have a reason for digital signage, and what you wish to accomplish by using it. We try to be as hands on as our clients want us to be in order to make sure they feel they get the most out of their display.
Despite the growing sophistication of retail solutions, does the deployment and installation still make the difference?
It depends on the situation. We have a lot of different products from self-contained displays to more pro user level products. Depending on the situation, we find that success very often is correlated to using a great installation and design partner to make the back-end usage once install is complete easy for a client and its staff.
Tell us about a recent installation project that highlights PixelFLEX’s expertise in the retail sector.
As a leading lifestyle brand focused on making yoga and fitness accessible for everyone, Gaiam currently has a worldwide network of approximately 38,000 retail environments with 18,000 of those located within existing retail locations. When Macy’s began a new initiative to transform a retail location into the ‘Store of the Future,’ they approached Gaiam with an opportunity to create a completely new retail environment meant to achieve a higher level of customer engagement. Understanding exactly how they wanted to capture the attention of Macy’s shoppers, Gaiam began working with Reflect who chose to incorporate FLEXLite NXG 3.9mm LED video technology from Nashville-based PixelFLEX into the exciting, new retail environment.
