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Key considerations for digital signage and omnichannel retail

New store designs should incorporate digital signage when planning for an omnichannel strategy.

April 29, 2013 by Christopher Hall — writer, self

According to a new white paper from digital signage provider Wireless Ronin Technologies, in today's omnichannel path to purchase, stores still reign supreme.

With research from Forrestor, the white paper said that even by 2016, brick-and-mortar sales will account for 91 percent of all retail sales — giving stores an edge when it comes to the actual point of purchase.

But the physical, brick-and-mortar store is being neglected as companies focus on e-commerce and social media, according to Alan Buterbaugh, WRT's senior vice president of content engineering and author of the company's new white paper, "Designing an Effective Omnichannel In-store Experience: 5 Key Considerations."

Digital signage can be a key component of an effective omnichannel approach for retailers (or for quick service restaurants or banks and financial institutions...), and the points Buterbaugh makes about the in-store experience could apply equally well to in-store digital signage or to an overall engagement strategy that incorporates digital signage.

The five key points he makes are to:

1. Design with technology in mind;

2. Align technology with customer flow and objectives;

3. Rethink your marketing distribution point;

4. Make your marketing personally relevant; and

5. Leverage the human connection.

"I think the thing that we always want to look at is the customer cycle as it relates to the sales funnel and the purchase cycle," Buterbaugh said in a recent interview. "I think fully understanding that — it's no secretthat a large percentage of the sales activity is taking place outside of the bricks-and-mortar environment — so for us it's really critical that we understand the entire sales process."

But WRT clients are talking about how their budget is being disproportionately allocated to driving traffic to the store, although without a correspondingly significant discussion around what happens when the customer gets into the store, he said. "And that's really where the decisions are made, where objections are handled and where loyalty begins, when that relationship is being built with a sales consultant and there's an in-store experience that really is the face of the brand."

It's also important to make sure that the in-store experience and the out-of-store experience are part of a consistent whole.

"To look at any one of the channels in isolation without considering the holistic picture would be a mistake in my opinion," he said.

Brands can't ignore the online and social channels or pretend they don't exist, but have to understand them and find the best ways to bring them into the store as well, said Jane Johnson, WRT's senior vice president of sales and marketing. "That's what we're trying to focus on: How do you bring social and mobile into your store, because your customers are doing it, so how can you help them do it to your advantage?"

Also, Johnson said, it's important for brands to get their technology partners or solution providers involved early in the store-design process to help not only with design strategy but content strategy and to help them work through some of the important discussions around customer flow and objectives.

While most of the five points above are fairly self-explanatory, in need of more explication is the one Buterbaugh said is his favorite topic: point No. 3, "Rethink your marketing distribution point." What that addresses, he said, is the concept that all of a brand's retail environments are now distribution points for earned media and branded content that can be shared by the customer.

"Now all of a sudden, hundreds of retail environments become distribution points for this type of content, as opposed to the single distribution point of the past, which was typically the corporate marketing environment," he said. "We've seen a lot of success from our clients' perspective with those types of solutions ... That's the fun stuff because now we're helping reinvent the flow of communications. Typically it's been a single directional flow from corporate out to stores, and we're seeing this being more of a shared experience and a circular motion if you will in term of content flow between retailers and corporate and customers."

Another key factor to keep in mind is the fact that the marketing and content strategy of today is likely to evolve and is unlikely to be the marketing and content strategy of six months from now, according to Buterbaugh. And the reality is that digital signage is just one of many screens that customers will experience, with many other of those screens being portable or mobile screens, he said.

"So having a true omnichannel system that has the ability to distribute content to multiple devices and be flexible and fluid as it relates to marketing objectives and communications objectives that will evolve probably quarterly is really critical," he said. "Having a system that is a true omnichannel solution as opposed to just a digital signage solution is, I think, critical as we look at an omnichannel approach and how that will evolve over time."

Read more about digital signage in retail.