Digital Signage & Interactive Displays

The store is where the product, the manufacturer's message and consumer all come together. Although retail sectors vary widely in terms of average ticket, customer loyalty, and frequency of customer visits, virtually every retailer can benefit from improving the shopping experience and making employees more productive. Digital signage and self-service kiosks are powerful tools that can improve the in-store experience, reduce the load on your customer service staff and even provide a supplementary revenue stream for your stores.

Manufacturers realize that the store aisle is their last contact with potential consumers and that many purchase decisions are made without prior planning. In some product categories, impulse purchases account for over 90% of all sales. That's why in-store interactive video displays can be so important. It can attract new customers, change buying habits, inform and educate, even change or correct perceptions. But most important, it reaches a captive audience of consumers right at the point of choosing the product.

Informed and expeditious decisions result in a win-win situation. Informed purchase decisions which, through usage, meet or exceed expectations, enhance consumers' brand trust and, accordingly, brand loyalty. It also reflects positively on the retail environment in which those decisions were made.

Quantitative research has shown that after interactive video displays are installed within retail environments, significant increases in product sales are observed. Customers also tend to select higher cost/higher gross margin products over lower cost/lower-end products when accurate information is available at the point-of-sale.

  Digital signage
  Self-service kiosks
  Configurations

Digital Signage

Digital signage are electronic displays that are installed in public spaces. Digital signs are typically used to entertain, inform or advertise. Major benefits of digital signs over traditional static signs are that the content can be exchanged without effort; animations can be shown; the signs can adapt to the context and audience; and, even be interactive. Digital signage advertising is a form of out-of-home advertising in which content and messages are displayed on digital signs, typically with the goal of delivering targeted messages to specific locations at specific times. Digital signage offers superior return on investment compared to traditional printed signs.

Market and applications

The content displayed on digital signage screens can range from simple text and still images to full-motion video, with or without audio. Some operators of digital signage networks, particularly in the retail industry, regard their networks as comparable to television channels, displaying entertaining and informational content interspersed with advertisements.

Digital signage is used for many different purposes:

1. Information — examples include flight information in airports and wait-times for the next train
2. Advertising related to the location to uplift sales — examples include in-store promotions in a retail establishment
3. Advertising by third parties — digital advertising companies that sell advertising space to local merchants/service providers, media resellers and national advertisers
4. Enhanced customer experience — examples include digital signage in restaurant waiting areas to reduce perceived wait-time and recipe demonstrations in food stores
5. Influencing customer behavior — examples include post office digital signage that directs patrons waiting in line to automated stamp machines and retail digital signage designed to direct customers to different areas of the store, increasing the time spent on the store premises (dwell time)
6. Brand building — examples include Niketown stores where digital signage in video form is used as a part of the store decor to build a story around the brand
7. Follow through campaign information to store manager — examples within chain establishment
8. Environment enhancing — such as using digital signage to increase the customer experience with the building itself, examples of this are where digital signage panels are used on the floor and react to how and when an individual moves over them

Digital signage can also be used in a corporate environment, for example by disseminating information throughout a company via screens in reception areas and canteens.

Technology

Digital signs may be scrolling message boards, LCD or plasma display panels, electronic billboards, projection screens, or other emerging display types that can be controlled electronically using a computer or other devices, allowing individuals or groups to remotely change and control their content (usually via the Internet).

Content scheduling and playback can be controlled by a number of technologies ranging from simple, non-networked media players that can output basic loops of MPEG-2 video to complex, N-tier player networks that offer control over many displays in many venues from a single location. The former is ideal for small groups of displays that can be updated via "sneaker net" (the practice of physically transporting data to each location on CF/SD Cards, DVD or CD-Rom, usually by walking), while the latter allows Digital Signage Network Operators to either push content to many players at once or have each player pull content from a server as needed.

A further development is the use of mobile media, mobile or wireless phones. By combining mobile media with out of home advertising, print or digital, either the mobile phone becomes the digital signage display or the media becomes interactive. By various means, messaging, scanning a barcode or taking an image with a phone cam, a user can interact with a print advert or digital signage media. This enables a user to obtain further or even local information about an advertised product or subject on the go.

Issues

1. ROI — studies have shown digital signage to be effective in aiding customer recall and retention of displayed information in large-scale merchandising applications, especially taking into account the downward trend in LCD panel and playback device prices.
2. Outdoor advertising picking up momentum — advertising dollars have been consistently shifting from traditional media such as TV and radio into outdoor advertising, creating a double-digit-growth new advertising segment which includes digital signage.
3. Development of dedicated platform solutions — new technology has been developed that features reliability magnitudes greater than consumer-grade technology. Like professional TV broadcasting systems, the new technology enables worldwide content distribution and playback to stand up to the test of time.

Self-service kiosks

The self-service kiosk or interactive kiosk, rose with the development of the ATM and adoption by consumers coupled with advanced technologies such as touch-screens. Self-service kiosks are hardware devices that work in combination with self service software, allowing users to perform any number of possible transactions. The method of input is either keyboard, touch-screen, or both. Some kiosks include card readers, ticket and receipt printers, bill and coin depositors, and other more complex mechanical devices.

Intended for both consumers and business industries, benefits include ease of access, reduced transaction time, access to information and the ability to perform multiple transactions. People like to use kiosks because they can be in control of their transactions, such as:

• Bill payment
• Check cashing
• Credit applications
• Retail product information
• Customer check-in
• Internet access
• Visitor management and security
• Various other financial and retail applications

Business benefits

• Reduction in staff and real estate requirements since one employee can monitor multiple Self-Service Kiosks
• Unattended operation with extended service hours and off-site locations
• Provide users with a more enjoyable experience boosting customer satisfaction
• Track usage statistics

Industries

• Travel & Transportation
  • Airline & Airports
  • Hotels & Convention Centers
  • Rail, Bus & Transit
• Retail
  • Fast Food / Quick Service Retail
  • Grocery
  • Payment / Billpay
  • Informational
• Ticketing & Event Promotion
• Casinos / Gaming / Off-Track Betting
• Government Services
  • Postal
  • Motor Vehicles
  • Employment & Social Services
  • School Security and Visitor Screening
  • Border Control & Security Pre-clearance
  • Lotteries
• Medical

Configurations