Top 4 Benefits of Interactive Retail Displays on Customer Experience

There’s no doubt that consumer behavior is evolving to fit a more modern and technologically advanced society. Consumers are now accustomed to the convenience of online shopping. So, where does that leave physical retail stores?

As consumer behaviour rapidly evolves, it demands for a more engaging way to shop. Essentially, companies must emphasise the value of visiting a physical store and provide a more satisfying interaction than online shopping.

Interactive retail displays in stores close this gap by combining technology with physical effort to target a modern and curious consumer pool.

Inviting

Let’s compare an interactive display to a traditional poster advertisement. Posters merely achieve a glance by a passer-by, while interactive displays invite the customer to stop and explore. That’s because interactive displays engage more than just the sense of sight. People live and behave with a combination of the five senses, so it wouldn’t make sense to limit this in consumer experience. Interactive displays grab a customer’s attention through the sense of sight, touch, hearing, and even smell, generally providing a better quality shopping experience.

Depending on where the display is located in the store will also impact its purpose and success. Some interactive displays are located in the middle of a store, targeting an audience that has already decided to visit the shop. These customers have a predetermined attraction to a brand or product, and the display acts as reinforcement.

Other interactive displays are located at the front of the store, inviting the customers in. This attracts new customers by either reminding or educating them on the products that your store has to offer. This also taps into a crowd who otherwise may not have walked into the store.

Perhaps one of the most popular interactive window displays in Melbourne is the Myer Christmas Windows. The display generates a crowd who is curious to engage and conveniently leads them to the door of the store. It’s a success because it communicates to the customers that Myer is their one-stop-shop for Christmas presents and decorations. In summary, an interactive display sets you a part from competitors by creating more attention.

Not only does an interactive retail display demand a customer to notice it, it invites them to engage with this type of advertisement. This contributes to an overall more gratifying and informative shopping experience.

Memorable

Considering it sets you a part from competitors, an interactive retail display is the perfect chance to generate brand recognition. This is especially relevant for department stores or stores that stock various brands.

Customers are intrigued by the display, and so they should learn to associate it with the particular brand that it’s advertising. For example, a Bose headphone bar should clearly communicate these aren’t just any headphones – their Bose headphones.

Interactive displays educate a customer on both the product and the brand it represents, achieving this through flexibility and unlimited creativity. A display can advertise a brand’s logo as large or as many times as necessary. Displays also achieve brand recognition through the colours it uses. Not only do interactive displays have an immediate effect on customers, they’re memorable enough to encourage future customer loyalty by association.

Once again – think Myer. Myer’s Christmas Windows are so fabricated into Melbourne culture that most shoppers associate Christmas with the store. Customers remember that every Christmas they’re invited to engage with the display, and base their customer loyalty to Myer on this.

Additionally, most consumers retain more information through active participation, rather than passive. If a customer happens to need a pair of headphones, they’ll remember the time they tested products at a Bose headphone bar. As a result, consumers are likely to go straight to a brand they’re familiar with, ruling out competitors.

A tool for salespeople

An interactive display benefits both the customer and the salesperson. That’s because it acts as a sales tool, which an employee can ‘bounce off’ of when selling a product.

Interactive displays alter the way a salesperson does their job, by making the interaction with the customer more engaging and less off-putting. Rather than spitting out information with no visual support, the sales interaction can be broken up by the customer trialling the product. This allows for a longer and more exciting opportunity to sell the product.

Interactive displays also encourage customers to ask more questions, because upon trialling a product, they’ll know what questions they want answered. Trialling a product allows for customers to generate more in-depth questions than they would have if they purchased the product before opening the box. As a salesperson is positioned to answer customer enquiries, it allows them to adjust the sales opportunity to benefit the customer, and not just the store or their sales track record. This allows for the sales assistant to be more convincing, without coming across too pushy.

Customers want to feel like they have made the decision to purchase a product, not that they have been forced to by a sales assistant. Rather than being given information by a salesperson, a customer wants to feel like they have gained the information themselves and on their own terms. Not only do interactive displays allow for an increase in sales, they allow for an increase in customer satisfaction.

Trial

When a customer makes a conscious decision to go out shopping, they expect the type of physical engagement that an interactive retail display can give them. In other words, they expect the benefit of handling and trialling the product before making a purchase.

Customers are more inclined to trust a product if they have tested it out before purchasing it. This is especially relevant for expensive items, such as tech gear.

An interactive retail display gives a customer the quality of information that instructions on a box simply can’t provide. It allows them to know the feeling of using the product, empowering them to decide whether or not they like it.

An interactive display is a brand’s chance to highlight the benefits of a product, how it works, and why the customer needs it. This type of interaction encourages customer loyalty, giving your brand a one up on competitors.

To find out how Gush Global can help you with your interactive retail display needs, contact Aaron Davies, Gush Global Sales Director.