3 ways to improve retail sales by integrating digital into the store design

Digital Channels + Retail Signage + Your Store = More Customers

While there’s lots of talk about digital in retail design being the next BIG thing, the reality is that it’s just another tool to include in your planning, your store design and in your creative thinking. Why? Because with the ongoing rise of online shoppers & retailers, the physical store, the retail design you create and your resulting physical presence has never been so important. So here are some of our tips to creatively and seamlessly work digital channels and digital retail signage with current retail design trends to best effect.

1. Matching Social Media with In-Store Displays

Social Media is NOT about selling! It’s about creating a connection and initiating a transaction of value with your customer. This is a really important thing to translate

when the customer comes to you store. This connection should continue seamlessly from the online experience to the instore experience.

This is where you can start to get creative with your retail signage. In order to engage your customer in the journey seamlessly, using the same imagery across your digital channels and within your store is imperative.

This could be as simple as some great lifestyle shots that are shared on Instagram and displayed around the store. For maximum impact – think large scale wall graphics or around particular displays. For example, a sports store may promote Mothers day with some great shots of active mums and well crafted quotes about mothers through their Instagram account. These same images would be used throughout the store, continuing the story.

The sports store could then share an ideas list of active ways to celebrate Mothers day on Facebook. This will pique some interest for someone thinking about what to buy their mum, aside from the more predictable flowers or pyjamas. They are now engaged to come instore.

Having intrigued and created an emotional connection to the story, your product displays need to be creatively and visually consistent in order to draw your customer immediately to a beautifully put together central or shelf display.

In this example your retail signage would feature the recognizable Mothers day imagery with curated product suggestions that complement the active Mothers day ideas shared on Facebook. This may include running shoes, active wear, and jackets for example.

Wall mounted, ceiling-suspended, illuminated or even a fully customised ReFRAMETM is perfect in this scenario as the result can be eye-catching, engaging and easily updated to continue to match the strategy being played out across your digital and other marketing channels.

Or something on a grander and more interactive scale might include providing a large format printed background for customers to create photos or video messages to send to their mums. This User Generated Content could be part of a competition and form a video to be shared online and instore. This brings us to the next tip…

2. Integrating Digital elements within your Retail Signage

It’s not going to matter how clever, flashy, intelligent or intuitive digital signage gets, nothing is ever going to beat a beautifully put together, consistent and visually creative physical space. That said however, utilizing digital retail signage and correctly integrating it with current retail design trends so that more traditional retail displays can blend together with emerging digital displays is the x-factor that really will maximize both your investment and your customer’s in store experience.

Let’s face it, your customers come into your store because they want to look, touch, interact with and possibly try on or try out the product they’re interested in because they were either ‘in the area’ or (more likely), they were unable to make a confident decision online and so they’ve come in store to check it out in person. So draw them in seamlessly and make being in your store a delight – maximize space with large format digital printing or digital displays.

To continue with our sports store Mothers Day promotion, using Digital signage to show all the UGC (User Generated Content) Mothers day messages would be a perfect use of digital instore displays.

Another example would be to use the large format graphics to tell the brand story, while complimenting this with digital signage which could showcase changeable product details or videos of the product in action.

But all this is only possible when you have the right people in place…

3. Build your dream team

Seek out suppliers that aren’t just following the trends and cutting corners trying to do what is already out there, but rather find a supplier that is pushing the creative envelope and who is willing to collaborate with you to find a way to create a truly beautiful and innovative retail design or retail signage solution like developing creative shapes, and displays, or maybe through utilizing floors, walls, retail furniture or internal ceilings in a creative way and with custom solutions.

Plan ahead and bring ‘your people’ together early. Don’t deflate an otherwise powerful transaction with customers by not following through in store the story that you’ve begun through your digital channels because your other key players weren’t included early enough. It’s key that your digital guy is in the room with your creative designer, your signage supplier and your marketing team. You should collaborate, create and commit to realistic deadlines together to ensure the outcome is going to be as stress free and yet, as creatively innovative as possible.

Clearly a vision this grand and an idea this involved need’s people who know what they’re doing. They can be found and it is possible to seek out suppliers who will do vastly more than simply take an order having assumed you’ve done all the thinking that’s needed. AFI Branding has been involved for many years in collaborating with our existing and new clients to develop solutions and spaces that are not just innovative and clever, but beautiful to look at as well. In fact some of our best products have been a result of discussion and ideas equally shared and developed to achieve an end result that both performs and delights.

Make the display that you’ve invested in breathtaking with illumination and beautifully put together imagery that’s a part of the ongoing digital story. Utilising your creativity and the relevant digital opportunities to make a connection with an audience that translates to the instore experience gives the ‘story’ integrity and consistency.

We’d love to be part of your retail design dream team!

Drop us a line and we’ll be in touch.