In today’s technology-driven retail environment, traditional marketing methods are losing ground to more interactive and dynamic strategies. Most of your customers are now influenced by online shopping, where they can easily find personalized and efficient shopping experiences. 

The missing key with eCommerce is a critical and strategic edge for physical stores: immersion. Integrating digital signage with retail software brings the advantages of online shopping into stores, while quite literally setting the stage for truly immersive shopping.

This fusion of signage and software doesn’t just represent a merger of technology, but a harmonization of customer experience and operational efficiency. When you can deliver content to screens in alignment with unique shoppers, you can provide the highest level of service unbounded by scale.

But what does a retail business need to know before it can architect its own next-generation of stores? This article will dig into systems, capabilities and benefits, so you will walk away with some tangible ideas about what you can integrate, and why.

Benefits of an Integrated Retail System

Operational Efficiency

Digital signage is reshaping the retail environment, driving unparalleled efficiency. Gone are the days of manually unpacking, organizing and placing static or paper signs throughout the store. 

With digital displays, messages can be pre-scheduled and automatically displayed, eliminating unnecessary manual tasks and reclaiming space previously occupied by multiple signs. A single screen can now showcase a rotating playlist of various messages, allowing retailers to optimize floor space for more product displays.

Integration with POS (Point Of Sale) and Inventory Management systems amplifies these efficiencies. Real-time content updates become a reality; if stock dwindles, the signage can automatically show an ‘out of stock’ alert or recommend a replacement. Dynamic pricing is another significant advantage, enabling instantaneous price updates for promotions or discounts directly from the POS.

• Eliminate labeling and manual ad placement
• Synchronize inventory with signage
• Allow employees to focus on customers

Data Management

Ads are less effective when they drive out-of-stock products. Integrating Inventory Management software with digital signage can ensure that mistakes like this are not made. A bit more nuance and integration with Point of Sale Systems can bring even more benefits to inventory management, such as real-time pricing, automated clearance and inventory rotation to streamline operations. 

Central Systems Management

When businesses have already integrated many key systems into an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Solution, integrating with digital signage is made that much easier. With all data available via a single API, digital signage professionals can leverage a unified dataset with a single source of truth to build any/all of the above. 

Customer Experience

We like to offer crawl, walk run strategies that help businesses grow their digital signage and see value at each stage of the process. We might start with a simple, beautiful retail digital signage solution. 

But adding more integrations can create a Star Trek level store. CRM, sensors and Point of Sale integrations unlock an almost concierge- like experience where signage can display exclusive member deals in the aisle and then connect that offer seamlessly to the sale.

• Deliver personalized shopping experiences
• Inspire the “wow”
• Integrate digital and in-store sales channels

Profitability and Loyalty

“Customers who visit us in store as well as online spend on average three times as much as our single-channel customers. So, in fact, we’ve seen the best of both worlds, the in-store world and the online world.”

• Donald McDonald, Managing Director, Brown Thomas (“Global Powers of Retailing 2023, Deloitte)

Many retailers feared that omnichannel might be a trend that came and went with a global pandemic. But retailers who get omnichannel right report the ability to stay sticky with their best customers.

Utilizing an omnichannel approach to the store (website and online) and loyalty points and offers are the four cylinders of the modern retail ‘engine,’ allowing businesses to connect with the customer along other avenues such as digital media/content, finance offers etc. 

In addition to streamlining omnichannel, digital signage can drive more specialized strategies on the store level. Promoting complementary or seasonal products, for instance.

Fill out the form for the full whitepaper.

 

Retail brands from across Europe reveal their plans to reinvigorate their stores sharing their current challenges, the innovative solutions that they are putting in place now stores have reopened, and the technology in which they intend to invest for the long term.

Discover:

• The investment priorities for European retail brands
• The ways in which retail brands are changing their store layout to serve new customer needs
• The importance of occupancy management within stores
• How confident brands are in their omnichannel offering

Scala collaborated with independent research firm WBR Insights to create Recovery Solutions and Store Strategies for Retail Brands. WBR Insights conducted phone interview with 100 retail representatives based across Europe. The full methodology of the research is available within the report.

With access to over two years worth of data, explore the consumer trends set to shape the European grocery sector and the digital solutions that can minimise waste, increase brand loyalty and build business.

Explore the opportunities for retailers that connect their in-store and online touchpoints to gain crucial customer data and how this information can be used to create an omnichannel and personalized experience.

Discover why retail experts consider the carpark to be a key asset for building brands and beating the competition. Using insight from 100 retail brands across Europe, our first solution report explores the opportunities available to brands if they optimize their available outdoor space.

As European spending on home improvement swells, discover what technology can bring to DIY retail and what brands of all types can do to attract customers, boost sales and reduce waste.

Explore the digital solutions set to be utilized by retailers across Europe. As brands change their layout to cater to new customer behaviour, learn how stores are set to be transformed, where retailers intend to invest and why.

150 retailer leadership from small, mid-size, and enterprise businesses respond to questions about their plans to deploy new store technology. What are they building, and how significant are their plans?

The number one opportunity for convenience stores to drive food sales and loyalty is introducing digital menu boards at key points of communication throughout the store. In this white paper, we help you jumpstart your digital transformation.

Set to revolutionize retail, discover what shelf edge digital signage can offer your brand.