With the rise of eCommerce stores and online store purchases, especially during the pandemic, it’s little wonder that frequently purchasing online has become a part of the customer’s buying behaviour.

However, what if we told you that online stores were failing in a number of areas that physical stores could capitalise on and even outperform through the use of DOOH.

A recent survey that looked at the shopping behaviour and thoughts of over 800 shoppers came to the conclusion that despite the overwhelming number of people who prefer shopping online, there are still a number of issues & challenges that need to be addressed.

This is where physical stores can become media owners and take advantage and turn it into meaningful business results.

What has been discovered is that, despite a captive audience, online stores, particularly in the apparel industry, are suffering from a lack of clear communication throughout the online shopping journey.

Sure, they have in-depth analytics, but unfortunately, they still lack the ability to translate these customer insights and data points into useful targeted communication solutions.

One such problem, for example, is shoppers were becoming increasingly frustrated by trying to add items to their cart but then discovering that said item was low in stock or, worse, on backorder.

In defence of online stores, this is not exclusive to their environment as physical stores suffer from the same specific problem.

So how can physical stores get ahead using digital out-of-home advertising?

How To Take Advantage of Digital Out-Of-Home Advertising

This is where in-store digital signage can provide an opportunity to take the best aspects of eCommerce stores and implement them into physical stores.

Low-cost solutions, such as sensors and cameras, have the ability to observe behaviour that can be translated into data & insights.

With the right strategy in place, this can lead to relevant suggestions on digital displays such as tablets, large displays and mobile devices.

Which can in turn be translated into actionable tasks that will impact business results.

For example, why bother showing Shopper X low-cost men’s accessories, when, based on data and the fact that he’s a loyal customer, he regularly visits your store to buy women’s accessories for his partner.

The analytics available to you in your digital signage content management system will clearly convey the success of these messages, and this will allow you to optimise your digital content along the way.

Essentially, all parties involved - the shopper and the retailer - win out here as the former is delivered updated content based on their shopping behaviour and the latter receives further sales & revenue.

With such a positive in-store experience, you could also argue that customer advocacy for the store would come into play and thus measuring this in various ways would be worthwhile too.

Recommendations of the Personalised Kind

Expanding on our previous paragraph, one of the most significant benefits of in-person shopping is that it’s tactile.

Shoppers are able to interact with the product they want by seeing how it feels, how it looks on them, the size, the fit etc. It’s really where the online environment simply cannot compete.

Furthermore, touching the product while receiving relevant or similar suggestions truly enhances the shopping experience in-store and surpasses it online.

This is prevalent in loyal customers as they are well aware of their preferences, behaviours and dislikes allowing for true personalisation.

Taking this a step further again, shoppers are known to be loyal to certain types of brands or apparel.

Now, if said brand or apparel is out of stock, then displaying relevant suggestions, substitutions or add-on products is always highly advantageous.

If a business can capture this behaviour right there in the moment, then they have a far greater chance of capitalising and turning this into sales & revenue.

Tying this all together, it all circles back to how customer insights can impact sales. A combination of messaging, content and information on in-store digital signage can be updated in real-time manually, or automatically be updated via triggers that will display relevant content.

In Summary

As online challenges continue to grow in a variety of ways, even beyond the ones mentioned in this blog, it presents a variety of opportunities for in-store engagement with shoppers through the use of digital signage messages that are supported by an effective content management system.

The in-store shopper’s expectations have changed and thus retail businesses need to be able to adapt to these changes in expectations and deliver an in-store experience through a digital signage network solution that can compete and outperform the online environment.