How could you create a more interactive brand experience in store?
Point of Sale is a concept that we’re all familiar with for communicating promotions: stickers, posters, tent cards, ceiling hangers, and so the list goes on. But interactive point of sale offers a far greater range of opportunities to enhance the in-store shopping experience.
It has been possible to add a screen to your Point of Sale display for some time, but these have to be placed at some remove from the product (especially if displayed on shelves) and are often ignored. Electronic paper displays are smaller, lighter and less expensive than TV screens, and have the added advantage of interactive functionality, which has been shown to be more effective in attracting the customer’s attention (http://www.cre.co.uk/solutions/point-of-sale).
The possibilities for interactive point of sale are endless, you can still use them to highlight specific products with active promotions, but you can also offer:
- Touch-screen web kiosks or tablets (with security wiring) allow customers to look at your eCommerce website to find out more information about products and even order them online whilst in store (for example if you’re out of stock or you only stock a limited selection of the product range). Providing software that allows customers to compare products side-by-side is a valuable use of these systems,
- Restaurants are also starting to use tablets as remote ordering systems
- If you have a loyalty card scheme, you can use an interactive kiosk to offer customers additional on-the-day promotions and to bring new products to their attention (based on recorded buying behaviour and your current stock levels)
- Boots were one of the first stores to use these kiosks – you’ll find at least one, and usually more, in every store. Customers insert their card, browse your selected offers and choose whether or not to print a voucher for each offer (rather than automatically printing them all), the kiosk also tells them the point balance on their card
- Self-service kiosks to order products from a catalogue
- These have been used by Argos for the last few years as order points: in this scenario only very basic product information is shown (enough to identify the product) because paper catalogues are still used to identify the product required and this is where all the product information is housed
- Small interactive units can be used on the shelf to give on the spot incentives and product information
Interactive Point of Sale solutions also have the advantage of being reusable across multiple promotions, so although your initial outlay is greater, over time the ROI should be greater. So next time you’re thinking about Point of Sale, it’s worth investigating the interactive options as well as the traditional printed options, as they may just give your store or promotion the boost it needs.
