Ecommerce has been on the rise for quite a while, mainly due to convenience or price competitiveness of this shopping medium. Nevertheless, despite the big focus on online presence, social shopping and ecommerce, 84% of the current retail revenue is still generated in the confines of a physical store.

After having gone through a trend of showrooming and the consecutive webrooming phase, customers seem to prefer sites that have both actual, physical stores and an ecommerce platform. The brands that get this mix right are winning market share from their pure play competitors at both ends of the spectrum.

Why Brick and Mortar shops crave novel ‘online’ marketing techniques
Brick and mortar retailers can gain a sizable advantage over their virtual counterparts by appealing to shoppers’ non-conscious brains, i.e., senses and emotions, with dynamic, interactive visualization.  Advertising and in-store promotions should be hyper-relevant, contextual and personalized to satisfy the customer’s need for the information they want, whenever and via whatever (digital) channel they want to consume this information.

Consumers expect a shopping trip to be an engaging experience, with the same intuitive interface and personalized merchandising techniques albeit transparent, and this is where in-store digital signage can make a meaningful impact. 

At the same time, shop owners and managers need guidance and feedback on what content works or does not work, in terms of interactivity and creating customers’ attention. Marketers appreciate guidance in developing and fine tuning the hyper-relevant and personalized content the consumer is attracted to.

Intelligent Display Networks are the new digital signage
Barco has developed an end-to-end solution – the Intelligent Display Network™ -- that empowers retailers and brand owners to deliver the ultimate, connected customer experience. IDN is a collection of enabling tools and technologies designed to create and deliver digital storytelling that activates the buying brains of shoppers by maximizing relevance in the retail environment. “Relevance” is the positive connection resulting from images and/or messages that touch the emotional center of a shopper in the store, and consequently, predispose them to purchase a product or feel a sense of brand loyalty.

IDN employs bi-directional communication to better understand shoppers in the store and respond to them with a constant stream of real-time adaptive content. The backbone of IDN is Barco’s cloud-based X2O platform, the content management software that delivers real-time visual communications to the right audience, at the right time, on the right device.  The result:  retailers can create, manage, and deliver real-time content from any source to any screen to engage customers in their own personalized story.

Display technologies: go digital where no one has gone digital before
Visualization solutions come in all shapes and sizes. Barco provides a variety of display hardware – LED, LCD, projection, and media players – which can be fed with smart content and controlled remotely by any networked device or dedicated mobile channel. Customers can interact with the screens in various ways to personalize their experience, consuming information, using it to make purchasing decisions, or sharing via social media – all while transparently providing information on the usage to the retailers, resulting in a measurable ROI.

Barco’s latest technologies go way beyond the standard LCD screens in shops and enable retailers to turn virtually any surface or object into a smart display.

Expand creative freedom with unique LED applications
Our digital media canvas expands creative possibilities far beyond traditional LED applications. And it’s made to stick. Not only onto a wall or similar surface, but a retailer’s brand message will “stick in the minds” of its audience as well. Thanks to a unique bendable design, the canvas can be wrapped around a curved surface, reducing architectural constraints, and takes up hardly any space because of its ultra-thin profile Thanks to its remarkable seamless tiling design, there’s no visual segmentation or gaps between sheets – resulting in a smooth and uniform canvas on both flat and curved surfaces, whether they be indoor or outdoor.

Laser comes to the retail environment
When it comes to creating an immersive experience or bringing a space to life, laser projection truly stands out as a cool form of entertainment with an enormous wow factor. It turns virtually any surface into a dynamic display, ranging from top-of-shelf projection blends over interactive window projection to projection mapping on buildings or objects. Thanks to the live animations and in combination with contextual information from the X2O Media CMS, projection transforms any surface or object into an attention-grabbing visual experience.

The new laser-illuminated projectors can meet the rigorous demands of a 16-hour store operation for more than three years of continuous operation (no lamp changes!), offering an efficient and cost-effective alternative to typical lamp-based projection. With today’s long lifetime and minimum service needs, projection is rapidly increasing in popularity. It simply provides the lowest price per pixel compared with other technology and offers truly seamless images over greater surfaces.

Ultra-small pixel pitch delivers premium images
The High Definition X series brings the advantages of LED visualization to indoor applications where high resolution is essential. The tiles create uniform, high-quality images with accurate color depth to perfectly represent your brand image under any condition and are guaranteed to draw the attention of customers.

With all of these wonderfully intuitive and dynamic digital signage solutions available to them, retailers can create a highly relevant experience for shoppers by connecting people with content in the most meaningful way. After all, that’s what everyone wants – to feel understood and special.

See us at InfoComm!
Please join us as we showcase all the ways Barco can help you connect people and content for the ultimate customer experience. Visit us at Booth #C8720 at InfoComm, June 8-10 in Las Vegas!