Digital display advertising is graphic advertising on Internet websites, apps or social media through banners or other advertising formats made of text, images, flash, video, and audio. The main purpose of display advertising is to deliver general advertisements and brand messages to site visitors.

Digital display advertising is an outbound display advertising format where you target predefined audiences with images or banners. There’s also native ads and text ads in the mix in there. You target them on different websites, on social media platforms, and on mobile apps.

Note that outbound advertising is a concept where the advertiser targets the audience and sends their message out to them as opposed to something like inbound, which would be search where the audience comes to you. So, there’s a key difference between the type of marketing that display is. It’s an outbound advertising format.

Value

Awareness and interest

When we visualize a funnel, it’s quite clear to see where display fits in the consumer intent journey. We begin with awareness and interest. This is where display fits in. We’re sending our message out there to people, to audiences who may potentially be interested in the product.

Retention

With a retention piece, the remarketing fits back in there too, because if you think about remarketing, we’re sending ads out to pre-existing customers or people who’ve been in that site before. So, if we want to retain these people as repeat customers, it makes sense to kind of remarket out to them with special offers for people who have been on the site before.

Consideration and conversion

As we move down the funnel, as they get more and more aware, as they align it to their needs, we start moving into the consideration and conversion areas. So, consideration and conversion can be with around channels like remarketing, and shopping, as well as search as well.

Methods of Display

Window Displays

They might seem old-fashioned to some, but well designed and produced window displays can still be a very good in-store marketing strategy.

Granted, it’s not easy to attract the attention of busy passers-by who are likely to be focused on their mobile devices. With good planning and design, it’s certainly possible.

It’s not just a matter of assembling a few good selling products and putting them in the window. To differentiate themselves from their competitor stores, successful window displays need a combination of a good focal point, lighting, and, perhaps above all, a narrative or theme element.

The theme you choose will depend on the niche you are in and the season in which you are selling, but whether it’s Thanksgiving or Christmas, the hunting season or summer, there’s sure to be a way to make your core products stand out.

LED Signs

Traditional banners and posters remain very effective, but there’s also an important place for electronic signage within your store. Brightly illuminated screens can be mounted in a wide variety of locations within retail outlets and the great thing is that their messages special offers, discounts etc. can be changed instantly from a manager’s computer.

In-Store Retail Sign Displays

Modern technology now makes it possible to place high quality and accurate images directly onto all kinds of surfaces, including, walls, floors and ceilings.

Better still, colorful images, graphics and corporate logos can now be produced three-dimensionally on a wide variety of materials, including wood, vinyl, plastic glass and metal, giving options for a huge range of high-impact effects. Therefore, this kind of signage has numerous possible applications.

Particularly in larger stores, directional signs can be very effective, not just in guiding customers towards the products they’re looking for, but also in reinforcing corporate branding.

Banners

All the advantages of posters apply equally to banners, which can today be easily produced on a variety of hard wearing and weather resistant material. The main difference is one of size; the generally larger format of the banner makes it especially suitable for the high-ceilinged Big Box or discount type store.

Types of banners may include:

• Banner stands
• Customized flags
• Customized vinyl and fabric banners
• Pole banners
• Suspended ceiling display banners

Posters

Posters are of course nothing new, and have been effectively used by retailers, Hollywood, sports promoters and Governments for many years. The reason for their enduring popularity is simple: they work.

There’s good evidence that vision is overwhelmingly the most powerful of the human senses, so that well-designed colorful posters are a particularly effective way of attracting immediate attention and also creating messages which will remain long in the mind of the prospect or customer.

Errors in Creating Display

Some stores have their displays crammed with many similar items. This situation might be perceived as aesthetically intriguing to the viewer. It is a violation of the principles of harmony and rhythm, and it’s not advisable under any circumstances. The items that you display shouldn’t render a boring aspect because it won’t attract customers. You definitely don’t want your store to resemble a factory where similar products are disposed in straight shelves.

Too much merchandise or too little. The correct amount of merchandise that you want to display is connected with what you want to communicate. If you sell luxury items, bear in mind that the more expensive the item is, the fewer you should display. Crowded displays may suggest cheap merchandise or discounts. Too little merchandise may suggest that you’re going out of business, or you’re not very prosperous. Also, it can be seen as a sign of carelessness; sometimes you can see empty mannequins for days in window displays and people that don’t even bother doing something about that. So be very careful, and don’t exaggerate.

Using too many mini themes in a display is also disorienting. Customers might find it hard to understand what products are actually highlighted, what is the specific of the store and of the merchandise.

At the same time, you’re not conveying any message if you display too many different items that tell their own story and should be emphasized on their own. You don’t put into displays each and every type of items that are in the store. Displays are meant to show the best you have. If the best you have is quantity and you intent to show that to the customers, then you should probably make use of many dress forms and / or torsos in the display and apply the principles of harmony and rhythm. Use a creative and simple scheme that won’t make the display look too crowded.

Lack of rhythm: the principle of rhythm is frequently violated when many small items are displayed in a single area with no attempt to keep the eye following a planned pattern. Try to create a display in which all items are visually tied together and visible from different angles. Don’t place important merchandise behind other items, even though the main reason is to create surprise or to attract. Surprises don’t generally work in displays; make use of them inside the store by hinting this in the display or at the entrance through a signage.

The retail store’s exterior is responsible for attracting the passers by both actual and potential customers to induce them to enter the store. The store’s interior is much more important than the exterior as it welcomes the actual consumer.

Exterior:

New Building versus Existing Facility

The decision to build a new facility or seek existing space is a critical element in exterior design planning. Each option has its advantages. Building allows the retailer to design all aspects of the exterior and interior. However, this option may be limited by location availability, time, or cost. Buying, renting, or leasing existing space has the advantage of being much quicker, may offer the advantage of a superior location and may be less expensive. However, a retailer is often limited in what can be done with regard to design issues. It is often the case where major renovations of existing space are as expensive as building from the ground up.

Colour and Materials

The exterior colour texture of a store gives a lasting first impression to the consumer. Often, this will be the first and sometimes the only thing a customer sees of a store. It is important that the exterior look and “Feel” right to the shopper. The colours and material should express the image of the store.  Today’s retailers are increasingly using textured building materials (brick, rough-sawn wood, and so on) at the store entrance to give a pleasant feeling to the facade.   Steel buildings tend to create an impression of strength, whereas glass tends to create an altogether different impression, usually of a more modern store. Concrete or bock can contribute to the overall image of low cost or value. Brick may create a more upscale feeling.

Windows

The main purpose of windows is to attract attention and create an image to potential customers standing outside. Humour, theatrical flair, colour, motion, or sound playing outside the windows work well to increase the effectiveness of the display. One of the biggest advantages of display windows is the ability to dramatically affect the exterior of the store. Most of the exterior requires major renovations to change. A retailer can take advantage of its window space to reflect changes in the store’s offerings on a seasonal or monthly basis. The window displays project the image of the store. While one story may be trying to say “Quality” in its windows by showing specific brands or fashions, other stores may use window displays to project a low price or value image.  Regardless of whether it is a children’s store, a sporting goods store, or a home furnishings store, the window display is often one of the first efforts to communicate with customers and invite them. Window design is a function of the physical design of the store, and not something specifically requested by the retail manager or merchandising designer.

Store Name

Although not strictly related to external design, the choice of a store name does have an effect on the overall store image. The favourable or unfavourable image generated by the use of a name can enhance or negate the style set by store design.

At first glance, choosing a name for the business may seem to be a rather easy task. Unfortunately, this is not the case. The retailer who thought of the name Equ-ulus for a small gift shop certainly made a mistake. This name is not pronounceable, and it has little meant for the majority of the customers to whom the store is appealing. Often it is desirable that the name sound not only attractive but prestigious. Certainly, it must fit the type of store. For example, Budget Weddings was chosen as the name of store that provided package services for brides. It failed because brides-to-be did not like the mental picture of a truck with that store name pulling up to the church and the reception hall. They liked the low price but were embarrassed by the name.

Multilevel Stores

Because of the need for increased parking space in relation to shopping area in suburban stores and shopping centers, the multiple-level store is especially appealing to retailers. Even super markets have experimented with this type of design. Properly carried out, a multilevel facility offers the merchant a means of both expanding the selling area separating areas from one another. It also gives an overall feeling is that of “pulling people” though the store. Careful attention has to be paid to which merchandise is in high demand so that it can be placed on the upper levels. In the process of seeking, it our customers will move through the store. Putting a restaurant on the top level, for example, helps this pulling process.

Restrictions

Recognizing the importance of the exterior, retailers have become very competitive in their designs. Unfortunately, this has often led to many areas looking like a war zone of competing colours, signs, shapes, and sounds. Both property owners and governments alike have taken steps to ensure that consumers are not assaulted by on overwhelming number of stimuli.

• Building codes. Most cities have building codes for businesses; often many are directed at retailers. These serve several purposes. First, they protect the public. Fire codes and safety regulations are examples. Some codes include sign ordinances that try to create some kind of visual harmony. Second, they ensure equal access to shopping for those with disabilities; and third, they reflect the community’s attitude with regard to appearance. For example, many towns recognize the need of retailers to promote their business through the use of signs. However, for aesthetic purposes, they have limited or abolished signs in particular areas.
• Lease requirements. Many property owners require retailers that lease their space to adhere to certain rules regarding store design. These rules serve two purposes. First, they assure the owner that property will be maintained good condition; and second, they ensure that the surrounding property does not lose value. For example, most malls require that signs be certain sizes and often limit the use of intense light.
• Theme areas. Theme areas are those in which buildings must meet structural requirements that fit a certain theme. Many downtown areas are implementing very strict building codes that allow businesses to stay only if they fit with the atmosphere the area is trying to create.

Signs

Effective use of signs identifies the nature of the business, build a corporate identity, communicates an image, ties the company to its advertising  through the use of a logo, and attracts to the store.  The most common signage is in plastic-based materials despite the relatively high cost. Companies find that effective signs have individual letters that are coated in tough plastics and illuminated from within by neon tubes. This type of sign has advantages because it uses 15 to 20 percent less energy than other lighted signs and has an extremely long life. Stores desiring a very contemporary look may use exposed tubes; small strip shopping centers may use hand crafted wooden signs to maintain a low profile. Backlight signs offer a slightly more expensive possibility. Instead of the light splashing out of the front of the letter, it washes the wall with a silhouette. Mall tenants may be limited in the type and size of their sign management rules. Signs from materials such as wood or metal that have direct lighting can be used to create different images from luxury to country. However, plastic technology today allows the creation of nearby and look.

Exterior walls and signs.  Many retailers use the exterior wall space to promote their store. Painting the name and logo of a business on the exterior is often less expensive than having a custom-made sign. Examples of this vary from a simple, elegant script indicating the name of the store to more exotic art that includes not only the name but also pictures. It artwork is used on the exterior of the building, it must conform to the principles of design, appeal to the customer base, and be integrated with the rest of the architecture.

Store Entrance

One of the first and most striking impressions customers get of a store is the one they receive as they go through the front door. An entrance should be more than a device to keep people out of the store, to encourage them to come in, or to protect against the elements. An entrance should have character, and it should say to prospective customer, “Please come through the door where you will be treated with courtesy and friendliness and served to the best of our ability.”  The entrance might be graceful and elegant or dull and functional; in any case, it should be compatible with the store design and provide an easy way to enter.

Interior Store Design

Displays

Display an important role in a retail store. An attractive and informative display can help sell gods. Poorly designed displays can ruin the store’s atmosphere and center an uncomfortable setting. Since displays often take up premium space with in the store, they carry a heavy burden of productivity in terms of creating sales. There are several principals of rules of displays that help ensure their effectiveness:

• Balance. In building a display, it is important to make sure that it appears balanced to the viewer. This is achieved by arranging products in a symmetric manner. Displays may have formal or informal balance. Formal balance is achieved by placing similar items equal distance from the center. Informal balance is achieved by placing different sized goods or objects away from the center based on their relative size.
• Dominance.  All displays should have a central point that will attract the viewer’s eye. The point may be achieved by using prominent piece of merchandise, such as a diamond pendant, using dramatic colours, such as a bright scarf, or using streamers arranged toward the center of the display.
• Eye Movement. Displays should direct the eyes away from the point of dominance in a systematic fashion, instead of encouraging them to jump from one end to the other. If the viewer’s eyes move indiscriminately around the display, the shopper will miss some of the merchandise and will not get the full message intended.
• Gradation. The gradation is the sequence in which items are arranged. For example, small items are usually placed at the front of the display, medium items father back, and large items at the rear. The creates harmony and an appealing illusion.
• Height of Merchandise. Merchandise that has the greatest effect should be placed at the eye level of the customer. Because viewers tend to look straight ahead, merchandise placed at eyes level is most likely to be seen.
• Grouping Merchandise. Too many retailers place one item after another in a long row. Shoe stores, jewellery stores, and mass merchandisers tend to do this. Stores with large amounts of one item or with one line of goods are likely to build longer displays. Instead of creating long displays where the customer has problems picking out merchandise, retailers should group items so that the customer’s eyes cannot travel from group to group but stop and focus on particular products.
• Sales appeal. Displays should always show the best merchandise that the retailer has to offer.

Keeping it Simple. Since displays take up a great deal valuable space, there is a tendency to get as much into them as possible. While the idea of more is better may be true for chocolate, it is not true for displays. Too many items in a display district and confuse the consumer, and they tend to create an atmosphere of chaos or congestion.

Color

The psychological effect of colour continues to be important to retailers.  Colour is also important in ware house type stores because of the vast open area of the interior.  Bold colours are frequently used to highlight merchandise sections or departments and to reduce attention to what is typically an open girder ceiling.  Clearly, intelligent use of colour is important in store design. Since people are drawn to warm colours, yellow and red can help draw customers into the store through the entrance. Cool colours such as blues and greens tend to calm people and are useful in areas where customers need time to deliberate over the purchase decision.

Ceilings

Ceilings represent a potentially important element interior design. In older stores, ceilings of twelve to sixteen feet are still common, but most department store ceilings are now in the nine-to-ten-foot range. Remember, the higher the ceiling, the more space to heat and cool at increasing energy rates. Ceiling heights are becoming much less standardized within stores. Designers are making use of varied ceiling drops to create distinct for different departments within a store.

Lighting

Proper lighting is one of the most important considerations in retail design. At one point in time the function of lighting was to provide customers with a means of finding their way through the store. Today, lighting has become a display medium. It is an integral part of the store’s interior and exterior design. Lighting should match the mood retailer is attempting to create with the rest of the store decor and should complement, rather than detract from, the merchandise.

Flooring

Retailers are taking a sophisticated “return investment” approach to flooring decisions. Firms are willing to pay higher-up-front installation costs for more expensive materials if they see a return in greater durability and reduced maintenance expenses.  Flooring choices are important because the coverings can be used to separate departments, muffle noise in high traffic areas, and strengthen the store image. The range of choices for floor coverings is endless: Carpeting, wood, terrazzo, quarry tile, and vinyl composition all have applications in different settings.

A store manager is required in Retail stores, chain stores, Department stores, supermarkets, and DIY stores. It is the responsibility of a store manager to run the store successfully and to deal with both customers and staff. In this article, you will learn about the different responsibilities of a store manager.

Maintaining the sales environment:

It involves implementation of store layout plans, displaying merchandise, replenishment/refilling of stock, visual merchandising task and maintaining the sales record effectively.

Recruitment, Training and Development:

The very first duty of any retail store manager is to handle the job of recruiting the right persons at right jobs. Then train and adjust them according to the store’s policies and working environment. If they need any training, they must be provided in or outside the store. These new entrants are those who make the store either an achievement or can mar the whole business.

Therefore, retail manager should ensure that be it cashier, or sales executive or store keeper, they should be hired after considering their minimum qualification and experience in the concerned field. If after recruiting, training and development, still these employees are not performing well after several warnings, they must be fired from the store.

In addition to these duties, store manager must ensure that all the employees at different level are honestly doing their duties and are not creating any problem for store or other employees.

If any retail manger, employee or group of employees are lacking in some managerial skill/know how, he/they must be provided with proper training, as trained employees work fast and in more effective way. Also it is the working staff that ultimately put policies/store’s objectives into action.

Implementing Marketing plans:

This involves implementation of marketing policies devised in order to pursue store’s strategic marketing objectives. For example, to allocate space for sales promotion activities, inspecting effectiveness of sales distribution programs etc.

Maintaining Leave and Salary Record:

Another important job of a retail store manager is to have the proper balance and written record of the money comes in the store by way of selling the goods. He is also responsible for keeping the whole record of all the employees with regard to their working hours, no of days worked by each and every employee.

He will take care that each employee is getting the salary according to the number of days and hours served them for the store so that there should not be any partiality with any type of store employee. He will oversee that the provisions related to casual or earned leaves (if any) are applicable to all employees.

The necessity of proper and updated records (both sales and purchase) is that it helps in estimating the money which has come in to the store by way of selling goods or providing services to customers and gone out of the store by way of bills and salary payments to employees.

Extending Customer Services:

The retail sales manager being on the senior position is responsible for providing multiple services to immediate customers and the other members of his retail value chain. These services differ from store to store and location to location. Some of the services familiar to all stores are:

(a) Credit facility

(b) Free home delivery

(c) After-sale service

(d) Trade discount to bulk buyers or small traders and information and new offers to its regular and loyal customers.

For instance, the Titan watch company in India set up its service centers in its own retail chain stores of Titan wrist watches with the name of Time Zone. This has not only thinned the importance of local and unorganized service providers but has also increased the confidence of the retail customers in these chain stores considering after sales service an integral part of watch purchase.

Ensuring Safety of Employees and Inventory:

Since the retail store manager is supposed to be present physically on the store’s premise on daily basis, is the suitable individual to ensure the safety of the store including the safety of employees and inventory. He is the appropriate person to inform the corporate office how his store is doing and where and when the changes are needed to introduce in the store.

Store manager ensures that all the safety provisions with regard to requirement of local authorities like municipal corporation, state and central government are duly met. These safety provisions relate to installation of fire fighting systems and provision of emergency exits etc.

Management of employees:

Managing employees is the foremost duty of a retail manager. This includes the management of store’s employees working at various levels such as sales staff, store staff, cleaning staff and clerical staff.

Cost minimization:

It involves controlling expenses that are essential to run a store. By way of applying cost effective policies, expenses can be reduced resulting in increased profitability. It is possible by elimination of waste, errors and accidents. This task of minimizing cost becomes necessary when store is running on low price policy, like in case of Wall Mart stores where EDLP (every day low prices) policy is being applied.

Budgeting and Forecasting:

The store manager is more suitable for predicting the store’s future performance, calculating future expenses and accordingly setting budgets. Explaining the set targets and the funds available to departmental heads and collecting their performance at regular interval comes under implementation of retail strategy.

Team Leadership:

The store manager also has the task of motivating his employees and reducing any resistance to change in working methods that may be required when new strategic directions are set. Retail manager ensures that his all employees should work like a team, leaving any personal grudge.

Holding Inventory:

Inventory control is another important activity performed by a retail manager. To ensure regular availability of inventory in the store, retail manager maintains appropriate level of inventory all the time in the store. Since a store’s earning is through selling of goods, it becomes the duty of a sales manager to have the full record of incoming and outgoing inventory.

So that there should not be any shortage of inventory in the store and side by side there may not excess of a particular good which results in unnecessary blockage of money and also needs storage area. Normally in the small Indian cities, most of the retail managers have practice of keeping the inventory with the nearby godowns to avoid any shortage.

Maintaining Store Harmony:

The retail manager is also responsible for maintaining harmony among different levels of store staff. He ensures that the floor staff is cooperative and has corporate spirit of team work. Store harmony not only includes the good relation between different types of employees but also involves relation between store management and its employees, between public and store, between public and store’s employees, store and the government, and also between various stores.

Retail Store Signage Design refers to any kind of visual store graphics that you have that displays information to your customers about your business and your products. Signage for retail stores can vary in form and size based on location and intent, but whether it be an expansive banner or a billboard, they all have the same purpose to drive foot traffic to you and communicate with your customers. From your store front, to banners, to barricades and every piece of your retail store signage. Your signage design is a vital part of your business. It will be the first impression that many customers have of you and is one of the most important sales tools that you have.

Exterior Retail Store Signage

Exterior signage is arguably the most important kind in physical retail because it is what gets customers through the door. A new customer will have less faith in a business whose signage has burned out bulbs, flickering neon or peeling paint. As opposed to your direct competitor across the street who has an eye-catching storefront that looks fresh and up-to-date at all times. Your retail space should be a physical representation of your brand and can create eye catching retail store signage that speaks to your target customer and gets that foot traffic through the door.

Interior Retail Store Signage

Your interior signage however, is all about getting them to purchase and should have a more focused intention. This and can create a range of retail interior graphics and POPs that is eye-catching and true to your brand. Purposeful signs directing customers to a certain location or explaining where the dressing rooms are need to be clear and easily understood. Whereas persuasive signs pointing customers to look towards certain products they might not have noticed or a sale that you have on can be a bit more fun and creative. National retail executives will tell you that an effective point-of-purchase sign can influence up to 85% of purchases in a store. Also, major brand producers will pay substantial amounts to a storeowner to acquire this space.

If you want a customer to slow down at any point you can use retail store signage that employs humour or a play on words that make people stop and think. When someone pauses to read a sign and chuckle or share it with a friend, you’ve got a better chance of them seeing the products close by and making a sale.

Significance:

Differentiation: A good custom business signage will help differentiate your business from the competition. It will help you build a unique and eye-catching brand in the eyes of potential customers. To make the effective use of signage, you need to know how to design effective and beautiful signs or else, you will lose all the potentials of a signage.

Increasing brand exposure: Getting a good business signage will improve the visibility of your company and make it stand out from the crowd. It will boost your chances of getting new customers and repeated business with current customers.

It is cost-effective: One of the most cost-effective marketing strategies to boost sales is signage. The only cost is the initial investment and once your signage is ready and installed, there are no maintenance or other costs and it will advertise your company 24/7.

For directions to potential customers: Signage is necessary for vast locations such as corporations, shopping malls, and hospitals. The use of these signs helps to prevent customers or visitors from getting lost. This will help to prevent a situation that could lead to bad sales. This signage is mostly useful for large outdoor events such as festivals or companies with multiple buildings or entrances.

Year-round advertising: Depending on where you installed your signage, whether interior or exterior, signage will work for you all year round. They are visible and available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year. This is why they are a worthy investment; they require no maintenance effort, no matter the time or day of the year.

Entice customers: Shop signage can attract business to a company (both inside and out) when they have good designs. Signage placed outside can be successful at creating curiosity and it will encourage customers to patronize us.

Concept of Digital Signage

Digital signage is a sub-segment of electronic signage. Digital displays use technologies such as LCD, LED, projection and e-paper to display digital images, video, web pages, weather data, restaurant menus, or text. They can be found in public spaces, transportation systems, museums, stadiums, retail stores, hotels, restaurants and corporate buildings etc., to provide wayfinding, exhibitions, marketing and outdoor advertising. They are used as a network of electronic displays that are centrally managed and individually addressable for the display of text, animated or video messages for advertising, information, entertainment and merchandising to targeted audiences.

Roles and function

The many different uses of digital signage allow a business to accomplish a variety of goals. Some of the most common applications include:

• Public information: News, weather, traffic and local (location specific) information, such as building directory with a map, fire exits and traveler information.
• Internal information: Corporate messages, such as health & safety items, news and so forth.
• Product information Pricing, photos, raw materials or ingredients, suggested applications and other product information; especially useful in food marketing where signage may include nutritional facts or suggested uses or recipes.
• Information to enhance the customer service experience: Interpretive signage in museums, galleries, zoos, parks and gardens, exhibitions, tourist and cultural attractions.
• Advertising and Promotion: Promoting products or services, may be related to the location of the sign or using the screen’s audience reach for general advertising.
• Brand building: In-store digital sign to promote the brand and build a brand identity.
• Influencing customer behavior: Navigation, directing customers to different areas, increasing the “dwell time” on the store premises and a wide range of other uses in service of such influence.
• Influencing product or brand decision-making: Signage at the point of sale designed to influence choice e.g. Signage to help shoppers to choose dresses inside a fashion store or devices that on a computerized shopping trolley helping the customer locate products, check prices, access product information and manage shopping lists.
• Enhancing customer experience: applications include the reduction of perceived wait time in the waiting areas of restaurants and other retail operations, bank queues, and similar circumstances, as well as demonstrations, such as those of recipes in food stores, among other examples.
• Navigation: With interactive screens (in the floor, for example, as with “informational footsteps” found in some tourist attractions, museums and the like) or with other means of “dynamic wayfinding”.
• Reservations: Small, interactive screens on walls or desks that allow employees to reserve the space for a limited time and integrate with a room and resource scheduling platform.

Various different industries

Restaurants

Digital signage is used in restaurants through an interactive menu screen that rotates promotional offers. Restaurants use digital signage both indoors and outdoors, with the latter needing a form of weather protection depending on the components of the hardware. Outdoor usage of digital signage is most prevalent in drive-through that allows the customer to browse through the entire menu at a glance while also placing their order with an interactive touchscreen. Indoor digital signage is used for the display of menus. Prior to the integration of digital signage, restaurants manually updated the cafeteria menu, which is in itself a full-time job, especially if the menu is updated daily. With digital signage, restaurants do not have to manually update the menu feed, with live menu feed from digital signage solutions. According to a survey conducted by quick-service restaurants and casual restaurant operators, over 20% of restaurant operators experience a 5% sales lift after incorporating digital signage in their service sectors.

Shopping malls

Digital signage is widely used in shopping malls as a form of directory or map display. Uses of digital signage include a wayfinding kiosk, enabling the customer to find their path through an interactive touchscreen. Recent digital signage have begun combining interactive advertisement with wayfinding application. This will offer shoppers who interact with the advertisement of the tenant in the shopping mall to the store. Another usage is disseminating relevant information such as the schedule of an event or campaign.

Hospitality

The hospitality industry uses digital signage to display crucial information at a convenient and visible location for all its patron. A digital signage is capable of functioning as a virtual concierge in hotels and as entertainment for conferences during waiting room. Digital signage is also used in hotels as a form of wayfinding, to guide a large group of people for a conference to the correct room. Digital signage is used to provide a simple method to update information that is continuously changing such as expo information.

Cinema

Digital signage is placed in the lobby, concession stands and displays advertisement before the movie begins. This informs customers about other theatre offerings and scheduling, increasing concession sales and gaining other sources of revenue.

Transport

Transport is a growing sector for digital signage with practical solutions, such as wayfinding, as well as out-of-home advertising.

Personalized digital content

One specific use of digital signage is for out-of-home advertising in which video content, advertisements, and/or messages are displayed on digital signs with the goal of delivering targeted messages, to specific locations and/or consumers, at specific times. This is often called “digital out of home” (DOOH).

Education

Digital signage can be used for school cafeteria menu boards, digitized noticeboards, and as an element of smart campuses. The University of Minnesota has installed 300 digital signage boards, updated with real-time data.

Retail atmospherics refers to store factors such as display design and fixtures, flooring, smell, store lighting and temperature, music, wall coverings, and other elements of store’s ambience, which can be controlled by a retailer to influence the consumer’s buying mood. It is the environment inside the store that ultimately influences buyer behavior that is why it is very strategic to retailers. The associations due to environmental dispositions in and around the retail store will facilitate the process of positioning and communicating value in terms of Points of Parity and Points of Difference in the consumer memory. The retail store atmospherics is an array of tangible and intangible dispositions interwoven into a web of meaning that touches the social, cultural, economic, psychological and religious life style of consumers, due to current fad, fashion and trends. Retail atmospherics intends to engage all of the customers’ senses into making a purchase. Retail atmospherics are based upon the fundamentals of consumer psychology in terms of using triggers to tell people to make a purchase or to stay more in the store.

The store environment consistently delivers consumer experiences throughout the shopping effort. The environment of a store is designed in order to communicate brand personality and image of the store. The intention is to create a kind of environment which can differentiate the store from competitors and is capable of stimulating purchasing activity by attacking customer’s senses in a very pleasure full manner. Atmosphere is a factor which is present in every buying situation. Atmospherics however, is a conscious planning of atmospheres to contribute to buyer’s propensity to consume. It’s perfect planning is capable of enhancing retailers’ revenues.

For example, a fine dining restaurant play slower paced music to draw in their target crowd and people to stay more and eat more. Similarly, a grocery shop might use the colours red and yellow to trigger the appetite and make people more likely to stop in and make a purchase. Most customers do not consciously notice these subtleties, but they create impact. It focuses on all the environmental elements such as dim or bright light, music which is classical, instrumental, fast, slow or hit number, attractive window dressing, layouts, freshness and fragrance, appropriate temperature to make it comfortable, soothing and trendy, vibrant colours, attractive logos and well managed traffic are ideal conditions that can affect the current and future behavior of consumers.

Features of Atmospherics include:

• A layout of the space including the location of clerks and checkout counters.
• Scents or aromas designed to excite and entice the shopper.
• The overall temperature of the retail space.
• The location of pricing information or other signage.
• Decorations which represent the brand.
• Music to inspire, sooth, or stimulate.

Many retail giants will use elements of atmospherics to help identify their retail brand and set it apart from competitors. One drawback can be an overly aggressive use of atmospherics, which can have the opposite effect, intimidating or driving potential customers away.

Aesthetics in a retail store

The trend of Indian market has changed a lot in the past few decades. Earlier there were a few retail stores and the competition was not very tough amongst them, but the past couple of years were revolutionary for the Indian retail market and now there are hundreds of names involved in retail marketing. Many established brands and new names are trying their luck in retail marketing and companies are trying their best to capture the attention of potential clients and increase the sales.

One of the best ways to connect to your customers is to catch their attention. Provide perfect visual delight to your customers and convince them to at least check your store and products once. Retail stores are spending a good amount of money on visual merchandising; the better you project yourself the more desired attention you will get in return.

Atmospheric and aesthetic are two important elements of store interiors and almost all retail stores try to excel in these two elements. The concept of beauty and aesthetic sense is not only restricted to the display window, but the whole store is designed and organized in such a way that it meets the customers’ expectations and motivates them to explore more and find suitable products for themselves ending in sales. The mantra of success in retail marketing is largely decided by the aesthetic element of a store.

It is human nature to explore things that please the visual sense and retail stores are fully exploring this fact for improving their performance and sales. The atmospheric element includes light, colour, music and scent of the retail store that will stimulate the customer’s response and will influence their buying behavior. Aesthetic element includes factors like size, colour and texture within the store. If you are wondering how to give a perfect look to your retail store follow a few simple steps and make your retail outlet an interesting place for customers.

The mantra of success in retail marketing is to connect to your customers instantly and the window display is your first step to connect to your customers. While working on appearance and design of your retail store remember that if something catches your attention, it will surely catch a passer-by’s attention too. Think from the buyer’s point of view and display items suiting the buyer’s interest.  Improve your storefront; it should look appealing, promising and user-friendly. Make sure that inner section of your store’s interior is the extension of your storefront and it fulfils customer’s expectations.

Once your customer enters into the store make sure that you made the best use of the opportunity and show your best to allure the customer and inspire them to buy from the store. Create the right ambiance with perfect color, size, shape and design, it is very important to display the products at its best. Customers should get a full view of the store, leave enough space between two racks and utilize the connecting path from one section to other to display the best of both sections. Make sure that the products are displayed at appropriate height, there should be enough light so that the customers can get a better view of the product before buying it.  For clothing and accessory store it is essential to have enough number of trial rooms with proper light & air and an attendant to help the customers in choosing the items.

• Be innovative in your approach. While working on the interior of your store make sure that aesthetics and atmosphere of the store is user-friendly and it does not hinder the movement and activities in the store.
• Display your merchandise aesthetically and increase your sales, remember the more interestingly you present your product, the more attention it will gain. It is human tendency to appreciate beauty and attractiveness.
• Being off the indent is good care to be different to gain more footsteps to your store. Ask your employees to suggest innovative and witty ways to promote products in your store. That way you not only get a free creative team, you also keep your employees engaged. Many will pick up cues from what customers say about a product.
• Know what’s in and highlight them. It’s easy to keep a record of what the customers ask for “Where’s the”. These cues are important to know what’s selling these days and once the customer is hooked, he/she will possibly buy more variety of products.