Digital Signage for the Retail Industry
Digital Signage. Bringing IOT to Brick & Mortal Retail.
Retail businesses today face a massive challenge. In our über-connected world, consumers have access to endless shopping choices. Comparing prices or ordering online just requires a quick Google search. In fact, 80% percentage of shoppers report that they compare prices online when shopping in-store. So how can brick-and-mortar retailers continue driving sales? One solution is to bring digital experiences into the physical store.
Success Story: Microsoft’s Store-Within-a-Store
XOGO’s work with Microsoft Surface is a prime example of how a retailer can bring digital experiences into the physical retail space. Microsoft sells its Surface products online, but also through electronics stores all over the world like Best Buy (North America), Saturn, Media Markt, FNAC (Europe) and Bic Camera (Japan). Consumers love to visit these stores to physically touch and experience the latest Surface products before purchasing. In order to capture shoppers’ attention in these stores, Microsoft worked with XOGO to design and deploy a digital “store within a store” that includes fixtures with Microsoft's own branding, screens running looping videos about the Surface products, and in many cases, a Microsoft salesperson to assist shoppers in real time.
Consumers are often surprised to see that when they interact with the Surface devices on the retail table (i.e. clicking the pen on a Surface Pro), the digital signs near the device react automatically and display content about the Surface Pro or the Surface Pen itself. This is the result of a clever integration that we built for them using XOGO’s APIs. What’s more, when a customer has questions about specific Microsoft devices or software, the Microsoft sales rep can quickly open the XOGO Manager app on his/her device and use Realtime mode to pull up additional information on the big screen, such as tech specs, pricing, tutorials or recommended accessories. Together this leads to a fun interactive experience for customers, who often decide to make a purchase in-store -Microsoft reports a significant sales increase in digital-enabled retail locations. And because XOGO is cloud-based, Microsoft can update its digital content remotely from headquarters at any time, for instance to advertise back to school discounts or holiday promotions that are not available through other channels. All without having to print new materials or visit each store location (usually the Microsoft section of a retail partner like Best Buy) to install them.
Digital Signage Works for Small Businesses Too
Small retailers are also taking advantage of XOGO in a big way. One of our local bike shop customers began using XOGO on a portable digital kiosk about a year ago, simply in order to draw more business into the shop (which is tucked away in the corner of a busy train station). They immediately found that customers had an easier time finding the shop, and began changing their digital content every few weeks in order to announce sales, opening hours, and advertise the latest custom-built bikes that they were carrying. This has lead to an uptick in sales and and the elimination of printed marketing materials - all for just a $20 monthly XOGO subscription fee and an initial investment in a $99 XOGO Mini and TV stand.
For More Information
If you’d like to learn more about how XOGO can work for your retail business, please download XOGO today or contact our sales team with any specific questions about the technology.