Digital Signage can be used in toy stores to engage children and parents alike. Parents might catch a glimpse of the next toy going under the Christmas tree. Or children notice the latest craze and drag their parents in.
It’s vital to use the right channels that get customers through the door, keep them engaged, increase dwell time, and upsell at the POS.
In this blog, we’ll take you through how toy stores can use digital signage effectively.
Reducing Queue Times in your Toy Store with Digital Signage
According to Digital Signage Today, digital displays reduce perceived waiting times by 35%. Reducing perceived wait times is crucial. A survey by Timetrade reported a loss of 75% of customers due to waiting times. In short, reducing wait times is crucial.
There are many methods retail stores have employed in an effort to reduce wait times.
One example has been implementing self-checkouts. The self-checkout has exploded in recent times. Instead of waiting in a snail-paced line a dozen strong, shoppers can nip in and out of self-payment checkouts. This has been hugely effective in reducing queue times, especially for shoppers with fewer items.
Digital screens are another way shops are battling the dreaded queue. With screens shops can keep shoppers entertained with promotions, videos, live news, and social media feeds. As mentioned above, digital signage can reduce perceived queuing times by over a third. As a result, this can provide huge benefits in terms of customer experience.
Increasing Foot Traffic
For hundreds of years, retailers and shops have been trialling and testing different methods to draw shoppers into their stores. Displaying the most desirable items front and centre, mannequins wearing this season’s style, and live performers are just some of the ways used to draw customers in. But with developments in technology, things have begun to change…
Digital signage displays have been increasing in popularity for toy stores. Through high bright screens and eye-catching animations, stores are able to capture the attention of passers-by before drawing them into the store. Capturing attention and generating awareness is hugely important as it is at the start of the sales funnel (AIDA). Once the customer’s attention is captured, the store can begin to take them through the customer journey.
Front-of-store displays take the form of video walls as well as singular screens – efficient at getting your target market to stop. With such technology, you can display toy commercials, advertise sales, display seasonal messages, and promote new launches.
In-store Signage for Toy Stores
Great, now they’re in-store, you can promote products, make the sales processes more efficient, update pricing more effectively, and keep your customers coming back.
The importance of continuing to engage and provide touchpoints and provide touchpoints for customers once they enter the store.
Increased customer engagement helps improve dwell time. As a result, this increases the chance of sales – i.e. the longer a customer stays in the store looking at products, the higher the chance they will make a purchase.
Increasing dwell time is at the forefront of many retail store owners. Many techniques revolve around our senses: Smell, Touch, Sound, Sight, and Taste.
Here’s how retailers are currently using customer senses to increase dwell time:
Smell: Bad smells keep customers away. Good smells make them stay. Retailers will often use nice-smelling flowers, perfumes, or sprays to make the shop smell pleasant. As a result, customers appreciate the fresh-smelling air and are likely to stay longer.
Sound: Playing the right music can help elevate the customer experience. Instead of the silence or constant chatter, customers can be welcomed pleasantly by nice-sounding music. Choosing music that fits themes or relaxes your customers is a great way to increase dwell time and in turn, sales.
Taste: Some stores will often have sweet treats to entice customers, or create a memorable experience.
Touch: Being able to physically hold a product can be a huge selling point. According to Havard Business Review customers who held a product were willing to invest 43% more into it than those who didn’t. For toy stores, having an area where parents and children can try out toys can be a huge win.
Sight: Sight is hugely important when it comes to marketing products within a toy store. Within the store, it’s a hugely competitive environment. Countless manufacturers are competing to have their toys chosen over their competitors. That’s why providing a visually appealing layout, eye-catching shop floor displays, and eye-catching screens.
Shelf labelling
Shelf labelling plays a crucial role in toy stores. With labelling, customers can get the information they need in a single glance. Labels will help customers identify products, outline pricing, and highlight special offers or savings. As a result, the information shelf labels provide can help ignite purchase intentions.
When we think of shelf labels we often think of small paper tickets stuffed inside plastic shelf guards. Technology, however, has come a long way. Retailers have started to roll out digital shelf labels. Essentially, a digital shelf label is a thin digital screen that animates the area where the shelf labels go. Retailers can choose to display a variety of content here. For example, animations of the product to draw customers in. In addition to this, they still have the opportunity to display shelf labels – just on a digital screen.
So why are we seeing a shelf shift to digital?
There are a huge amount of paper-based labels on shop shelves. Each time one of these labels needs to be updated, someone has to physically replace the labels each time – whilst disposing of the old ones. According to a GAIN report by the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service, Tesco stocks 40,000 products on average. Multiply this with the number of stores (4,008) that Tesco operates and we get 160,320,00 labels for products. If we assume a label is changed once a month (for offers, price changes) we get 1,923,840,000 (or nearly 2 billion label changes each year). From this quick calculation, it’s easy to see how much time is wasted changing these paper labels, and how much paper is wasted on single-use shelf labels. This is what the digital shelf label aims to resolve.
With digital, the shop can simply update the digital labels as often as they like with minimal effort. An employee could update the digital labels for all of Tesco’s 4,008 stores with the click of a button. As a result, saving the organisation huge amounts of time and resources.
Big brands such as Krispy Kreme are already utilising the technology on their in-store kiosks.
In-store signage uses
Digital Signage comes in all shapes and sizes, functionalities, and use cases. Screen types for indoor uses may include:
- End-of-aisle screens – increased visibility as everyone walks past them.
- Videowalls – great for dynamic, larger-scale content.
- Interactive screens – touchscreen capabilities allow for fun with children – whether that’s a quiz or drawing on their favourite movie character. Alternatively, touch screens can act as digital product catalogues to help customers browse stock.
- Digital wayfinding kiosks – help with navigation (great for large stores).
Content may include:
- Trailers, promoting the latest toys and crazes.
- Demonstrations – videos showing children using the toys, or magic tricks being shown.
- Interactive maps – guiding customers to products they want. E.g. the customer can search “Lego” and be taken to the Lego section.
- You could show ‘staff picks’ to give buyers an indication of what’s hot. It shows staff as knowledgable on the toys in-store and makes them more approachable.
- Upcoming events can be shown on screens to get customers back in. Especially if it appeals directly to their interests.
Point of Sale Signage for Toy Stores
Digital signage leads to a 31.8% increase in overall sales and generates an increase of 32.8% of repeat buyers (InfoTrends).
What is Point of Sale? POS is the point of purchase is where a retail transaction is completed (the checkout or tills).
Digital Signage is a great way to upsell and pique the interest of customers at the POS. Customers are already in the mood to buy, so now is a great place to promote additional items to increase the value of their basket.
Here are some top ideas for POS digital signage
- Enforce branding – have your logo behind the till.
- Upsell – ‘remember the batteries?’. Pushing essential lower-priced items that elevate the customer’s experience is a great way to encourage upsells.
- Advertise promotions – Increase the awareness of store sales and promotions. If you’re having a “buy one, get one half price” sale and the customer is made aware of it. As a result, they may be more inclined to pick up other products.
Benefits of Digital Signage for Toy Stores
- Scalability (screens can be added quickly)
- Dynamic and engaging content (videos and animations capture interest and increase desire)
- Instant updates (screens can be updated in seconds with a single click)
- Control all screens with a single device (manage all of your toy shop screens from a single laptop)
- Content scheduling (master sales campaigns with promotional content scheduled up to years in advance
What now?
Look into getting Digital Signage for your Toy Stores – whether that’s to drive people in, keep people in there, or upsell to them at the tills. Screens are awesome for each stage of the customer journey. We wrote about ‘The Role Of Digital Signage In The Customer Journey’ in a blog, here.
If you have any questions about Digital Signage for Toy Stores, chat with an expert by clicking the button below.
