The Digital Age is Accelerating the Opportunity for Brands to Truly Engage with Consumers

Mubasher Malik, Sales Manager, SYS Account Management Team, ASUS Middle East, speaks about the opportunities digital signage solutions bring along

What do you see as some of the key trends right now in the digital signage/interactive experiences market?
Digital signage brings new life to any commercial environment. The impact of static signs is becoming less significant, but digital signage, on the other hand, is designed to catch the attention of consumers and deliver messages that are custom-designed to improve their experience.

Earlier interactive displays were largely used in meeting rooms but now it is not only limited to but increasingly applied in the digital signage space too. There are much more functions than simply touchscreen interface. While facial recognition, and near-field communications (NFC) allow for completely different ways for customers to engage and interact with technology, customer buying experiences are highly enhanced ever since.

How are digital signage products being used these days?
Digital signages are used to bring attention to new services or products being offered, showcasing a product, or provide information regarding what other people have to say. It can serve as a retailer’s virtual catalog to provide customers with easier access to what they have offered.

At the same time, retailers can also use those interactive displays to deliver recommendations, product details or any information they want to distribute to their target audience. And there is no doubt that the content can be tailored to any specific group of customers, or even be modified according to the attributes like geographical location, customer demographics and so on.

What is changing about the way customers interact with technology?
The digital age is accelerating the opportunity for brands to truly engage with consumers across all channels. From smartphones and tablets to dynamic content on billboards and interactive TV ads, consumers and brands are getting to grips with a seemingly endless supply of new technology. This is what leads to constant shifts in how customers behave and interact with brands.

Since nowadays consumers feel far more in control of the content they get from brands, the era of push marketing has undeniably ended, as the age of pull marketing is advanced by a variety of media channels, with which consumers choose what information they want to know when it suits their need. Choices and alternatives are given to customers in order to convey quick and helpful service that they truly appreciate. The development of technology and its effect on consumer’s conduct is truly unprecedented.

How can retailers use these technologies to guide the customer journey?
The right tools can do wonders for digital experience to create a smoother customer journey. From the moment they land on your site, all the way through from purchase, and beyond, few technologies and methods will help improve digital experience for your customers which are listed as followed:

• Implement live chat: When your customers need help in their shopping journey or even navigate them to the right section they are looking for, live chat is the closest tool you can leverage to immediately guide the customers through in time.
• Launch your own chatbot: They’re there 24/7 to support your customers when your team is out, they can be fun, informative, and even instantly capture leads for you. Having a chatbot is an opportunity to be always ‘on’ and cater to your customers’ preferences.
• Use analytics tools: Tools like Google Analytics and other similar platforms provide you insights on who your customers are and how they behave, as well as gauging their opinions from the digital experience you offer them. This knowledge gives you the information you need to improve and optimize the overall customer journey.

What role will contactless technology play?
Retail technology will continue to play an instrumental role in digitizing the shopping experience and achieving deeper customer satisfaction. Retailers are already seeing success with interactive digital signage. Retailers across a wide variety of industries have already begun to integrate retail technologies such as interactive shop windows, endless aisles, self-service kiosks, object recognition, product sensors (NFC/RFID), QR codes, mobile payments, and facial recognition.

Most retailers who have used digital signage have found that it is important or essential to improving customer’s in-store experience and contributes to an uptick in sales. The positive impact of retail technology starts from product discovery to smoother checkout in the customer journey. With virtual shelves, augmented reality, and virtual reality to test product functionality and enable customers to access detailed information wherever and whenever they want.

The interactive content not only broadens the journey but also strengthens the learning experience by allowing shoppers to follow at their own pace and interact with areas they are most interested in. This personalization and product discovery over seamless checkouts are definitely the ongoing trend now.

In terms of signage and digital signage which products and solutions are your focus areas this year?
Mini-PCs is the perfect choice for anyone running signage campaigns, which is cost-effective and versatile according to the user’s need. A networked digital signage solution requires a single server unit, which Mini-PCs provides multiple USB, HDMI, VGA, and display port connections. While wireless and Bluetooth support spares the hassles of tangling all around, it also means that units can be networked and controlled by a phone application that acts as a remote desktop controller.

ASUS Mini PC, for those who need an instant and powerful option for their display signage should consider the advantages of this mini-PC solution. It transforms a full-size desktop PC into a form factor which is small enough to hold in your hand, serving as a digital signage player and supports everything from single screen to multi-panel video walls. Hundreds of displays can be presented effectively with ease, with the remote control supporting instant information distribution in a split second.