More in Store

For a while, retailers have recognized the value that Pro AV technology can bring to the in-store shopping experience. Savvy brands are using these systems to attract consumers to their brick-and-mortar locations, keep them there for as long as possible, and hopefully spend money while on site. On the back end, companies are taking advantage of data and analytics capabilities to monitor the experiences they’re delivering. One of their biggest priorities: deploying and managing these systems and the content they’re distributing on a global basis.

“We’re seeing a shift away from focusing on individual display technologies toward building a connected display infrastructure,” said Dana Corey, SVP and global general manager at Avocor. “Retailers still deploy a mix of LCD, LED, and increasingly, EPD [e-paper] depending on the use case, but the real change is that these are now treated as endpoints within a larger network.”

Corey added that retailers are seeking cloud connectivity solutions that incorporate AI, as well as API integration, which gives them the ability to manage content across potentially hundreds or even thousands of locations—and make adjustments based on real-time data and analytics.

Video (and Audio) Use Cases

Many retailers leverage Pro AV technology not only to facilitate the shopping experience, but to make money while doing so through retail media. For AV designers and integrators, it may not be the sexiest AV application, but it can prove practical and lucrative for the client. A grocery chain, for example, may choose to deploy video screens that run promotions for the products that fill their shelves, and the brands involved pay for this advertising. Wayfinding is another popular use case, especially in large retail outlets.

It’s when retailers utilize audio and video to augment the in-store experience that things get interesting, argued Ben Phelps, retail industry director at Absen. With this approach, the goal is to give people a good reason to visit brick-and-mortar locations instead of shopping online.

A large video wall may serve as an architectural element, drawing customers into a location or to a specific area of the store. Or an interactive screen may serve up gamification to engage shoppers in a sporting goods outlet, granting them discounts or prizes when they win. Some chains integrate video screens into their storefront window designs and program their content management systems to customize what they display based on the local weather. (For example, when it starts to rain, ads for umbrellas will be prioritized.)

“It all depends on each individual retailer and what they want to achieve,” Phelps said. “A surprising amount of time it’s because they think they should [deploy retail AV], but on the nice occasions it’s because they’ve actually got a story to tell.”

Good storytelling is the primary ingredient in successful retail AV deployments, and as Phelps hinted, not all brands recognize this. He said that many times, retailers express that they need to install video screens into their locations because that’s what the competition has done. He argued that this is not just a bad strategy, it’s not a strategy at all.

“If you’re talking to an IT department, it’s not the ideal scenario because it’s just another thing that they have to do,” Phelps illustrated.

More than that, IT professionals aren’t designers. Phelps said that ideally, discussions focused on retail AV should include the customer’s marketing personnel, architect, and the interior designers charged with outfitting store locations. With these individuals leading the conversation, the likelihood of a successful deployment is greater.

With audio being a major contributor to the in-store experience, it’s necessary for stores to stay on brand. Retailers invest significant resources into the thoughtful curation and distribution of playlists, and most don’t want their employees interfering with music selection. There is also no need for humans to tinker with volume or music style when the system—equipped with ambient noise compensation tools—does this automatically.

Graeme Harrison, VP and general manager at Bluesound Professional, said this is why it’s best to give staff limited, if any, control over the sound. He also noted that employee turnover in retail can be high, and that training new hires on a complex audio interface is impractical.

“You’ve got to make it easy for them,” Harrison said. “That’s why no control or really limited control is the right way of doing it. The control interface is super-important.”

Scaling Up

While retailers may strive to differentiate the bricks-and-mortar experience from shopping online, they still want to measure what’s happening in their stores the same way they do with their websites. Avocor’s Dana Corey argued that consumers continue to spend more money offline, which means that these locations generate valuable data.

Corey noted that retailers have transitioned from a project-based approach, where the focus is on the design or deployment at one single location, to an at-scale process that takes the entire chain into consideration. The goal is to implement systems that can be rolled out, managed, and updated across expanded networks with little or no hassle.

“That brings new considerations such as integration with existing IT systems, remote device management, security, and long-term operational costs,” Corey said. “In many cases, simplicity and standardization become more important than highly customized installations, as they allow retailers to scale efficiently.”

Thinking at scale is also necessary for AV firms that want to help their retail clients with budget allotment. Stephen Glancey, digital practice leader at Diversified, said that one challenge retailers face is determining how much they will invest in the AV systems that reside at their flagship location versus the funds they will attribute to deployments at locations across the country or even the globe. This is an important decision to make—when one considers that most customers will never have the opportunity to visit a flagship location.

“That’s where we begin to talk about creating repeatable elements that allow for lower budgets for stores with smaller footprints and less foot traffic, but still enable them to participate in the global digital strategy,” Glancey explained. “It really comes down to blending that bespoke, unique experience that you can’t have anywhere else, and how to scale that to medium-sized and smaller stores.”

While AV designers and integrators may not be content development specialists, there is an opportunity for AV pros to generate recurring revenue from retail AV deployments if they adopt a content-focused mindset. Phelps noted that content adaptation and distribution—formatting video so that it can be displayed and delivered properly—is one ongoing service that AV firms can offer.

“A retailer with 50 stores can train themselves to handle a platform that distributes the content correctly, or quite often they will subcontract that to the integrator,” Phelps said. “That’s where your recurring income comes from, because you can charge for the license for the content management platform and you can charge for content management as well. Content opens up more business to the integrator.”