touch screen monitors in brick and mortaar storess supplier

To stay relevant in today’s competitive brick and mortar environment and compete against digital sales, it’s crucial to create a positive in-store experience that incentivizes customers to keep coming back. Thus, the need for point of sale touch screen monitors in retail to inform, entertain, educate, and influence is more crucial than ever to cultivate customer loyalty and create a positive and memorable in-store experience.

Digital signage can serve a multitude of purposes in retail environments. Overhead large displays can be used to inform or direct consumers, whereas point of sale touch screen monitor are proven to increase sales and make the in-store experience superior to shopping online. Retail touch screen monitors can also be utilized to customize experiences towards a customer’s unique and specialized needs, creating a personalized experience that makes their shopping easier and more efficient.

We’ve worked with a multitude of clients to achieve their goals while improving and enhancing their brick and mortar experiences for their customers. Whether it’s a consumer-facing display to verify purchases, pricing, or signature capture or a POP display to educate customers within the aisle end cap, or specialty selection, we have the retail touch screens and expertise to provide the right POStouch screen monitor system for any retail need.

Manufacturer of IoT-based software and hardware for the agricultural, finance, retail, energy, healthcare and OEM industries. Types of software include building operating management systems, data collection, demand management, diagnostic, maintenance management, industrial automation and system integration. IP programmable controllers, thermostats, extender modules, cellular routers, digital sensors, touchscreen displays and high pressure/velocity transmitters are available. Capable of remote monitoring, scheduling, managing network and controlling equipment. Ancillary products such as actuators, meters, valves, drivers, power supplies and enclosures are also offered. Training, consulting, troubleshooting and application development are the secondary services provided. Suitable for cyber security, energy management and cloud applications.

If you"re an OEM or integrator producing display products for retailers, you"re going to be facing a somewhat new challenge: the incorporation of touch technology into retail advertisement displays. As more consumers than ever grow accustomed to touch being a standard luxury in personal electronics, point-of-sale displays in stores now face the burden of bringing touch-enabled performance to a harsher environment.

In the past, resistive touch panels were not responsive enough for the fast-moving world of retail. However, technology has now greatly improved since its inception.

Capacitive technology opens up new opportunities, and, as costs have fallen, more OEMs are able to add high quality, responsive touch-ready panels to their products.

In a store, a good touchscreen experience can lead to a higher level of customer engagement, retention and increased positive sentiment to the business, which in turn increases the likelihood of purchase. A study by IBM and the National Retail federation found that Gen Zers still prefer physically shopping in the store.

Because of the popularity of touchscreens, there is now an "expectation of touch" from consumers, who expect smartphone-level functionality in day-to-day screen environments. Watch a young child walk into a store that features a screen and they"ll immediately try to touch it and interact as if it"s a tablet.

For manufacturers, this poses a challenge — how do you offer the same level of touchscreen performance expected by the public while dealing with the challenges posed by retail environments such as vandalism, weatherproofing, etc.? Display manufacturers have plenty of tips for OEMs who are sourcing touchscreens.

The biggest thing to remember is that in a retail environment, your customer"s audience may choose not to buy a product or may miss the advertisement if your display product doesn"t meet their standards, so getting things right is vital.

Direct light can cause issues for end-consumers, whether this is from sunlight or high powered indoor lighting, as it can cause glare that makes reading a screen almost impossible.

When you have a small space of time to capture a potential customer"s attention, retailers cannot afford to use poorly optimized displays. This means that you need to opt for high powered backlights to boost your display"s brightness or customize your screen with an anti-glare coating.

Many POS displays and digital advertising boards are located outdoors, making them vulnerable to environmental and adverse weather conditions. Subsequently, manufacturers must ensure their display and product is weatherproof and fully IP rated. However, being weatherproof isn"t enough for touch panels.

Instead, they must be able to perform perfectly when it"s raining, a challenge for most capacitive screens which rely on the electricity emitted by your finger. Moisture can confuse and complicate the sensors, which in turn causes issues. In these cases, many OEMs choose to use resistive touch panels for their displays, which react solely to pressure rather than electricity and will still operate properly when users are wearing gloves.

One sad reality in retail is that products and displays can be exposed to vandalism. Display technology is especially vulnerable to accidental damage such as scratches from carelessness, as well as determined damage through vandalism.

When producing a display product for retail, it is vital to invest in toughened glass or add a protection panel that does not compromise on touch performance. This will keep the display safe. Unfortunately, very few protective additions can withstand determined assaults — only CCTV placed near your display will help protect your display from vandals or thieves.

With these factors all in mind, the options for touchscreen solutions have never been so varied. For POS displays that are going to be located outdoors, a resistive touch panel may be the best choice as it can be used gloved and doesn"t rely on electricity. For in-store and fully responsive touch experiences, a capacitive panel is the better choice.

Both technologies can support different customization options, including a range of optical enhancements to the displays or the addition of custom cover lenses for added functionality or branding.

With our background in high-caliber German engineering, coupled with efficient production and design in Shenzhen, China, has made faytech NA a world-renowned player in the touch device marketplace. faytech NA also specializes in developing customized products and project-based applications, creating loyal customers in over six continents across the globe. faytech North America is based in New York City, with offices and distribution centers throughout the US, Canada and Mexico

Faytech NA products are used in an array of industries, from consumer products and POS systems to ruggedized industrial solutions. Our engineering, design and production teams create the opportunity for our customers to discover the right solution and product for their respective application. Due to our wide range of manufacturing capabilities, experience with product customization, and our trained professionals, Faytech NA can accomodate for a wide range of industries, businesses, and technologies.

Faytech NA products are used in an array of industries, from consumer products and POS systems to ruggedized industrial solutions. Our engineering, design and production teams create the opportunity for our customers to discover the right solution and product for their respective application. Due to our wide range of manufacturing capabilities, experience with product customization, and our trained professionals, faytech can accomodate for a wide range of industries, businesses, and technologies.

Faytech NA products are in use throughout a number of industries, from consumer products and POS systems to ruggedized industrial solutions. Our engineering, design and production teams create the opportunity for our customers to discover the right solution and product for their respective application. With our range of manufacturing capabilities, experience with product customization, and our trained professionals, Faytech NA can service a wide range of industries, businesses, and technologies.

Faytech NA products are in use throughout a number of industries, from consumer products and POS systems to ruggedized industrial solutions. Our engineering, design and production teams create the opportunity for our customers to discover the right solution and product for their respective application. With our range of manufacturing capabilities, experience with product customization, and our trained professionals, Faytech NA can service a wide range of industries, businesses, and technologies.

The Elo 1723L 17" standard format touchscreen monitor meets the durability & aesthetic requirements for a variety of high traffic retail & hospitality interactive solutions

The zero-bezel monitor provides a stable drift-free operation w/ outstanding image clarity, resolution & light transmission - for an accurate touch response & vivid images

Features a spill-resistant sealing, adjustable height stand w/ tilting functionality, VESA mounting option, connectivity incorporated within the monitor (reducing the number of power bricks), & communication cables & side controls w/ lockout capability

Science fiction has always served as a window into a potential future, namely in the way of technology. But what was once regulated to episodes of Star Trek is quickly becoming the stuff of reality. Many fixtures of these kinds of shows and books have begun to inspire real-life counterparts, including - but not limited to - touchscreen technology.

One only has to look at how far cell phones have come since their inception. Physical keyboards, like those from BlackBerry, gave people about as much of a solution as is possible for those who found themselves doing more on the devices as they became more advanced. Where tactile options came up short, touchscreens graciously stepped up to bat, providing a much fuller experience. This kind of functionality then spread to tablets, which are considered by many to be rivals of laptops and even standard PCs.

While there are still some things that are best done on a desktop computer, that does not change the fact that many users find themselves longing for the same abilities on their PCs afforded by many of their mobile devices. This is what helped breed the touchscreen monitor market, which has many viable options for people seeking the best of both worlds. With stronger computing power and a finer ability to control actions occurring in the screen, users can get more work done in new and exciting ways.

Traditionally, computer mice are what have allowed us to "touch" in a virtual context, but touchscreen monitors are changing all that. It might be said that the reason that mice were used in the first place was because the technology had not evolved to a responsive enough level to enable that natural solution. Now that people have the touchscreen technology, they want it everywhere.

If one thing is for certain, it is that the burgeoning adoption of touchscreen technology is no fad. Proliferation has already come too far to turn back now, and computer manufacturers are taking notice. Everyone is trying to get a piece of the action, including ELO Touch Solutions, Laiputuo Electronics, Planar, HP, 3M, Touch Systems, ViewSonic, Dell and ACER as well. Getting into the touchscreen monitor game is a no-brainer for the companies involved in this generation of computing. With so many different applications made for touchscreen monitors, options exist for all sorts of interested parties.

Touchscreen monitors are becoming the new standard in both private and enterprise settings. Here are some of the ways they can be leveraged effectively for business: touchscreen monitors for workstations, touchscreen monitors for hospitals, and touchscreen monitors for POS systems.

Newegg offers a large selection of touchscreen monitors which vary according to the type from 5-wire Resistive touchscreen monitors, and Accu Touch touchscreen monitors, to Capacitive touchscreen monitors, and more. Newegg’s wide selections will definitely meet your needs.

Since 2001, Touch Dynamic has been a nationally recognized, leading US-based designer and manufacturer of touch systems and PCs. At Touch Dynamic we understand the demands on our channel partners and provide unique products and additional value-added services to help them meet the specific needs of their customers. We are in the business of all-in-one touch computers, touch screen monitors, small form factor PCs, tablet and mobile POS devices, kiosks, and point-of-sale peripherals like receipt printers, customer displays and cash drawers.

A powerful way to enhance a retail brand image is to elevate the store environment with attention-grabbing visual technology. Customers will respond to and remember what they see throughout the store, and the right digital signage displays can make all the difference. When used with moving content that mesmerizes customers with lifestyle images, product beauty videos and high-resolution graphics, digital signage can evoke the feelings you want your customers to associate with your brand.

Consider all the places your customers might be throughout your store. Today’s digital signage offers the form factors and flexibility to fit virtually anywhere, from outside the entrance to the front windows to the back wall, and anywhere in between—all while making your brand look like a technology leader.

Many digital signage displays are available with Beacon and Bluetoothâ Low Energy (BLE) technology to enable individualized messaging to customers that have the store’s app on their smartphones with Bluetooth enabled. When the beacon detects such a smartphone, it can push personalized content to the phone or even directly to the display as the customer approaches.

That’s not all Beacons can do. They can generate data, including demographics about how customers move through a store, highlighting areas where people tend to spend time. They can also be used to create sales system metrics and help with analytics.

Having a wide assortment of products is critical to the success of a retail operation. But unlike an online store, bringing every model, color, and variation onto the retail floor may not be feasible, especially when trying to create an environment that stands out while maximizing sales per square foot.

The same idea can be used to create endless racks and shelves. An example would be to integrate a video camera on top of a small display in an eyeglass/sunglass store. A customer could then sit comfortably in front of the display, see themselves on the screen, and virtually try on hundreds of styles with the touch of a button.

Following the gist of that lesson, there isn’t an area in a retail environment that cannot be fitted with commercial display technology and engaging content to create amazing customer experiences, all in the pursuit of greater retail stickiness. From quick serve restaurants using digital menu boards to retail high-bright window facing displays, public spaces with ultra-stretch displays, touchscreen kiosks, and DVLED for larger installations, LG has everything for your retail needs.

Danik is a Key Account Manager for LG Commercial Solutions, based in the Northeast. He has over 15 years of experience in several technology areas and earned a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with a focus on Computer Science. He specializes in large and small displays and computing.

The Christmas season is ramping up for retailers everywhere and everyone is launching comprehensive marketing strategies on the airwaves, online, in malls, and on Main Streets. Christmas shopping season is a key time for retailers who depend on robust sales from Black Friday to Boxing Day, and the stakes are high. Even while the crowds are at their thickest in malls and on downtown shopping streets, the competition for shoppers’ attention is fierce and retailers will need to come up with an effective strategy for getting their attention and maintaining a high quality customer experience in store.

Videos catch people’s attention, especially on the street or in malls. During the busy Christmas shopping period, downtowns and malls are full of people, food stalls, and all the sights, smells, and sounds of busy shopping areas. A compelling, visually attractive video ad that appeals to lifestyle branding is more effective than motionless posters or signs. Holiday-themed content is a great idea to appeal to Christmas shoppers, too.

Getting shoppers into your store is only half the battle; keeping them there long enough to find the perfect gift and make a purchase is the other half. Between bigger crowds and a staff stretched by all the customers, plus shopping fatigue, creating a pleasant customer experience is harder than ever during Christmas. One of the biggest stressors: lines at the cash. Digital displays can help with stress and unease – it’s a great opportunity to display entertaining and informative branding content.

Lines are one of the leading stress factors during the Christmas shopping period, and retailers do everything they can to keep them down. However, labor costs and space put a limit to how much they can effectively reduce wait times. That’s why so many retailers are making the move to self-serve kiosks and other touch screen products that improve service. They reduce lines and improve the customer experience, especially when you take staff previously stuck behind the counter and put them on the shop floor.

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Editor"s Note: This article by Luke Wilwerding, director of retail solutions at Elo, an interactive touchscreen provider, originally ran on Digital Signage Today, a sister website of Kiosk Marketplace.

It"s no secret that many national retail chains are struggling to keep up with the growing threat from e-commerce sites. And with 77 percent of Americans now owning a smartphone, the shift towards mobile and online purchasing will only increase. So far in 2017, we"ve seen such retail giants as Sears, The Limited, JCPenney and American Apparel close stores, or in extreme cases, shutter their brick-and-mortar presence entirely.

With e-commerce options literally at their fingertips, shoppers are choosing with their dollars where they complete purchases – and if a retailer doesn"t create a satisfactory customer experience, including in-store e-commerce options, shoppers will take their wallets elsewhere.

New York & Company is one national retailer that is converging online and in-store selling by introducing self-service kiosks in select stores throughout the U.S. Serving as a complement to the store associates and traditional checkout area, the kiosks are positioned throughout the store or near the service desk. This gives shoppers the choice of self-service by providing multiple touchpoints throughout the store where they can shop both the store’s physical and online product offering, make a secure purchase and ship their order directly to any address. New York & Company captures all possible sales, expands their point of sale capabilities and gives customers tech options that they are beginning to expect and intuitively already know how to use.

Luxury and smaller boutique retailers are also finding ways to benefit from using interactive technologies in-store. Monica Rich Kosann, a luxury retail jeweler, is using touchscreens at its freestanding location in The Shops at Columbus Circle for their own take on the "white glove" shopping experience. To maximize the availability of their inventory beyond what is in their shop, the sales associates use the screens for personalized assisted selling, where they can comfortably show shoppers the full line of jewelry and demonstrate how different pieces, such as their signature keepsake lockets, can be customized.

As these two examples show, retailers of all sizes can benefit from using interactive technologies in-store. But it"s not a one-size-fits-all approach, and what type of technology a store should incorporate depends on the type of store, its product offerings and what its customers are looking for in a shopping experience.

For the retailer looking to create an omnichannel shopping environment, self-service kiosks allow shoppers to choose an online option while they"re already in your store. This can help prevent a loss of sale if a location is out of stock of an item, while still giving the store credit for that particular sale. Offering ship to store, home or office options also continues to converge online and in-store channels while giving customers more choices on how they shop a brand.

But not all retailers necessarily need a kiosk installment. They can be a significant cost investment, and smaller retailers and boutiques can equally benefit from using digital signage with point of sale capabilities. These touchscreens can range from a tablet size up to 70+ inches depending on the needs of the retailer. By doubling as both signage – that broadcasts beautiful, interactive imagery or dynamic pricing/promotions – and a place to deploy a website, retailers get more bang for their buck while still giving their shoppers the in-store technology options they crave.

It can be overwhelming to choose from the wide range of digital signage and kiosk options available. Retailers researching how to incorporate in these technologies should drill down what they"re looking to get out of it, and make smart choices before making an investment. Some questions to consider:Do I have limited space to display my inventory, but a large product offering?

These questions are a good starting point to think strategically about how to stand out from the crowd and impress customers. Retailers should expect to see their competitors starting to incorporate tech solutions, so the time is now.

In my last three blogs (Get to Know Your Retail Customer: Accelerating Customer Insight and Relevance; Improving your Customer-Centric Merchandising with Location-based in-Store Merchandising; and Maximizing Supply Chain Agility through the “Last Mile” Commitment) I painted a picture that showed an ever-changing landscape in retail, considering that consumers are more in control than ever, mobile (at least somewhat digitally mobile considering the pandemic) and socially connected. They are armed with more knowledge than ever before, as a result, four strategic pillars have emerged that have resulted as leading retailers and brands have deployed a data-centric strategy enabling a customer-first approach. The retailers and brands have integrated more tech (data, analytics, and devices) into every step of the consumer purchase path that is revealing an entirely new retail experiences – starting with production, replenishment and continuing into merchandising, marketing and on to fulfillment and returns— that has an opportunity (and challenge) to shape the customer perception.

The three pillars previously discussed: personalized interactions, customer-centric merchandising, and supply chain agility all share the same thread – all deploy a data-centric strategy enabled by an enterprise data platform streaming data at high volume and high scale, managing and monitoring diverse edge applications and providing data scientists with tools to build, test, refine and deploy predictive machine learning models.

With more than 78% of global retail sales projected to still occur in-store by 2023, traditional retailers are increasingly realizing that the brick-and-mortar footprint is a competitive differentiator and with this realization, they are reimagining stores morphing them from a simple place products to wait to be purchased to micro-fulfillment centers or in-store pickup locations as examples. Blended use brick and mortar enable better pricing and convenience to consumers than digital pure-plays, and physical stores now serve as micro-fulfillment centers—through BOPIS (buy online, pick-up in-store) or curbside delivery—and drive down overall cost-to-serve.

In-store customer insights and engagement opportunities are now possible using data captured from sensors, video, and beacons. This technology allows retailers to measure and respond in real-time to shopper behavior, measure geolocation, traffic, dwell times, and conversion metrics. For merchants, the ability to capture shelf, rack, table, and bin inventory levels allows them to prevent out-of-stocks (lost sales), monitor merchandising (display, pricing, promo, POG), meet compliance initiatives, and share these new insights with trading partners they may have. Traditional retailers now have access to an entirely new data monetization opportunity that many have been missing out on for years.

Cloudera recognizes ten top retail IoT use cases that are transforming brick and mortar stores, as you can see below, and they are transforming all aspects of the retail experience.

In my earlier blogs, we demonstrated some pretty remarkable benefits from the use cases associated with improving customer insight (producing relevant offer response time) or improving supply chain agility (saving nearly $21m/year in product delivery costs). This last use case looks at the pervasive amounts of waste the supermarkets generate, as it is estimated 43 billion pounds of food every year is discarded by supermarkets, according to a recent study.

Retail grocers are committed to doing better, but food waste is still such a pervasive problem that only one supermarket chain earned a B on the food waste “report card” recently issued by the Center for Biological Diversity. Just a handful of chains earned Cs, while the rest of the country’s most recognizable grocery stores scored Ds or Fs.

The leading global mass merchant—that scored highest in rankings—recognized a need to improve cold storage temperature fluctuations on grocery products, understanding that both high and low-temperature variations could lead to excessive shrink (waste).

This retailer deployed Cloudera DataFlow to tap real-time streaming data from thousands of cold storage sensors across its vast network of brick-and-mortar stores. The solution ingested and aggregated data from these temperature sensors with location and on-hand inventory data to predict, monitor, and respond to possible changes in perishable food products such as produce, dairy, and meat.

Predictive analytics allowed the retailer to proactively respond not only to product life cycle impacts, but also the potential risk of cold storage equipment down-time. Automating the closed-loop process using pre-built business rules and alerts gave individual maintenance teams and store department managers actionable instructions to ensure product freshness and reduce waste. The resulting application of streaming data and advanced analytics is expected to be a major contributor to improving freshness, reducing food waste, and cutting cold.

The benefits described in my last four blogs are realized through the Cloudera Data Platform that enables retailers and consumer goods companies to maintain their momentum and accelerate digital transformation by leveraging data from any source whether on-premises, cloud or hybrid platforms—powered by open-source technology. Cloudera delivers this data lifecycle solution through the Cloudera Data Platform, from edge to AI.

If you"re a business owner, you might struggle to decide between traditional brick-and-mortar and e-commerce marketplaces. Which will lead to better profits? Which will lead to failure? The answer isn"t clear-cut.

According to Harvard Business Review’s study on consumer shopping habits, 73% of participants use both brick-and-mortar and e-commerce during their shopping journey.

E-commerce enables your business to reach more customers. Instead of catching the eyes of passersby with an enticing storefront display and sign, a well-placed online ad can reach the screens of thousands of users locally and beyond.

Customers won’t always find what they’re looking for on the shelves of traditional brick-and-mortar stores, or they might find perusing the aisles to be a waste of time. In addition, you may not be able to stock your full range of merchandise in every physical location. E-commerce enables you to bring the full range of choices typically found only in a flagship stop to every shopper.

With a few clicks, an online store provides customers a complete view of what a brand offers, including what’s in stock, the bestsellers, related items and current promotions.

The pandemic accelerated the digital transformation of nearly every retail business. A study by McKinsey and Company found that e-commerce year-over-year growth in 2020 was two to five times faster than before the pandemic. Retail stores closed down, people stayed at home, and e-commerce increased rapidly.

The Covid boom is not slowing down. Roughly three-quarters of people using digital channels for the first time during the pandemic said they will continue using them when things return to “normal,” according to McKinsey. In addition, Shopify"s most recent trend roadmap expects the e-commerce market to grow by almost $11 trillion between 2021 and 2025, with global sales expected to reach $6 trillion by 2024.

Even as pandemic restrictions end, and many people continue working and watching movies at home, stores are mounting a comeback. It turns out there are limits to buying goods from a screen. Society has a long history of going into a store to buy something. That need is more resilient than the temporary need to buy things online during a pandemic.

According to Raydiant"s second-annual State of Consumer Behavior Report, 46% of respondents preferred in-store shopping over online, with 33% citing the ability to touch and interact with the product.

Brick-and-mortar stores create an experience that a phone, tablet or computer screen can"t provide. With in-person shopping, customers can test a product in real-time, bring it home, and exchange it for a different product or return it for a refund the next day if they aren’t 100% satisfied. Customers don"t want to wait to try out a product, even if waiting means a same-day delivery with Amazon Prime.

A physical storefront can potentially give your customer a more powerful experience and engage their imagination. Online ads can provide dopamine spikes, but these feelings are fleeting and lack the human engagement that comes with asking questions about a product. Interactions in the outside world carry more weight in the human brain due to the confluence of multiple sensory inputs.

In addition, face-to-face interaction holds immense value. A landing page, app UI, or FAQ page cannot recreate the impact of a well-trained sales associate. This in-person advantage can make a difference for a skeptical customer.

March 2022 was the first month since the pandemic hit during which e-commerce sales declined from the same period a year earlier while in-store sales rose, according to Mastercard SpendingPulse, which tracks transactions made over the Mastercard payments network as well as survey-based estimates for spending with cash and checks. The drop in online spending was 3.3%, the first year-over-year decline since November 2013. The rise for bricks-and-mortar stores was 11.2%.

Successful companies are omnichannel, which means combining the magic of in-store experiences, and the convenience and availability of online shopping as well as direct delivery.

Shopify"s survey found a mutual relationship between the two channels: 54% of participants said they"re likely to look at a product online and buy in-store, while 53% are likely to look at a product in-store and buy online.

It"s an even split. Both channels can operate as a showroom. Both channels provide value for retail consumers. And using both allows businesses to meet customers at every touchpoint of the buying process.

Brick-and-mortar businesses cannot simply rely on word of mouth or walk-in traffic. Combining brick and mortar with a digital strategy enables retailers to promote inventory to customers anytime, anywhere.

Conversely, an online-only strategy excludes the benefits of traditional brick and mortar retail: the power of immediacy, same-day purchase and returns, tactile engagement, and community-building events.

Enabling customers to buy online and pick up merchandise in the store is a strategy that bridges the gap between traditional brick and mortar and e-commerce channels. This provides the convenience of in-home shopping with the immediate availability of products at a nearby store, typically on the same day. This also enables a customer to satisfy the tactile experience they desire. Whether it is to just see and feel the size, quality or functionality of an appliance, or to try-on clothing for fit and appearance. They then can make a decision, while they are still at the store, to keep, exchange or return the product, and avoid the inconvenience and possible cost of shipping the item.

Our intuitive and flexible location platform includes dedicated solutions for omnichannel businesses. Our technology helps you get customers to stores as well as optimize their online experience.

Mapbox Movement data provides in-depth insights on where and when people are moving most. Get a quick understanding of high-traffic locations, where you should place your store, and which existing stores are driving the most or least traffic.

Our Isochrone API offers a birds-eye view of your network radius. Enter your parameters, and you’ll know which areas are reachable within a specified time, whether by foot, bike, or car. Make sure your customers know where to find you with an easy and engaging store locator.

For online shopping, checkout must be fast and direct. A poor checkout process loses customers and hurts brand reputation. With Mapbox Address Autofill customers can enter their addresses quickly and accurately into a single search box. Checkouts are faster, and there’s less room for missed deliveries caused by address typos.

As an omnichannel business, you can guide customers toward what they want online, give a good first impression, and provide them with an in-store experience that will keep them coming back. Traditional brick-and-mortar stores can do better by leveraging the online world. On the other hand, e-commerce platforms can’t ignore the benefits of providing a seamless experience between in-person and online shopping.

Today we’ll dig deep into the world of brick-and-mortar retail.What is Brick-and-Mortar?You already know part of the answer. Every time you shop in a physical store, you experience what brick-and-mortar is all about, firsthand.

Brick-and-mortar retail is ever-evolving. Today’s physical retail stores are a far cry from the traditional B&M storefront — and retailers of tomorrow have even more “in store”. (Pun intended…)

A brick-and-mortar is a business that operates from at least one physical location that customers can visit. (as opposed to exclusively online). The storefront is called a brick-and-mortar store.

Traditionally, brick-and-mortar retail stores wereTHE way to do business.Customers visit the location, choose the products they want, and a store clerk is there to assist and complete the transaction.

Today, brick-and-mortar stores often go beyond selling products. Retail stores are expected to deliver unique, branded, customer experiences. More on this later. We’ll tell you what you need to know about operating a successful brick-and-mortar store now and in the future.

Brick-and-mortar and online retail are two very different animals. The biggest difference is obvious: Brick-and-mortar stores exist in the physical world, while eCommerce stores have their webshop online.

Modern consumer’s preferences:The modern consumer still wants to see and touch many products before they buy them. Allowing this makes customers less hesitant, and more intentional in their purchasing decisions.

Brick-and-mortar shoppers want personal support they find from the in-store team. The direct way of helping leads to more revenue — and more chances to up or cross-sell to them, too.

Buying is typically smoother in a well-run brick-and-mortar store than online. In comparison, poor checkout processes are responsible for 21% of online cart abandonment.

Brick-and-mortar shoppers buy a product and take it home right away. This is very appreciated. Ecommerce shoppers have to wait for the product to be shipped, this is the reason why eCommerce is racing to offer next day delivery.

The rise of eCommerce sometimes makes brick-and-mortar retail seem like a thing of the past. But we are all competing for the same customer’s attention in all online channels, think of SEO, PPC on social and eCommerce email marketing.

Yes, the number of US-based eCommerce stores continues to grow. And yes, the number of brick-and-mortar locations continues to shrink. But don’t let these numbers fool you.

The fact is, brick-and-mortar stores still accounted for 84% of total retail sales in 2019, Not everyone is shopping online. There was a radical growth of eCommerce during COVID, but we can’t say it will stay this way.

Really, consumers are nearly split in their preference for on- or offline shopping. We’d actually argue that it’s evolving: As NPR recently pointed out, many online-only retailers are beginning to open physical stores to expand their reach.

Staffing is a key cost for brick-and-mortar stores. It’s an investment you can’t afford to skimp on: Without talented staff, your store won’t be able to deliver the expected value to your customers.

Aside from these costs, there are also logistical challenges to operating a brick-and-mortar store, such as:The inability to serve customers 24/7 (unlike with eCommerce)

These challenges are unavoidable. They come with the territory of running a brick-and-mortar business. To succeed in the brick-and-mortar retail world, merchants need to keep increasing their skills to best face them.

A store’s POS system is its digital center, facilitating the following processesCustomer transactions: Purchases, returns, and exchanges are directly completed by employees through the store’s POS system.

Point-of-sale systems often support payment options. Modern POS systems mobile payments (such as Square and PayPal), credit cards, and other traditional payment methods.

While there are a number of POS tools available, three of the most popular “new kids on the block” are:Shopify POS, which provides a streamlined, customer-centric checkout experience, along with omnichannel store management options.

Not all brick-and-mortar stores are the same. The most successful stores follow their “retail formula” to the letter. It describes exactly how the store works. But the starting point is thetype of brick and mortar store.

Convenience stores are the perfect pit stop for customers on the go — which all but guarantees foot traffic throughout the day and night for store owners.

One of the major benefits of running a grocery store is the ability to generate regular, frequent business from loyal customers. Since you offer products they need on a routine basis, they’ll always have a need for your brand.

Superstores can potentially generate business from consumers of all walks of life with varying needs. As you can imagine, opening a superstore probably isn’t in the cards for the fledgling entrepreneur.

Though discount stores typically make a minimal profit from individual sales, the low overhead allows them to stretch revenues much further than the more pricey “big box” stores.

The trick to success for retailers is to know how to make the most out of their store’s strengths in order to provide maximum value to their customers.

The modern consumer wants more than just “a place to buy things”. (If that’s all they want, they’ll probably just make their purchase online, from the comfort of their own home.)

If the entire store looks like a rummage sale, it’ll be impossible for potential customers to find what they’re looking for. Chances are, they won’t even try.

Cross-merchandising attracts customers and can persuade them to buy related products. For example, clothing stores often display complete outfits (made of multiple clothing items and accessories)

1. Allow your customers to make purchases using their preferred methods. In addition to cash, check, and credit card, this also means looking into options like mobile and smartphone payments. (Note: This doesn’t mean you need to offer all payment options — just the ones that are worth adopting.)

2. Consider offering multiple payment policies and structures. Depending on your industry and audience. Installment plans, lines of credit, etc. Can attract customers who need additional time to pay their purchases.

You also want to offer options in fulfillment and delivery. Click-and-collect, for example, is becoming an increasingly popular option. Buy online and pick up your purchase in-store after.

Making returns smooth and as customer-friendly as possible is also key to retail success. A streamlined returns and exchange process means satisfied customers, but also fewer resources wasted on your end.

This is where even exchanges and store credit come into play. It’s all about figuring out what your customers appreciate most — and what’s best for your business.

By today’s standards, though, it’s important to take things a step further, here. More than just offering standalone events, your aim should be to create an immersive overall in-store experience for your customers.

For example, Nike’s “Nike Live” stores deliver a variety of innovative experiences, such as:A “sneaker bar”, where customers can create customized designs before making a purchase

Such innovative experiences give customers a good reason to not only enter the store — but also to stick around to see what elsethe brand has to offer.

Since the majority of your customer base will be localized, unless you are part of a franchise retail chain marketing, it makes sense to place a focus on local SEO, email marketing, and PPC ads.

Beacons and geofencing tactics can also attract passersby and others within the general vicinity of your store. These technologies allow sending push notifications, Google Ads, and other promotions to individual customers based on specific behavioral triggers.

Digital signage is also evolving to become more interactive. Digital signage can present real-time information to your in-store customers, such as product availability, queue position, and more.

The use of digital technology isn’t just to “wow” your in-store audience (although that certainly is part of it). It’s also to make the in-store experience more engaging — or, at the very least, to keep less-exciting moments to a minimum.

This goes for the browsing/shopping phase, as well as the purchasing phase of the customer journey. The “art of shopping” has multiple phases in each engagement. Here, the customer:Compares similar products

Give free WiFi, interactive digital displays, and other means of gathering information removes friction from browsing. Your customers can easily move forward with their purchase.

A digital POS system helps streamline purchasing products as well. With mobile POS systems, your team can literally meet customers where they are in-store — so they don’t need to wait or stand in line to buy your products.

Finally, you need to deliver an omnichannel experience for your customers — with your brick-and-mortar store being but one facet of the overall experience. Make each visit feel like a continuation of their journey with your brand — not a one-off engagement.

This should give you a good idea of what to focus on as you open your first retail store. But, we’re only scratching the surface, here. We’ll be adding resources to this guide and dig deeper into how to succeed as a retail shop owner.

A former teacher, Matt now specializes in R&D for ecommerce business owners and helps guide merchants in understanding the importance of this digital-first world.

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You’ve all heard about showrooming, where customers go to a local store to check out products they’d like to buy, then purchase the product for less online. It’s been going on for several years and is becoming more popular as technology enables instant comparison shopping.

Online stores often provide lower prices than brick and mortar stores because of lower overhead costs, no sales taxes (in some states) and free shipping offers.

Showrooming can be costly to brick and mortar retailers, not only in lost sales, but also in the wear and tear on products handled by people with no intent to buy.

Some retailers have tried to compete with showroomers by reducing prices. Major retailers like Target are trying to fight showrooming by making a deal with manufacturers to sell products exclusive to their stores.

Best Buy is taking steps to reverse the practice of showrooming by providing store employees with new training and mobile technology to better serve customers, expanding its technology services to both consumers and small businesses, and offering shoppers the best price whether they’re shopping in a bricks and mortar store or online.

Nevertheless, showrooming is on the rise and is becoming a concern for some retailers as the number of shoppers checking prices with mobile devices while shopping in a local store has increased.

Comparison-shopping rates range from 59 percent of US smartphone owners (InsightExpress, 2011) to 25 percent of US mobile phone owners (Pew Internet and American Life Project, January 2012).

Some studies suggest showrooming is a looming threat with huge implications for retail merchants. That’s because local merchants must hire staff, pay rent, utility services, janitorial services, real estate and sales taxes and invest in merchandise, and then wait for customers to come in and buy.

However, online merchants without the same expenses have become competitors, while consumer behavior has gradually changed, putting local stores at risk.

According to the 2012 Deloitte Retail & Consumer Spending Survey, Smartphones will influence 19 percent ($689 billion) of U.S. retail store sales by 2016. Smartphones already influence 5.1 percent of all retail store sales in the United States, which Deloitte predicts will amount to ~$159 billion in annual retail sales this year.

These findings run counter to the widely held theory that consumers are increasingly using local stores as showrooms where they can learn about and see products in person, and then buy from a competitor online.

Instead, this study shows that many shoppers use their smartphones to enhance their store shopping experience, rather than using the store as a showroom for online retailers.

Google also lets retailers bid by location, so you can run unique search ads based on proximity to your retail location. In the search copy, offer discounts or coupons for brands if a purchase is made in-store.

In a world where low prices are just a few clicks away, it is crucial for brick ‘n mortar retailers to offer attractive pricing that offsets the shipping delays that accompany online and mobile shopping.

This is an excellent way to encourage shoppers to buy from a retailer rather than comparing prices online. Google Shopping’s paid ads provide a link for downloading coupons. RetailMeNot has a new app for iPhones with money-saving features designed to help retailers keep consumers in stores with discounts.

Provide better customer service through well-informed sales associates. Retailers can leverage their built-in advantages of customer service and immediacy. An assisted sale vs. online self-service sales gives brick-and-mortar stores a huge advantage for certain types of sales.

Ensure your employees are well trained as salespeople rather than just clerks. When they stress the benefits of immediate delivery vs. online shipping fees and the hassles of returns/exchanges for online sales, this can go a long way toward mitigating showrooming.

Providing online chat helps promote sales either online or through local stores. Businesses with lots of SKUs can answer questions online to enable a sale through their local store on furniture items like chairs, which can be researched online and then tried out and purchased locally.

Merchandising is critical when fighting back against showrooming since it is nearly impossible to replicate online and through mobile devices. By using attractive displays and store arrangements that optimally display products, retailers can persuade consumers to make a purchase decision.

Retailers can ask for exclusive product deals from manufacturers agreeing not to offer certain products/models online. That strategy seems to be working for Target, which has made some exclusive product agreements with technology suppliers and has retaliated against Amazon for showrooming by discontinuing its Kindle sales.

The conversion tactics above require an investment of time and personnel, adding to your overhead costs. But multi-location retailers can leverage local SEO and SEM strategies to bring foot traffic into their brick and mortar stores from online searches.

By employing best practices for local SEO, along with location-based schema markup elements into both store location pages and local landing pages, to help drive in-store sales. For larger retailers, this may mean investing in an automated SEO solution to get the job done across hundreds to thousands of locations.

Below are aggregate results seen by a national retailer and a global dealership client, using an automated Local (Maps), Organic (SEO) and Mobile (Smartphone) SaaS solution, designed for enterprise multi-location businesses.

Measure increase in Traffic to Store Locator, then measure increase in Foot Traffic for the same month, applying the same equation with the expectation that the Increase to Store Locator will show an increase in Percentage of Foot Traffic.

On the upside, most in-store researchers (35%) bought from the retailer’s store location where they were comparison-shopping, 19 percent bought online and only 8 percent went to another store (Pew Internet and American Life Project, January 2012).

Sometimes, immediacy is important for conversion, and there’s no substitution for the personal touch. Brick and mortar retailers can be more profitable by keeping up with and adapting to changes in consumer behavior while considering ways to cut overhead with the use of SEO and other marketing tactics to drive in-store sales.

In conclusion, gone are the days when retailing was relatively simple. Today’s retailers must not only know how to sell, they must integrate every online-offline marketing tactic available to gain advantage, as indicated in the information above.

Paul Bruemmer is Managing Partner at PB Communications LLC. Specializing in SaaS solutions for Enterprise Store Locator/Finders, Semantic/Organic/Local/Mobile and SEO Diagnostic Audits for increasing online and in-store foot traffic.