Retail advertising is one of those terms which recently gained some serious popularity, but what does it actually refer to?
According to AdAge, it’s a type of advertising that can be divided in 2 directions: local and national advertising. Those who own a single location, in a single market, usually engage in local retail advertising, through local media, in their attempt to reach customers near their location.
Retailers that managed to expand their operations across the country need, of course, national retail advertising. In most cases, they rely on broad-reaching, national or international, media to communicate with existing and potential customers.
Ok, now that we know the essential information about the concept, there’s one more important question left.
What’s the actual purpose of retail advertising?
Getting back to the basics, a retailer tries to promote his brand through various ways of advertising, with the help of a branding agency, in an attempt to convince people to visit and shop from their store. The advertisement they initiate attracts potential customers, acting as a catalyst.
This is the tricky part: the advertisement they use must be visually appealing to end-users, while it needs to communicate the right message efficiently and trigger the customers’ buying intent.
In the end, it’s all about increasing sales. And this wouldn’t be possible without some of the things retail advertising does very well. These things are encouraging impulse buys, introducing new products and promoting sales, supporting cross-promotions, informing customers or capturing their contact information, as well as point-of-purchase promotional materials.
Point-of-purchase materials can include posters, counter cards, product displays, window banners, danglers, register toppers, shelf-talkers, menu-board posters, illuminated displays, neon signs and any other visual item that promotes products at the retailer's location.
Using an innovative combination of light, sound and motion technology, Tokinomo can be a great example of advertising, as it helps products move ahead of the pack, leading to sales increases of 200% or more.
There are clearly a lot of tactics that you can use to win at retail advertising today and get one step above your competition. However, using all of them can be complicated, if not counterproductive.
Let’s take a few moments and discuss the best picks, and why they are the best.
Top 3 retail advertising tactics to use in 2020
1. Using point-of-purchase displays
According to researchers, more than 60% of all buying decisions are made while shopping in a store, while 50% of these decisions are considered impulse buys. Therefore, this means that POP (point-of-purchase) displays, placed throughout a store, can be one of the most effective retail marketing tools.
"According to researchers, more than 60% of all buying decisions are made while shopping in a store, while 50% of these decisions are considered impulse buys."
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The idea behind this concept is simple, you’re walking through aisles and see carefully picked items just waiting to get into your cart. Sure, you weren’t planning to get them, but the offer is just too good to refuse.
POP displays work best when placed along the path to checkout, as this can have increase sales through impulse buys.
2. Creating a sense of urgency
Speaking of impulse buys, most of these are spurred because of the “presence” of a sense of urgency. Let’s face it, we’re all attracted by messages like “for a limited time” or “while supplies last” so you should consider this when developing your retail advertising strategy.
When entering your store, customers should should see offers that are limited both by time and inventory, and should be able to understand that the offer and opportunity of buying said items will pass.
As long as the message and time-frame are clear, the sense of urgency is guaranteed to make a substantial amount of customers to take action.
3. Try experiential retail
There have been many talks lately about how experiential retail is actually the future, as more and more people, Millennials being the primary group, are now in search of retail experiences. This led to the introduction of the concept of “retailment”, which consists of creating unique moments that take shopping to a whole new level.
Tokinomo is supporting experiential retail, making products the absolute stars of the shelves. Simply put, when a shopper walks near a display, a motion sensor activates the device and brings the product to life, starting to engage the shopper.
Tokinomo x Jameson | In-store campaign
What do you think is the impression that people will get from your product? Pretty cool and memorable, right?
Conclusion
It’s clear that the retail industry is going through a major change, whether we’re talking about eCommerce or classic brick-and-mortar businesses.
While eCommerce still has a lot of room to grow and the future is more than just bright, physical stores are facing a real challenge and change seems to be the only solution. Innovation in experiential and frictionless retail is starting to scale, as concepts like click-and-collect, mobile order-ahead, and cashierless checkout are streamlining transactions.
Emarketer concluded that in 2020 retail sales will register a 2% growth, reaching $5.574 trillion. This might not seem like much when compared to eCommerce sales, a sector with a predicted growth rate of 12.8%, but it still presents a lot of opportunities.
Retail is on a good path and brick-and mortar-stores have a secure future. It’s up to business owners to stay alert, by trying to implement new technologies and concepts as quickly as possible. After all, being up to date is the only way you can stand out from the crowd.
