Increase Sales Using POS Displays

For every single business out there, increasing sales should be a priority. As we are all aware, more sales mean more profits – something we could all do with! There are loads of ways you can help to increase your businesses sales, from handing out business cards to delivering flyers. One brilliant way to help increase sales is to use POS (points of sale) displays. These kinds of displays are very effective as they are placed right near the counter or till (the point of sale) where customers pay for their goods. Here’s how you can boost your sales and effectively utilise POS displays:

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More About POS Displays

A POS display is used to help draw the shoppers eye towards promotional products more so than the regular items in the shop. These could be new products or even products that have a limited offer on. The POS display helps to sell the item by giving them as much focus as possible.

What To Include In Your Point Of Sale Display

A POS display will vary from business to business. They will vary in which way they are presented, from plastic hanging displays to big cardboard displays. They may also be situated in different places. To make your POS display as effective as possible you’ll want to include:

• Special banners or posters related to the product.

• Display Packs.

• Examples of the products.

While you are setting up your POS display, it’s wise to bear in mind the kind of customer that will probably come into the shop. Imagine walking into a supermarket: where do they display all of their chocolate bars, chewing gum and magazines? Right by the till, to encourage “impulse buys”. These are usually items a customer wouldn’t think about buying when going shopping but considers buying as a last minute purchase when they arrive at the till.

The Use Of Colour In POS Displays

Effective POS displays are usually full of colour, as this attracts people’s attention. POS displays that don’t include much colour are usually ineffective. If a display has been created professionally for example by a company like GPX Group, it is going to catch the customers eye and look impressive.

Bargain Bins

We’ve all probably rifled through a bargain bin at some point. Bargain bins usually help to promote cheaper products, placed near the entrance to a shop or by the till. They can be filled with different items, that are either new to the shop or at a reduced price. This is a method that’s been proven to work – people rummage through hoping to find something they want or need at a bargain price!

Staff Recommendations

Reminding staff to point out a POS display to a customer before the transaction is completed can really help to boost sales. Customers may have been in their own world and not spotted the bargain bin or other display – politely asking them if they’d like some discounted chocolate for example might wake them up and get them to buy.

How Advertising Has Changed Through The Years

Over the course of advertisings life time, it’s changed very much. Every advert ever created appeals to a different audience, different sex, puts across different viewpoints, and of course has different settings. Adverts that were made in the 1940’s, are very different to those made today and in the last 10 or so years. Adverts must change along with the times, or sales of certain products will be affected and could possibly stop altogether. But just how has it changed over the years?

For example, an advert for vodka that was released in the 1970’s (Cossack to be more precise). The ad included a picture of a beautiful looking young woman, to which the caption read “the morning after”. There were also ads released by Cossack vodka stating everyone should “clean up the nation, drink the clean drink” while also paired with a beautiful looking young woman. These adverts for Cossack vodka were trying to get the audience to buy by telling them things that weren’t necessarily true. They were making a statement that you could drink the vodka and look and feel great the morning after, no hangover. The adverts contained a lot of text which promoted the beverage and also subtitled what the young woman was saying. She’s also seen exclaiming, “Wasn’t it fantastic?! I feel beautiful!”. Cossack vodka used these adverts in an attempt to make the drinker feel beautiful, and want to be beautiful by drinking the vodka.

Now, while drinking vodka is usually a lot of fun at the time for most, everybody is now perfectly aware that the morning after will certainly not be as beautiful as the night before. Hangovers, and sometimes even sickness ensue after a heavy night on the vodka.

Another example is an advert from 1954, used to advertise Jergens Lotion. Another beautiful lady is in a kitchen, filled with clean dishes. The lady is holding her hands up with a look of wonder on her face, as if she’s mesmerised by her hands and everyone else should be too. The advert tells us a little bit more about the lady, using subtitles. She’s a housewife, a mum, a very nice lady, and has pretty hands. This is followed by a quote from the beautiful lady that reads, “I wash 22,000 dishes a year…but i’m proud of my pretty hands!”. This ad was obviously targeting housewives, maybe with kids, who cleaned all day long. There were a lot of these ladies in 1954! The ad also contained about 6 paragraphs of text explaining more about Jergens lotion and why ladies like the housewife in the ad should use it.

These two ads are both targeting their audiences very differently to how similar audiences are targeted today. The people used in the adverts and POS displays to entice you to drink vodka, buy lotion and other products are brought up to date. For example, a Jergens lotion advert from 2006 shows a woman with little clothing on, with the caption, “skin is in”. The two woman are polar opposites and the more recent add uses one single caption instead of paragraph after paragraph of text.

The first vodka ad would probably also be targeted for false advertising in this day and age!

Use Video Walls To Help You Sell More Products In Your Store

Retailers traditionally use posters, banners, and even neon signs to promote certain products or services to customers that are casually browsing in their aisles, but one very technological form of marketing within stores is both popular with retailers and shoppers alike, and its use is set to increase. I am of course talking about video walls.

What exactly are video walls?

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A video wall comprises of several monitors, projectors, or televisions tiled together in order to form a large screen. Displays normally consist of LCD panels, LED arrays, DLP tiles, or rear projection screens.

The display panels typically have narrow bezels so that they minimise on the gap between each panel, and are usually controlled by some sophisticated hardware that can manage all display panels simultaneously – for example, turning them all on or off, adjusting brightness, and so on.

Why use video walls in stores?

When you have a retail store, one key objective that is shared by all retailers is grabbing people’s attention so that they come in and buy stuff from you. It may be tempting from a cost point of view to just have one widescreen TV display in your store, but the truth is it doesn’t really make much of an impact.

Having an array of screens however does, because people can’t help but look at the display, whether they wanted to or not! You can utilise video walls for a number of purposes, such as:

• Product promotion – if your store is holding a special offer or promotion on a certain product, then what better way of tempting buyers in by display a high-impact advert on a massive bank of flat panel screens!

• Event awareness – sometimes you want your customers to sign up to some kind of event that you might be holding soon;

• Passing trade – letting people know what you sell in order to tempt them into your store;

• Wow factor – some people will just think that your video wall is seriously cool and curiosity will get the better of them so they will come in to your store to find out what you have to offer.

Other uses could also include streaming live events – for example, a travel agent might have a live video feed to one of their resorts in a more sunnier part of the world, tempting customers in to make an impulse buy on a sun holiday.

An outdoor clothing and accessories store might have a live video feed to a resort in the Swiss Alps, inspiring people to buy some skis and other accessories for a skiing trip abroad.

Call to action

As you may have gathered, the purpose of having video walls is to introduce some kind of call to action. Shoppers like to feel that their shopping experience has been tailored with them in mind. A video wall may be a great way of offering them to sign up for a loyalty card where they could get points or discounts towards future products that they like, or even a membership scheme where they could be among the first people to learn about a new product or service that the retailer is soon to introduce.

Ideas For Your Retail Displays

A well designed and thought out retail display is the key in attracting customers and enticing them into buying certain products. POS Displays can also be used strategically, to sell overstocked items for example. A great display is the difference between a shopper entering your shop or walking straight past. Here are some great retail display idea’s to help get the customers in and buying your products!

Capture Their Attention

One great way to get the customers in is to design a window display that really grabs their attention as they walk by. Choose something such as a graphic sign display, your most high-tech television, or your best faux fur coat to base the display on. The item can be anything you think will make shoppers stop in their tracks as they pass your shop!

“Peacocking” is an idea that often works well. You can pair bright clothing with bright accessories, or anything else bold and bright in your shop. Peacocking is bold and in your face, perfect for when you want to hold a shoppers attention.

You could also use a window display to create atmosphere. For example, a furniture store might entice people into the shop by creating a cosy, well decorated living room as a shop display in the window.

Themed Displays

A themed display in retail can be based around the current season or holiday. Around Christmas time for example, you could walk into a home shop and see decorated Christmas trees surrounded by present ideas. In summer, you could walk into a toy shop and see wendy houses and swimming pools on a display. A theme can really help to promote all of the products you want to sell.

If you have overstock items that you need to sell that you think don’t fit the seasonal theme, try to get creative!

You could also possibly go to your competitors to be sure you aren’t copying their seasonal themes. Feel free to take inspiration but remember the key is to be unique!

Interactive Displays

Interactive displays often tempt shoppers to spend more time in your shop. For example, Sunglass Hut uses a social media tech display to allow customers to share pictures of themselves in different sunglasses with Facebook friends and on other social media platforms.

Have a think about how you can use technology displays to help customers browse through your products and tempt them to buy. Idea: a hairdressers could have a social media tech display developed where they can “try on” different hairstyles and share via the web with their friends and family! You heard it here first.

Cross-merchandising

Cross merchandising is a display that involves having two different products in one display, very different to themed displays. The two products can overlap slightly, such as displaying gardening products that can be used in harmony to create lush green grass.

The products can also be completely different, but as long as the display is exciting it will entice shoppers to buy.

Use these ideas to create your next retail display and have customers scrambling to get through your door!