It was a worthwhile trip to Melbourne for the 3 days Retail Expo. Apart from the general retail equipment and conventional display signage, in my opinion it was digital signage which took the light of the show.

At the centre of the show (I do mean right at the centre on the floor) showcased the Retail 2020 – Store of the future. Having said “store of the future” one would start to think automated customer interaction (without having to input anything into the screen), focused one-to-one marketing in personalising each customer’s experience – and that’s what it did. Picking up a pair of trousers and bringing them in front of a screen will trigger a video, Barcode scanners that control and manage content, just to name a few.

Traffic monitoring was also a feature that couldn’t be left out. People counting and activity flow were the main items on the list. However I would have liked to see eye tracking and facial expressions data, and possibly gender and age group contributing into the demographics.

Overall I am quite happy to see more strategies in improving customer experience – customer focus. Although one can argue to say it is what you do with the content that drives consumer decisions, which is true. What I was afraid of was only seeing back-end technologies in which we have all already seen and used over these many years. With automated customer interaction, one can add to the efficiency by customising (and market) the content to be more effective for the customer.

Did you visit the Melbourne Retail Expo 2009? Please share your experience with us.

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Category: Digital Signage Blog Events