Retailers are making greater use of digital media these days with the goals of enhancing the customer shopping experience and increasing the time spent in their venue. Using the latest store designs available, they are willing to try almost anything to appeal to their customers’ senses. Clients are bombarded with customized radio stations providing shopping tips and special deals. Many can even recognize a shop from a retail chain just by the smells generated. In fact, over 50 percent of all purchase decisions are being made at the point of sale (PoS), which is more than enough reason to justify these commercial initiatives.
Solutions utilizing specialty glass allow for the development of new approaches to strengthen customer retention. Attractive and brightly illuminated PoS areas, displays listing discounts as well as static or dynamic advertising are gaining in popularity, recreating an online experience in the offline world. Due to its properties, the anti-reflective cover glass CONTURAN® is practically invisible, allowing the focus of the observer to continue uninterrupted by light reflections on the display content. The same is true of fingerprints on touch displays where a special oleophobic and hydrophobic coating (CONTURAN® DARO) preserves the luxurious haptics of the glass. Thanks to a unique construction of its laminated anti-glare glass panes, CONTURAN® IR Protect ensures that heat-sensitive digital displays in external environments can withstand extreme temperatures and intensive sunrays beating down on them. Aided by high performance infrared and UV filters, a protective film blocks the damaging effects from direct sunlight, keeping the display at cooler temperatures.
Specialty glass can also enchant customers: MIRONA® is a semi-transparent transformative glass which, when placed in front of a dark background, acts as a mirror with a silvery brilliance. However, when light is emitted – for example, from a TV – it transforms into a transparent glass pane setting up a surprising phenomenon. Hamburg’s magnificent concert hall, the Elbphilharmonie, is a perfect example. At a PoS, MIRONA® is not only a mirror in a dressing room, but also an augmented reality display, where additional information can be provided, such as available sizes, colors, or its stock level, while the customer is trying something on. Discount codes bundled with touchscreens may soon find their way into the dressing room leading to additional impulse purchases.
Something extraordinary is happening in supermarkets: in terms of overall revenue, the share in refrigerated and frozen products is growing, and with it, the space requirements for displaying them as well. This, in turn, puts new priorities on promotional activities, which now have to include these refrigerated zones in their campaigns.
