Shelves have always been ‘part & parcel’ of retail stores from the very moment they came into being within the commercial spectrum. Time and time again world-renowned marketing professionals such as Philip Kotler, Gary Armstrong among others have stressed this fact numerous times. According to most, a product’s location in a store or where information about the placing of a product or service is just one aspect of marketing. The other aspect that often goes under the radar is the ‘display mechanism’ itself. What is meant by this and often misunderstood is ‘how the display is set up’, the utilisation of shelf displays and the elements used in order to promote a product or service.
For instance, if there is a ‘prime shelf’ in a venue, decisions have to be made on the selection of the product, meaning which ‘product’ will be chosen to sit on these primary shelves within the venue. Even if this particular location among the shelves is information slots using print material, choices still have to be made on which product gets promoted at this particular slot. This from any perspective would naturally be a ‘limitation’ for the business.
However, some stores have moved towards thinking ‘out of the box’ and have managed to find a solution for this century-old issue by using LED displays for their shelves. LED shelf display units that come in all kinds of sizes and resolutions have been found to be the perfect display solution that allows venues to promote multiple products or present an assortment of information to customers on primary shelf spots. From running images of products and videos of products and services to displaying upcoming events, these LED screens have proven to be not just effective and efficient in conveying intended messages but are also lower in cost in the long run.
A Technical take on LED Displays
Among the primary reasons as to why LED displays have become or are becoming rapidly popular is due to their extreme flexibility in terms of how they look. LED displays can be made to be interactive, constructed into unique shapes and sizes, have different resolutions, may be placed on glass minus the unsightly wirings as it is with conventional digital display units, durable and most of all cost-effective.
Apart from all of the above, LED displays are modular and could be assembled according to need (they could be potentially assembled into just about any shape or size), they are also easy to install and transport which minimises logistics greatly. Their compact structure and design coupled with their beautiful appearance make them pleasing to look at for audiences. Depending on the viewing distance (between audiences and the screen), LED shelf displays, in general, happen to offer a multitude of unique configurations for indoor (note: outdoor LED shelf displays are also available) shelf displays.
These LED displays or LED screens (for indoor) are predominantly small pitch pixel sizes critical for viewing from closer distances. The ultra-fine small pitch pixel sizes generally range from 1.5 mm to 2.9 mm making them perfect for viewing from a distance of 4 feet which is the general or rather ‘common’ distance that most audiences would look at an object from. Most of these LED shelf displays have high refresh rates (above 120 Hz) and have a high level of brightness which is crucial in brightly lit venues that allow clear and pristine images to be projected seamlessly.
The practicality of Using LED Shelf Displays
Imagine having conventional forms of displays that are more often than not ‘bulky’ and cumbersome. The amount of time taken by employees to change the streams or if using print material, setting them up or repositioning them consumes a lot of time. With LED shelves, it’s only the matter of changing the USB drive which would take less than a minute. In the event that different producers provide different promotional materials, it would take no more than a few minutes to compile them into a single drive and plug it in. LED shelf screens typically offer a ‘Plug & Play’ option and added to the fact that they are aesthetically acceptable on their own make these displays the perfect vectors to distributing marketing messages effectively and efficiently. Apart from that LED shelf displays also allow retailers to promote multiple products from a single ‘shelf spot’ which would please suppliers and prevent/ avoid them from thinking that their product has been side-lined or neglected. Another factor that should be taken into account using LED shelf displays to promote products, services or events is that they would generally bee more appealing/ interesting to the viewers. Add to that the fact that these displays could be made to be interactive allows visitors to navigate the screens towards what they are specifically looking for. This is a critical success factor (CSF) as far as marketing is concerned as the entire objective of marketing is to advocate the decision-making process of consumers and appealing visuals have been proven to be the best approach to do this.