Customer engagement is about creating deeply relevant experiences for the customers who visit your shop, your showroom or mall. When there is customer engagement, there is not only an increase in sales but on a higher level, more loyalty is nurtured towards your brand, product or service, eventually resulting into more sales in the long term.

For a long time, technology has been playing a leading role in creating and enhancing customer engagement. Thanks to technology, brands and companies reach out to the end customers, develop steady relationships with them and keep informing them about more products in real time.

In today’s increasingly connected world, the power of communication – whether online or at the point-of-sale, holds the key to successful marketing and customer loyalty. Reaching out to customers and learning more about them will lead to better, more customized marketing campaigns, and eventually, sales growth. With a few relatively cost-effective strategies utilizing available technology, small merchants can tap into this potential.

Currently, one of the increasingly important technologies is the application of digital points of sale not only as a sales tool but as a way to enhance customer experience. Hotels are adopting digital signage inside their lobbies to help customers find the information they need at will and in a way that allows them tio explore all the information available in their own time.

Localities, museums and shopping malls are applying them as a map finding facility, to help visitors orientate themselves, familiarize with the place and make sure they do not miss out on certain areas that most appeal to them.

Even car showrooms are introducing free standing digital totems that offer the possibility to visitors to request information about specific car models at the touch of a button.

Car dealers in Italy have started using interactive stations on showroom floors to drive information about available financial services for their cars. Multimedia designers are working hand-in-hand with digital signage service providers who are developing totem-style freestanding displays that function as brand marketing displays but go interactive when people step in front of it.

The totems replaced paper-based institutional point of sale material which many deem are now dated and lack much appeal. The new totems combine interactive digital signage with the traditional paper brochure, which customers can take away with them.

“This system is a great example of how innovative companies can de-clutter the sales environment, modernise the look and feel at the point-of-sale, and enable point-of-sale communications to be updated remotely, instantly and frequently. Buying a car is not an everyday event. We believe that introducing digital POS to showroom floors will further enhance our customers’ shopping experience,” explained one car brand representative.

Smart Technologies Limited over the past months have partnered up with Albert Bonello Ghio in a new innovative venture NGage-DS, whereby offering customers a complete digital signage solution which can be geared for different purposes related to the specific segment in which they operate.

“These products deliver real-time information and can perform electronic processes for companies and organizations whilst delivering customers with more autonomy, flexibility and availability of products and services at their convenience,” explains Christopher Demicoli, Business Development Manager of Smart Technologies.

“We are seeing a lot of potential locally for this technology even in a sector like hospitality, a sector which is constantly reaching out and delivering the best experience to guests and travellers. We are in fact equipped to offer both the hardware and the software for these set-ups from our range of multimedia products and solutions for digital signage and interactive kiosks. Our technical staff can also assist companies with the installation, management and integration of the vendor’s software and information with these point-of-sale systems,” added Albert Bonello Ghio Director at NGage-DS.

Wine shops are an ideal location for the application of digital points of sale. Customers seek to be informed about the wine they buy and what better way to inform them then by offering them an interactive way of browsing through an interactive catalogue with the respective information about each product?

Studies confirm that people are researching more the products they want to buy and after having informed themselves, they seel to experience the product in the shop. Providing an interactive platform where customers can inform themsleves better about the product inside the shop triggers them to acquire the product which is already at hand and this seems to be a factor that is leading to more sales

“The issue is that for smaller merchants, gaining and keeping a competitive edge is challenging and although they acknowledge that technological products and solutions can help make operations more efficient, limited budgets could be a hinderance. In this case, we also offer them the opportunity to lease these interactive channels without the need to incur major capital expenses and still enjoy the advantages and the opportunities that this technology offers them,” concluded Chris Demicoli.