Shoppertainment – that is, the retail strategy of creating experiences and events in-store to engage customers and compel purchasing – has increased over recent years as global lifestyle habits have changed.

Head of global lifestyle brands under the Fifth and Pacific umbrella, Bill McComb, is one of many industry leaders who believes that retailers must embrace the shoppertainment model. “Entertainment is the key reason to go to malls now,” he told FutuRetail conference attendees in February this year.

Large brands, independent niche retailers, department stores, and pop-up retailers are all making use of shoppertainment strategies to create in-store experiences:

• Disney stores have refurbished their signature international locations to create in-store wonderlands
• Lululemon provides in-store yoga classes
• All-purpose department stores are well-known for employing shoppertainment tactics: family-focused events at holiday times, and the ubiquitous cooking demonstration
• In the burgeoning pop-up industry, brands take over unused retail spaces or create a store-within-a-store interactive experience: Ross Bailey, CEO of London-based pop-up facilitation company, [Appear Here] says “in the future of retail, experience is everything. Brands need to hold people in the moment and keep them there.”

In each of these cases, shoppertainment tactics are being used to revitalize and refresh the shopping experience while creating a personal connection between the product and the shopper. Shoppertainment allows a brand to renew its story by evoking a sense of wonder, curiosity and playfulness.

A PERCH display draws on all of the strengths of a shoppertainment strategy without requiring a major re-fit or an ongoing commitment to hosting in-store activities. A PERCH promotional display can be in place for a couple of weeks or a month, as we have done in partnership with Cole Haan in New York City, where store display content has been updated on a monthly basis to create buzz around featured products.

The ease with which stores can create and update PERCH digital content allows for savvy retailers to continually develop compelling in-store interactive engagement centered around a store’s products and associated digital content.

Shoppertainment is a stand-out strategy for retail to employ to spark conversations with customers and create exciting in-store experiences. Learn more about how to use shoppertainment techniques by following us on Twitter or contact us to discuss more.

Images: PERCH interactive sunglasses display; PERCH art board photo from our recent interactive display at STORY.

Speaking on Bloomberg TV, DETAILS Deputy Editor Jesse Ashlock explained why Jared (and PERCH) has been identified as a maverick: DETAILS was keen to acknowledge PERCH, noting how our interactive retail displays “make the retail experience more exciting and more enriching for the consumer”.

Jared and the rest of the digital mavericks are featured in both the online and print version of the style mag throughout April.

To coincide with the April publication, we were proud to show off our maverick flair with two retail displays for the DETAILS launch party on March 27, at New York City’s New Museum.

Our Mr Porter display (above) featured products from the online retailer specializing in men’s style, while our Maker’s Mark display (left) created an interactive bar that showcased cocktail recipes as guests poured themselves a drink, while being chased across the table by animated ice cubes.

We’re proud to be helping open a new door into the world of retail. Our displays on the night demonstrated why we have been recognized by the style team: we brought an online retailer into the physical world, and enhanced a physical brand with engaging digital content. It’s what Jesse Ashlock from DETAILS had been so excited about with PERCH: for showing how technology that uses the same approach “that is making e-commerce so powerful, can be applied to the brick-and-mortar store.”

Keep up with the latest PERCH news by following us on Twitter, or contact us to help you lead the maverick pack with interactive, in-store digital content.

Major brands and department stores were first in line at PERCH’s exhibition stall on the opening day of Digital Signage Expo 2013. As the expo got underway, PERCH received news that it had won the DIGI Award in the best retail digital signage category. We’re proud to be in the company of all DIGI Award winners including Premier Mounts and Pro-Motion Technology Group, who were first-in-class for their digital signage content projects.

PERCH Founder and CEO, Jared Schiffman, was on hand at the PERCH stall: “We ran out of our business cards, brochures and postcards in the first four hours,” Jared recounts. “We knew there would be a lot of interest but as this was the biggest DSE ever held, the response was even greater than we had hoped! There was a lot more interest from the southern hemisphere – Brazil and Australia, for example – than we expected, and we met with most of the major retailers attending the Expo.”

Jared participated in the DSE Keynote Panel on ‘A Framework for the Future’, which caused creative minds in the audience to stir up in excitement at the potential PERCH offers to the retail digital signage industry. DSE organizers walked away from the event noting that PERCH “pushes the limits of what digital signage and display technologies are all about”.

One of the unique aspects about PERCH that surprised Expo attendees was how the technology disrupts retail digital signage norms to keep the focus on the retail products. “PERCH is all about interacting with physical products and then building media around those interactions,” Jared told Gary Kayye in an interview for audio-visual publishers, rAVe, at the event.

Thanks to the DIGI Awards judging panel and all those who approached us at DSE about our retail digital signage win. If you would like to get in touch with Jared or see a PERCH demo in action, feel free to contact us or follow us on Twitter.

Thanks to our friends at global retail design agency Sheridan&Co, we will be showcasing PERCH to brands, retailers, creative and digital agencies at The Study, 10A Blandford Street, W1U 4AZ.

In addition to the in-person demo, Jared Schiffman and Katherine Keane of PERCH will be able to discuss insights from two recent events: FutuRetail in London and the Digital Signage Expo 2013 in Las Vegas.

The Study is an apt venue for PERCH to appear in London. Designed as a versatile, experimental space for retailers and designers to create events or test new retail experiences in a controlled platform, The Study has already cultivated a reputation as being one of the most innovative and exciting spaces on the London High Street.

Recent campaigns held at The Study include Wrapology (left): the UK’s luxury packaging retailers used the venue to launch a Diamond Jubilee commemorative range of products. During London Fashion Week, Clarins Daily Energizers (right) used the space to create a juice and spa experience for their younger demographic, and were able to finetune their new product range thanks to the feedback and needs of their visitors.

There are still some opportunities to book an appointment to attend a PERCH demo at The Study. If you’re interested in checking out PERCH in action and learning more about the process involved in creating interactive in-store displays using our technology, please don’t hesitate to contact us!

After several recent inquiries from across the UK, we are pleased to now be available to talk in person with retailers, brands and digital agencies about how PERCH technology can delight and engage UK shoppers. We are keen to meet with retail outlets, creative teams, and visual merchandisers who want to see PERCH in action.

PERCH Director of Marketing and Client Relations, Katherine Keane, will be speaking at FutuRetail, the retail leadership event, alongside industry heavyhitters including:

• Paul Coby from John Lewis
• William McComb from Fifth & Pacific and
• Benjy Meyer from Marks & Spencer.

“We are excited to be involved in FutuRetail, and to be presenting as part of such an exciting program. FutuRetail is focused on the trends currently transforming the very nature of retail, and of, course, PERCH has a big role to play in where retail is heading,” says Katherine.

Katherine will speak as part of a panel on ‘Creating the perfect shopper experience’.

PERCH has already been making some waves in the UK after founder Jared Schiffman presented via Skype at the fashion startup event, Decoded London last November. At the time, Jared was unable to demonstrate the technology in person as Hurricane Sandy had caused airport closures in New York. But retailers and fashion media in attendance were intrigued by the potential of PERCH, and we were proud to be recognized as an audience favorite.

Following Katherine’s panel participation at FutuRetail, PERCH will be available for demonstrations with retailers, fashion outlets, and design agencies from Monday 4 March to Wednesday 6 March. Alongside Katherine, PERCH founder Jared Schiffman will be available to answer questions and discuss how the technology is currently being used across the pond. Fresh from presenting at the Digital Signage Expo 2013 in Las Vegas, also being held at the end of February, Jared will be able to share his insights from that leading industry expo with PERCH demo guests.

PERCH still has a limited number of demonstration appointment slots available. We invite our London-based readers to make contact with us and arrange an opportunity to see PERCH in the UK!

PERCH will also be on demonstration on the DSE showroom floor. Make sure to visit Jared and see PERCH in action at DSE: PERCH will be located at FT12 in the Innovator Zone. Book an appointment with us or just drop by and see how PERCH helps build a conversation between the retailer, the product, and the shopper.

At the DSE (Digital Signage Expo) 2013, Jared will join fellow panelists Curt Bailey (Sundberg-Ferar), Tim Huckaby (InterKnowlogy), and Christine Outram (Re:Imagine Group) at the Samsung-sponsored keynote breakfast panel on Thursday, 28 February. The session, titled Digital Signage 2020: Eyes on the Future, will be an opportunity for Jared to share PERCH’s experiences working with retailers like Cole Haan, treasure&bond and Kiehl’s Since 1851 to discuss the role interaction will play in the store display promotions of the future.

“My take is that technology should not be the experience. In-store engagement should be centered on the shopper and their connection with a product,” says Jared. “Display technology should enable and enhance that interaction, not replace it. When a customer picks up a product on a PERCH display, that’s the beginning of the experience, and it’s also the moment that they are most receptive to receiving information. PERCH makes the product the interface to the experience.”

The Digital Signage Expo 2013 is again expected to bring together retailers and industry professionals from around the world. Over 4,000 attended the event in 2012. This year, expo streams include thought leaders and industry speakers talking about interaction technology, digital signage content development, and analytics. Please contact us if you would like to meet with Jared at the Digital Signage Expo.

We are all emotive shoppers. While we may like to think that we base our buying decisions on logic and rational thought, the reality is that the vast majority of our purchases are motivated by our feelings at the time. This extends to how we feel about our purchases long after we have left the store.

It is little wonder emotions are often called feelings. Touching and feeling things initiates an emotive connection. The spark between our hands and our hearts ignites a sense of pleasure at being connected to the world. This is one of the joys of retail – a chance to try products out and imagine how they fit into, and enhance, our lives.

According to the Association of Consumer Research, the first stage of our buying decision is a sense of ‘activation’: First we must become motivated in some way and ready to be involved with a product. If we have heard about a brand online or via print media, we may have been ‘activated’ before we arrive at the store, eager to find out more.

For window shoppers and passers-by, an intriguing display like PERCH can activate us from bored browser to curious shopper. It can help us move past the endless cycle of ‘further research’ to being ready to make a purchase.

Picking up, holding and feeling products in one’s hands is a direct path to activation. PERCH displays ignite the senses by enticing shoppers to touch and feel, smell or taste product samples, and rewards participation with media that further engages the senses and stirs emotions.

PERCH media can be harnessed to appeal to a shoppers’ motivations, whether it be fear, pride, altruism or reward-seeking:

• Media may address the fear of missing out by detailing the number of items left in stock.
• A sense of pride at making good decisions can be evoked by displaying social media reviews which show how much other customers enjoy the product.
• PERCH media may also appeal to our altruistic nature by including information on the product’s eco-credentials or by playing a video that demonstrates the brand’s social responsibility program in action.
• Letting shoppers research and uncover product information in-store builds a sense of reward that is remembered as a pleasurable part of the buying decision process.

In-store retail should engage with us emotionally and leave us with a sense of pleasure and a long-lasting positive memory of the brand and the experience. To learn more about this connection between shopper emotions and the buying decision process, follow us on Twitter.

This January, we are opening up our doors and our diaries to welcome NRF delegates to New York City. NRF 2013 delegates are invited to book an appointment to see PERCH firsthand for yourself, while in the city to attend the retail industry’s largest expo and thought leadership event.

NRF 2013 is held from January 13 to 16 in the heart of New York City’s westside at the Jacob K Javits Convention Center. This industry conference is attended by over 25,000 delegates from around the country and globe, looking to get the jump on what will no doubt be an aggressive year of competition as retailers online and offline jostle to be heard and remembered by digital-enabled shoppers.

The importance of an engaging in-store environment is sure to be one of the key talking points at this year’s event. New York Times retail reporter Stephanie Clifford revealed the extent of change in an article last December, detailing a resurgence in bricks-and-mortar locations “catering to customers who want to see what they are buying in person, and who see shopping as a social event”. Clifford revealed that in-store sales are as high as double online transactions, with repeat customers buying more frequently and sooner than their online counterparts.

“Creating an engaging in-store experience that brings together everything your customers know about your brand, and giving it physical form is the key to retail displays in 2013”, says Jared Schiffman, co-founder of PERCH Interactive.

“We welcome all NRF 2013 delegates to New York and invite you to make a personal appointment to see PERCH displays in action. We can show you how to maintain consistency across channels by using existing branding in a PERCH display, walk you through the shopper analytics data that shows you how customers are interacting in-store with your products, and give you a first-hand feel for whether this technology would help you ramp up sales and build customer loyalty in 2013.”

NRF delegates can also see PERCH in action at treasure&bond’s Soho Store. To book an appointment, contact us now. PERCH congratulates the National Retail Federation for hosting this annual event and wishes all NRF 2013 delegates a thought-provoking and inspiring four days.

Shoppers access a variety of media to learn about a brand and its products before making any buying decision. Consumers move effortlessly between multiple media channels – like watching TV while thumbing through a magazine or doing research on a tablet while standing in a store. To respond to these trends, the store itself becomes another media channel that must reflect and magnify what the customer is expecting from the brand.

In multi channel communications, consistency is key. It maintains a brand’s identity and helps to create a story that resonates with shoppers about how a particular product can meet their needs and enhance their lives. The in-store experience breathes life into how a shopper has previously viewed a brand. The store display draws together messages from a variety of communication channels to forge a consistent identity: a retail store continues the conversation that has already begun between a customer and a brand in print, online and on mobile devices.

Writing for Forbes recently, Maribel Lopez noted several factors (in addition to pricing and availability) that “should remain consistent as the consumer shops across channels, such as the product image and product specifications.” When product information and imagery differs across channels, “inconsistency will destroy customer confidence, dilute the branding and cause shoppers to switch products or retailers.”

Kiehl’s Since 1851 is one retailer that truly understands the value of consistency. They use imagery and store promotional opportunities to further enhance their brand identity. One of the key strengths of the Kiehl’s brand is that they are well known for their generous sharing of product samples. This helps them demonstrate the quality of their product range to new customers around the world.

ABOVE: Existing campaign imagery is converted into a PERCH display table that encourages shoppers to pick up the product range

Our recent PERCH displays for Kiehl’s Since 1851 showed how a consistent promotion can flow from a shopper’s initial product awareness  (oftentimes through social media), to store livery, to in-store opportunities, where shoppers are encouraged to sample products and try tester bottles. Here, PERCH used the impact of consistent branding to bring the product to life in the hands of the shopper. The PERCH display for Kiehl’s is not only the physical setting for the fragrances, it is also the backdrop for the testing experience, unfolding through carefully designed imagery and messages that are revealed at the exact moment of interaction. The theme of “pure scents from around the world” is brought to life with an animation of a biplane that takes the shopper on a trip to distant parts of of the world. Handwritten postcards share details of the exotic origins of each fragrance, all the while leading the shopper to try out the new blends and make a purchase.

At PERCH Interactive, we work with our retail clients to ensure that the shopper experience is consistent and seamless. We encourage use of existing content assets and help build on the multi channel content a shopper may have already seen online and in print. In-store promotions must work to create a deep resonance with all the previous instances where a shopper may have interacted with a product. More than ever, the store is a platform for this consistent branding to make a personal impact.

Follow us on Twitter to see more examples of how we enhance the shopper experience and help brands consolidate their identity through an engaging in-store experience.