Do Digital Displays Enhance Sales? Role of Retail Format and Message Content

doi:10.1016/j.jretai.2015.08.001

Journal of Retailing

Volume 92, Issue 1, March 2016, Pages 122-131

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretai.2015.08.001 Get rights and content

Highlights

•
Sales in hypermarkets are enhanced when digital displays are on.
•
Having displays on in supercenters and supermarkets has a minimal effect on sales.
•
In smaller stores the digital displays have a negative impact on sales.
•
Sales lift with displays in hypermarkets continues months later, but is reduced.
•
The message content must be price promotional as opposed to non-price content.

Abstract

This research examines the impact of in-store digital displays on retail sales across four different store formats. The results of three field experiments show that sales in hypermarkets are enhanced when digital displays are on. However, in supercenters and supermarkets, having the digital displays on has a minimal effect on sales, and in smaller stores (e.g., convenience stores), the digital displays have a negative impact on sales. A follow-up study confirms that the lift in sales in larger stores when the digital displays are on continues five months after their initial installation, though the lift does diminish somewhat. Furthermore, for the digital display to result in a sales lift, the message content must promote the price.

Graphical abstract

Section snippets

Empirical Orientation and Background

Research is important in three domains: substantive, methodological, and conceptual (McGrath and Brinberg 1983). This research empirically investigates the substantive issue of how the presence or absence of digital displays in different retail formats affects shopping behavior and sales, using Latin square field experiments. These empirical observations are corroborated with insights from past environmental psychology findings. Given the empirical nature of this research, formal hypotheses are

Method

Study 1 empirically assesses the effects of digital signs in two hypermarkets and supercenters. Both hypermarkets and supercenters are large store formats, but they differ in terms of the products carried (see Table 2, Table 3). Digital displays were installed in two hypermarkets and two superstores, then manipulated to be turned on or off. The selection of the stores ensured that the customer populations had similar demographics. The incomes, ages, and employment status of customers in the

Study 2

Digital displays were installed in three supermarkets and three smaller stores. The supermarkets had approximately 1,450 square meters of space; the smaller stores had approximately 600 square meters of space (see Table 3). One of the smaller, older stores traditionally had been viewed as a supermarket, yet it was classified as a smaller store on the basis of its sales space (682 sq m), which was more consistent with the other smaller stores (446 sq m; 650 sq m) than with the other supermarkets (1,370

Study 3

Previous research has examined the impact of different types of displays. Burke (2009) suggests that the effectiveness of digital displays likely depends on the message content. Dennis, Brakus, and Alamanos (2013) and Dennis et al. (2014) provide some evidence that digital display content changes processing routes. Inman, McAlister, and Hoyer (1990) highlight the importance of the use of in-store price promotion signage. Therefore, another substantive research question is whether digital

Implications

This research helps explicate the role of digital displays in enhancing retailers’ in-store marketing efforts. In-store digital displays are being widely considered, but investing in them is not a trivial decision. Retailers must understand exactly how the displays will affect their bottom lines before they can make informed decisions about whether to invest in digital display technology for their stores. We accordingly have focused on whether digital displays influence shopping behaviors, how

References (32)

Kusum L. Ailawadi et al.
Communication and Promotion Decisions in Retailing: A Review and Directions for Future Research
Journal of Retailing
(2009)
Charles Dennis et al.
The Effect of Digital Signage on Shoppers’ Behavior: The Role of the Evoked Experience
Journal of Business Research
(2014)
Charles Dennis et al.
The Mediating Effects of Perception and Emotion: Digital Signage in Mall Atmospherics
Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services
(2010)
Dinesh K. Gauri et al.
Understanding the Determinants of Retail Strategy: An Empirical Analysis
Journal of Retailing
(2008)
Dhruv Grewal et al.
Innovation in Retail Pricing and Promotions
Journal of Retailing
(2011)
Debabrata Talukdar et al.
An Empirical Analysis of Extreme Cherry Picking Behavior of Consumers in the Frequently Purchased Goods Market
Journal of Retailing
(2010)
David Bell et al.
From Point-of-Purchase to Path-to-Purchase: How PreShopping Factors Drive Unplanned Buying
Journal of Marketing
(2011)
Robert C. Blattberg et al.
Sales Promotion: The Long and the Short of It
Marketing Letters
(1989)
Raymond Burke
Behavioral Effects of Digital Signage
Journal of Advertising Research
(2009)
Bobby J. Calder et al.
The Concept of External Validity
Journal of Consumer Research
(1982)

Bobby J. Calder et al.

Beyond External Validity

Journal of Consumer Research

(1983)

Michel Chevalier

Increase in Sales Due to In-Store Display

Journal of Marketing Research

(1975)

Michel Chevalier

Substitution Patterns as a Result of Display in the Product Category

Journal of Retailing

(1975)

Charles Dennis et al.

The Wallpaper Matters: The Influence of the Content of Digital Ads on Customer In-Store Experience

Journal of Marketing Management

(2013)

Charles Dennis et al.

New Insights into the Impact of Digital Signage as a Retail Atmospheric Tool

Journal of Consumer Behaviour

(2012)

Jaishankar Ganesh et al.

Retail Patronage Behavior and Shopper Typologies: A Replication and Extension Using a Multi-format, Multi-method Approach

Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science

(2007)

Cited by (78)

Utilising eye-tracking data in retailing field research: A practical guide
2024, Journal of Retailing
Eye-tracking offers many insights into shopping cognition by capturing proxies to attention patterns, visual processing, and decision sequences. While lab experiments using simulated shopping tasks are becoming more common in retailing research, field research using eye-tracking technology remains scarce despite higher ecological validity. This paper advocates expanding eye-tracking adoption into brick-and-mortar contexts and provides guidelines for researchers interested in conducting such retailing research. The authors discuss different data types that can be used to understand in-store shopping behaviours and argue why eye-tracking offers a compelling opportunity to decode consumer decisions in real-world complexity. Next, they review current literature, highlighting good examples of existing field studies and areas of opportunities for new research. Finally, the authors provide stepwise best-practice guidelines for executing impactful, triangulated field research across the retail landscape using eye-tracking. The paper presents a call to action for expanding eye-tracking research beyond the lab and into real-world retail aisles.
Virtual reality-based product displays to inspire consumers’ purchase intentions: An experimental study
2024, Journal of Business Research
The rapid growth of technology and its perfect utilization by marketers in their product displays transform consumers’ purchasing patterns across the globe. Previous literature suggests that in-store product displays are critical in boosting customers' shopping experiences and purchasing decisions. However, they fail to provide enough evidence for using virtual reality-based visual product displays to attract them. Therefore, the purpose of this research is twofold: first is to explore the influence of imaginative and contextual product displays on inspiration and purchase intentions through local and foreign brands, and second is to identify the differential impact of foreign product categories on inspiration and purchase intentions. The need for uniqueness is also tested as a boundary condition in the relationship between inspiration and purchase intention. Using an experimental design, the data from 174 consumers for Study 1_A and 154 data for Study 1_B, while 301 responses were collected for Study 2 and analyzed using MANOVA and SPSS Hayes’ PROCESS method. The results revealed that virtual reality-based contextual displays have a more significant impact on inspiring consumers and leading them to positive purchase intention than virtual reality-based imaginative displays. The results of Study 2 endorsed the significant indirect impact of product displays on purchase intention via inspiration. Also, the need for uniqueness moderates the relationship between inspiration and purchase intentions.
Priming shoppers’ well-being goal in grocery stores: Moving toward healthier food choices?
2023, Food Quality and Preference
At the times of obesity epidemic, innovative ways to nudge food shoppers toward healthier choices are needed. Key ideas from the conceptual metaphor processing, food symbolism and contextual priming literatures are synthetized to argue for the idea that visual, olfactory and gustatory cues can activate shoppers’ well-being goal and guide their in-store movements and healthy food purchasing behaviors. Two field experiments, separated by an 8-month interval, are conducted in the same grocery store. The results show that priming the well-being goal in real store can push consumers to move toward spots where healthier options are available – materializing also into greater sales of yogurts, vegetables and heart healthy-labeled products. Counterintuitively, the well-being goal activation possibly first facilitate approaching indulgent foods. Yet, the actual sales of palatable foods such as ice cream and minced beef meat may in fact diminish. This research spurs numerable academic and practical implications.
In-store endcap projections and their effect on sales
2023, Journal of Retailing
Retailers increasingly use digital displays and projections to enhance traditional endcaps. With two field experiments, the authors investigate how the vividness of an endcap projection affects shoppers. The results indicate an inverted U-shaped relationship between the vividness of an endcap projection and sales, such that endcaps with moderately vivid projections (cf. traditional endcaps and highly vivid projection endcaps) result in higher sales. Attention and mental involvement serially mediate these effects on sales. By adding audio and scent to the moderately vivid endcap projection, the authors also find that the addition of audio increases sales, whereas the addition of a scent does not. This article concludes with a discussion of managerial implications related to the uses of endcaps.
A classification of information-oriented PoS technology from customer perception
2023, Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services
Citation Excerpt :
The standalone kiosk, which was specifically investigated by de Moerloose et al. (2005), provides the opportunity to obtain store information/price-related details and finalize orders on a small screen terminal. The interactive display, which was specifically investigated by Roggeveen et al. (2016), highlights current offers, store information, prices, and advertisement, and is generally presented on a large interactive screen. The smart shelf, which was specifically investigated by Grewal et al. (2020), advises on current offers, verifies whether products are in stock, presents prices, and finalizes orders on a large interactive screen.
When it comes to investigating how customers use POS technologies or which factors might promote their adoption, it is important to know which characteristics are particularly relevant from the customers' perspective. Based on three recent approaches to POS technology systematization, this research empirically categorizes POS technologies from the customer's point of view.
We investigated POS technologies that are information-oriented and have a certain form of interaction capability. First, we selected seven information-oriented POS technologies for the research. An online study (N = 830) was conducted on POS technologies that were used in a multidimensional scaling (MDS) analysis. As a result, three clusters of POS technologies were identified: (A) comprehendible POS technologies, (B) information integration POS technologies, and (C) entertainment-related POS technologies. Our findings yield important insights for retailers with regard to the customers' perception and qualitative evaluation of the POS technologies in each of the identified clusters.
The Future of Digital Communication Research: Considering Dynamics and Multimodality
2022, Journal of Retailing
Digital communication, the electronic transmission of information, reflects and influences consumers’ perceptions, attitudes, behaviors, and shopping journeys. Thus, data stemming from digital communication is an important source of insights for retailers, manufacturers, and service firms alike. This article discusses emerging trends and recent advances in digital communication research, as well as its future opportunities for retail practice and research. The authors outline four consumer–retailer domains relevant to digital communication, which in turn frame their discussion of the properties of communication dynamics (e.g., trends, variations) within messages, communicators, and their interaction, as well as communication multimodality (i.e., numeric heuristics, text, audio, image, and video). These factors are critical for understanding and predicting consumers’ behaviors and market developments. Furthermore, this article delineates conceptual and methodological challenges for researchers working in contexts that feature dynamics and multimodality. Finally, this article proposes an agenda for continued research, with the goal of stimulating further efforts to unlock the “black boxes” of digital communication and gain insights into both consumers and markets.

View all citing articles on Scopus

^☆: The authors thank the Babson Faculty Research Fund for financial support of this project.

View full text

Research NoteDo Digital Displays Enhance Sales? Role of Retail Format and Message Content☆

Highlights

Abstract

Graphical abstract

Section snippets

Empirical Orientation and Background

Method

Study 2

Study 3

Implications

Journal of Retailing

Journal of Business Research

Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services

Journal of Retailing

Journal of Retailing

Journal of Retailing

From Point-of-Purchase to Path-to-Purchase: How PreShopping Factors Drive Unplanned Buying

Journal of Marketing

Sales Promotion: The Long and the Short of It

Marketing Letters

Behavioral Effects of Digital Signage

Journal of Advertising Research

The Concept of External Validity

Journal of Consumer Research

Beyond External Validity

Journal of Consumer Research

Increase in Sales Due to In-Store Display

Journal of Marketing Research

Substitution Patterns as a Result of Display in the Product Category

Journal of Retailing

The Wallpaper Matters: The Influence of the Content of Digital Ads on Customer In-Store Experience

Journal of Marketing Management

New Insights into the Impact of Digital Signage as a Retail Atmospheric Tool

Journal of Consumer Behaviour

Retail Patronage Behavior and Shopper Typologies: A Replication and Extension Using a Multi-format, Multi-method Approach

Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science

Research Note
Do Digital Displays Enhance Sales? Role of Retail Format and Message Content☆