The results of a survey of 156 CEO’s and senior retail figures being presented at the World Retail Congress states that stores remain core to the future of the industry. 
More than half will open new stores over the next 12 months.  More than two-thirds believe that physical shops are still the most important way for their businesses to engage with customers.

Investing in Customer Experience

Of course online is important but physical stores still remain at the heart of retail. Many  retailers are investing huge sums to ensure that customers want to visit stores and enjoy shopping when they do visit. As well as upgrading environmental and physical aspects of the stores significant investment is being made in improving customer experience. Anything that shoppers find annoying or frustrating is being reviewed. One of those areas is in-store signage. Many retailers that we talk with are de-cluttering their signage and removing lots of signage that does not add value. Examples are hanging signs that just say “Sale” or messy pieces of point of sale that do not meet brand guidelines.

Simple but smart signage

The clutter has to be replaced by clean simple on-brand signage that works well for the customer and the store. One example of this is building clearly identified value messages and offers into the shelf edge labels (SEL’s).  There are quite a few other ways too.
If you want to know more about the latest directions in SEL’s and other aspects of in-store signage just get in touch.