Adairs’ boutique super store
Adairs is recognised as a leading specialist retailer of manchester and homewares. Its 100+ stores are run by a crack retail team, offering customers a high level of service and a comprehensive range of product offerings.
But Adairs faces a conundrum. Traditionally, Adairs occupies big-barn spaces where its wide range of furniture and other products can be displayed to best effect. That’s fine for ‘super centre’-style shopping, but what about prime retail where shop footprints are small and rents are high? Is it possible to provide the big-store experience within a boutique-size outlet? The answer is yes, if you leverage the power of a well-conceived digital signage solution.
Adairs approached Sumo to help to deliver a multifaceted solution including in-store touchscreen displays designed to allow customers to browse through current product offerings, place products in a virtual shopping bag and send them directly to front counter for payment and pick up. The interface renders the products in a user friendly manner and performs all functions even when the system is offline.
To complement the in-store touchscreen, hand held tablets are used by staff to perform a similar function, and can perform stock counts in other stores as well as their centralised warehouse. Staff are encouraged to walk around the store with the tablets and assist customers with purchasing decisions.
In the front (outdoor-facing) window is a large 46-inch landscape NEC High Bright 1500-nit LCD that displays high-frequency and high-visibility advertisements and promotions that entice passersby into the store, increasing foot traffic and quick transactions. For mall-based stores (without the intense glare), such as the one pictured above, Sumo installed one of its own 46-inch commercial displays.
The result is a system that enhances the customer experience, while also giving Adairs a ‘virtual’ superstore, where all of its range is only a click away. If the stores doesn’t carry the item, then the shop assistant can use the tablet PC to check availability of the item in the warehouse and expedite the order.
Adairs: www.adairs.com.au
Sumo Visual Group: (03) 8290 0500 or www.sumovisualgroup.com.au
NEC: 131 632 or au.nec.com