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"If we can satisfy some real needs for the consumers and bring a thoughtful application of technology, analytics, and science to this new environment, then I think we will achieve this trifecta of wins — consumers will win, retailers and brands will win." — Arsen Avakian, CEO and Founder of Cooler Screens
The majority of retail sales still occur in-store, according to the National Retail Federation (NRF), but the consumer and brand experience in physical stores is still decidedly analog.
Brands often lack access to real-time data in-store that could increase relevance with consumers — and boost their own marketing efficiency. Consumers aren’t commonly armed with the most useful information at the point of purchase to make the most informed buying decision.
Cooler Screens created the largest point-of-sale (POS) media platform in the world, pioneering technology that’s digitizing the traditional brick-and-mortar retail experience.
The company works with retailers to transform physical screens into Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled digital screens that deliver more marketing opportunities for brands and an engaging customer shopping experience.
Arsen Avakian, CEO and founder of Cooler Screens, joined a recent episode of the "Unpacking the Digital Shelf" podcast, "All the Store’s a Stage," to share his insights on why it’s become so critical for brands and retailers to collaborate and deliver more human-centered digital experiences in physical stores.
Avakian also shares how Cooler Screens is working with retailers like Kroger to bridge the gap between digital and physical retail at a massive scale and how other forward-thinking businesses can do the same.
The growing presence of retail media and other emerging digital touchpoints requires more multidisciplinary collaboration between brands, agencies, retailers, and tech companies.
Amazon has long set the standard for retail media. However, the entrance of traditional physical retailers like Kroger and Walmart into the space means understanding the nuances of the physical world — and powerfully merging it with digital — is essential to delivering a modern, seamless customer shopping experience.
In recent years, Coolers Screens has tried to bring all these players together via an annual "Innovation Summit."
Avakian says this year’s summit unearthed three themes retailers and brands need to embrace going forward:
First, Avakian says you have to work backward from the need, goal, and objective to achieve a better human outcome and connect to “the heads and hearts of consumers” in stores.
Secondly, brands and retailers must combine analytics and digital commerce technology with creativity and content tailor-made for the in-store experience.
Avakian’s last takeaway is that every surface of a brick-and-mortar store can be digitally transformed to increase convenience, relevancy, and transparency — driving both a better customer shopping experience and better performance for brands and retailers.
"If we treat the store as a stage and we have built sophisticated technology, which is a combination of IoT sensors that all of a sudden gives us the analytics on what the shoppers and products are doing in the store, all of a sudden a physical store becomes like a website," Avakian says.
He adds that technology is only beneficial in this context if it meets consumers’ needs in the moment.
"If we can satisfy some real needs for the consumers and bring a thoughtful application of technology, analytics, and science to this new environment, then I think we will achieve this trifecta of wins — consumers will win, retailers and brands will win." — Arsen Avakian, CEO and Founder of Cooler Screens
Cooler Screens collaborated with Kroger to test this theory for nearly four years.
Cooler Screens and Kroger invited select brands to participate in Kroger’s digitally enabled marketing programs in-store.
Three important considerations for participation were:
"We don't want people to waste their money, and pray that it actually works," Avakian says. "We want measurement, we want accountability and transparency upfront. Because if they win — and again, this is what Kroger has been always preaching in retail media — they want to bring transparency to the supply chain of media. They want the brands to feel the value that they're getting back."
The participating brands have capitalized on all three of these attributes to deliver a more compelling customer shopping experience at Kroger stores.
In the food and beverage aisle, shoppers now have access to more nutritional information than they normally would find on the back of a product label.
In its pharmacy department, Kroger is using Cooler Screens to enhance patient education and guide patients to information about the differences between specific over-the-counter medications. This capability is especially critical as the nation faces an ongoing shortage of pharmacists. The technology can also deliver information that could help improve medication adherence.
"A lot of times, people assume they can't afford it [their prescriptions], and they don't adhere to the instructions from their medical providers," Avakian says. "If only they knew that maybe their FSA card or their Medicare could cover that, the adherence rates would go up significantly. That's another example where you can have a real human outcome."
Cooler Screens also is supporting Kroger’s "Food is Medicine" initiative by using various canvases in store — whether it’s a freezer door or end cap — to educate consumers about healthy lifestyles and steer them toward better products.
In this way, "information starts becoming a powerful lever," Avakian says.
Cooler Screens’ technology shows how brands and retailers can innovate together to drive better performance and a better consumer experience.
By marrying data signals from Cooler Screens technology with a retailer’s data, such as transactional, loyalty, and pricing data and planogram information, brands can deliver relevant content to consumers that increases conversions.
What’s even more meaningful is that Cooler Screens is accomplishing all this in a privacy-centric way. Avakian says the company has built a one-to-many algorithm that delivers contextually relevant content to different customer segments at scale rather than to individual customers on a one-to-one basis.
He says transforming brick and mortar into a digital canvas can deliver a wealth of data that dramatically improves the customer shopping experience. However, even before brands and retailers use technology in this way, they must make customer experience their North Star — and start with the end in mind. By focusing on how to deliver better human outcomes, they’ll, in turn, drive better performance and build a better business.
"What matters going forward is understanding that technology is there only if it's applied for a good human outcome," Avakian says. "If it doesn't perform and it doesn't help solve a real problem for consumers, it's going to be dead."
To hear more of Avakian’s insights on bringing digital to the brick-and-mortar experience, listen to the full episode.
