Retailers are going to have to change their in store display strategies when selling Smart TV’s, they also going to have to invest in a better educated sales assistant, a major TV display conference in the US has been told.
Store environments are going to have to adapt so that they can deliver a better demonstration of new technologies such as gesture and voice recognition, however they must not move back to a closed showroom environment as consumers don’t really like them Dennis May, President, CEO and Director of US retailer hhgregg.
May said that while brands like Samsung, LG and Panasonic were continuing to do a good job of delivering innovation, there needs to be a stronger effort towards listening more closely to what consumers really need and to avoid creating products with innovations just for the sake of being able to do so.
“The biggest change that vendors have to make is to better understand what the consumer wants, to become more consumer centric” he said.
May said that OLED TV has an amazing picture, and although not a revolutionary technology the introduction of OLED technology will help keep consumers in a stable replacement cycle as they start upgrading older flat panel TVs with new ones.
He said that store environments are going to have to change when a new generation of Smart TV’s are put on sale as new technologies like gesture and voice recognition are going to have to be demonstrated over the Internet in an effort to engage with consumers.
He claimed that the consumer is migrating rapidly towards connected technologies and wants to manage content both within their homes, and within the cloud, on many types of devices.
Good education by retailers and their staff is important when communicating the benefits of new technology, retailers have to recognise the value of education and constantly keep improving the process as it is now a key reason why consumers are walking into their stores.
He told the packed conference that online commerce is a reality and that consumers who walk into a store to compare pricing may be a good thing because it means they are engaged and interested in learning.
Retailers who have the staff who have the skill set to effectively talk to and educate these consumers have the best chance to close them when they walk into a store.
He said that many of the consumers who order products online and then opt for an in-store pick-up do so because they want the validation of talking with someone at the store to ensure they made the best choice.
He said that a third of consumers come into the store with a specific brand in mind. About half have a small set of brands in their consideration set and half don’t have a brand preference at all.
