What is point of sale (POS)
The point of sale, i.e., the place in your store where customers queue and pay for their purchases, should not be regarded as the end of their buying journey. In fact, the point of sale represents a further opportunity for product promotion and a chance to prompt customers to make a last minute or impulse buy by offering goods or products that the customer may not have previously considered.
At Clockwork Print, we specialise in designing and producing a range of point of sale print marketing collateral that can help to boost your last minute sales. Point of sale marketing material is specifically designed to make an impact on customers through images, text or a combination of both, and can help to promote special offers, sale items or other services that you want your customers to consider buying before they finalise their purchase and leave your premises.
What is Point of Sale Marketing?
Point of sale marketing material has a very specific purpose, namely to appeal to customers at the check-out or wherever they make their purchases. As a consequence, it needs to be attention grabbing, engaging and persuasive, so that it impacts on customers and encourages them to buy a product or service that they otherwise might not have considered or intended.
Why Point of Sale Marketing Works
Point of sale print marketing materials can be effective for a number of reasons. First of all, the customer is already in your store, which means you have already established a relationship with them. Maintaining and developing existing relationships with customers is always easier than the effort required to attract new customers from scratch, and so it makes sense to capitalise on this by doing all you can to encourage further purchases.
You can also use this opportunity to make it easy for customers to make impulse buys of products that might not necessarily be in your main or primary product range. For instance, some large office product chain stores offer sweets and snacks in the checkout — these sorts of items are not their core business of course, but they are the sorts of things that we all buy at one time or another, and so smart retailers take advantage of this.
Point of sale material can also promote services as well as products, e.g., delivery services, after-sales repair agreements, loyalty programs, etc., and so this can help to raise awareness of things that your existing customers may not be aware that you do.
A further point to consider is that custom design point of sale marketing material can enhance the physical environment around your check-out zones, making the process of waiting in line slightly less tedious than it might otherwise be, by providing interesting and engaging things for customers to read or look at.
What are the benefits of point of sale display?
One of the primary benefits of point of sale print materials is that virtually everyone who comes into your store and makes a purchase will engage with this form of marketing collateral. Unlike some other forms of in-store promotion, which can easily be missed or ignored as shoppers move from aisle to aisle, well-designed and positioned point of sale marketing material will by necessity be front and centre with everyone who passes through a checkout or sales point.
There is also the advantage that in even the most efficiently operated retail premises, there will usually be some waiting time at the check-out. While this might only be limited, it nevertheless is an ideal opportunity for engaging customers who are more likely to be receptive to the message than in other locations in the store, as there is not necessarily a lot to do when waiting in a queue.
The point of sale can also be the ideal place to promote products that can easily be overlooked when a customer is filling up their trolley as they move through the store, but which they can be persuaded to purchase when prompted. For instance, how many times have you suddenly realised at the check-out that you need items which are necessities, but which might not always make onto your main shopping list, like batteries for the remote control, lens cleaning cloths for your glasses, or razor blades?
Marketing at the point of sale is also the opportunity to promote add-ons, buy one, get one free (BOGO) bargains, or other special deals. This is because point of sale print promotions can be designed in such a way that they are always physically in a customer’s range of vision, and feature an eye-catching message that can be quickly and easily taken in by anyone who sees them.
What To Consider With Your POS Display
When designing a point of sale display, you need to have a clear sales strategy in mind to ensure that you are promoting the right sort of products or services, you are appealing to the potential audience in the right way, and that your marketing collateral conveys the messages in a way that is in keeping with your brand and values.
Likewise, your displays need to be printed on the right sort of media and materials so that they are durable and continue to show up well despite bing in use for extended periods of time in high traffic areas of your store.
Understand Your Product
When you are incorporating a product into a point of sale display, it needs to be positioned in such a way that it is accessible and customers can easily add it to their shopping basket or trolley. Therefore, the manner in which a product is displayed, as well as how it is promoted (e.g., is it reduced in price, is it a BOGO offer, etc.), needs a lot of planning if it is to be effective.
Practicality
Point of sale material needs to be carefully designed in order to make the maximum use of any available space. In many instances, the amount of space you have for this purpose will be limited and so you need thoughtful design in order to make as many products as possible accessible or, in the case of services or other deals, to explain these in sufficient detail to engage a customer’s interest.
Positioning
The effectiveness of point of sale marketing material will to a large extent depend on how and where it is positioned. For instance, the products on offer need to be able to changed regularly to keep the display fresh, while the display itself also has to fit in with the space and be prominent without being too intrusive.
This why it pays to have your point of sale print materials custom designed, as in this way you can make the best possible use of any space you have available.
Design
Designing point of sale material for a supermarket, superstore or any type of retail space is a specialist field that requires a good deal of experience and knowledge. This is because the design needs to be eye catching and incorporate text and image in such a way that the message is quickly conveyed and has appeal. It also needs to show awareness of the intended audience, and how to create engagement with a particular demographic.
Be creative
Point of sale print materials can be designed to promote a particular brand rather than specific products or services. In this scenario, the design needs to be easily distinguishable from more generic promotions, using the brand’s colours, logo, tag lines, etc., and be creatively designed so that the display stands out in the often crowded check out space.
Can you be interactive?
If you can design ways in which to make your point of sale material interactive, you are likely to have greater engagement with customers, which can in turn help to further prompt those last minutes, unplanned purchases.
Is the message clear?
You don’t always have much time to grab someone’s attention at the check-out or another sale point. This means that you need to convey your message effectively and efficiently in order to make the most of what could be a relatively limited potential sales opportunity.
Therefore, it pays to have your point of sale marketing material custom designed and professionally printed so that you are speaking to and engaging with customers in as positive and informative way as possible.
Why you should choose Clockwork Print as your continuous partner in print marketing and point of sale solutions
As we have seen, the point of sale in your store offers an exceptional opportunity to engage with customers who are already present in your retail premises. It is safe to assume that they already like and want much of what you sell, and therefore it makes sense to try to guide them towards other products and services that you think might appeal to them.
