The Counter Display – Interactivity is Your Trump Card

The question of where to position retail displays for maximum effectiveness is perhaps as old as the very notion of retail design itself. We believe that positional flexibility and interactivity are key to successful shop fixtures, which is why ARNO produces high-quality bespoke counter display units. These can be positioned either directly at the point of sale (POS) or on any other counter or gondola as an integral part of a store’s interior design. At the POS, their checkout area position is effective at eliciting impulse purchases, while within the main store area, interactivity is the fixture’s main advantage.

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Surely, anyone who has ever bought products from a retail shop has encountered them at some point- counter displays. Visually reminiscent of floor stands, these cases on top of counters or gondolas are frequently used to display small, low-cost products benefiting from impulse purchasing decisions, such as sweets placed directly on the checkout counter as a part of the point of sale design. However, for many decades now, the counter display has seen a rise in use for premium products within the actual main shopping area. This is primarily because, while the checkout display might be an ideal way of enticing impulse purchases, this method generally only works for low-cost products. Since time is limited when standing in a checkout queue, customers simply do not have the ability to interact with the displays properly. And while products such as sweets, batteries or prepaid phone cards do not necessarily require interactivity to entice purchasing decisions, premium products such as television sets certainly do. This also means that counter displays strictly intended for the checkout area are usually designed with a focus on visual marketing, while units positioned within the actual main shopping areas can include anything from interactive touch screen displays to hangers, holders or hooks for product samples or even try-out elements such as being able to change channels on television sets. High-quality counter displays produced by ARNO thus allow for effective visual design and branding through the display’s design as well as a high level of interactivity. This explains why the concept of the counter display as an in-store fixture for premium products has proven to be immensely useful, as in any saturated market, interactivity is a key facilitator of sales.

Taking all of this into account, we follow a few relatively simple guidelines when designing ARNO stands or displays for premium products. In order to be effective, a retail counter display needs to:

• Be easily noticeable and distinct from surrounding fixtures.
• Represent the brand identity 100% at a single glance.
• Allow for a significant amount of interactivity.
• Allow for flexible placement on various counters, stands or gondolas.

Simply gaining the attention of the customer is, theoretically, not very hard. After all, we are primed by evolution to instinctively pay attention to bright colours, movement and shapes. Of course, such a simplistic approach is not sufficient to stand out among competing brands or point of purchase displays, as the riot of colours, shapes and multimedia elements would ultimately prevent the customer from visually distinguishing between the individual retail displays that feature similar products.

This is why proper branding is of great importance for ARNO retail counter displays, both in terms of visual differentiation as well as for brand recognition. Simply displaying the company logo prominently and using colours associated with the brand can often be worth more than taking overly attention-seeking measures. On the other hand, relying solely on the power of the brand for a counter display may entice those customers whose loyalty has already been won over – but the potential new customers would just pass by. This problem can be mitigated by gaining customer attention via particularly interesting-looking interactive elements, exploiting our natural inclination to activity and play. Once these points have been considered, the most successful visual design concept becomes obvious: less is more. Strong branding in combination with simple yet unique design ideas is perhaps the most effective approach for any given counter display. For example, a three-dimensional polyhedron would draw attention by its very shape alone, allowing the interactive elements of the display to then entice customers to come closer and spend more time with the display.

Of course, the usability of a counter display should never be impeded by its design. Customers need to be able to interact with the products without obstacles, while shop owners need to be able to place them easily. Generally, a counter display should require as much space as is necessary to assure placement in a position not too close to competing brands and products, preventing the brand identity from being affected negatively. Larger counter displays also tend to draw more attention, as they are more easily recognizable within a retail environment. However, there is a limit as to size – after all, to a shop owner, placing two retail fixtures instead of one unit requiring the same amount of space might be an easier decision.

Similarly, the material used for constructing a counter display is of vital importance. High-quality counter displays not only need to reflect the quality of the product in terms of material – they can also be rather demanding in terms of structural integrity. Thus, low-quality materials such as cardboard are out of the question for the types of counter displays that ARNO provides. In our experience, the low quality of inferior materials is immediately evident. Perhaps even worse, they are prone to wear and tear when regularly handled by customers and moved around according to changing store layouts. High-quality lightweight materials such as aluminium or clear acrylic are a much sturdier and long-lasting alternative for a retail counter display.

While simple checkout counter displays help prevent shoplifting because of their position in the staffed checkout area, premium counter displays made by ARNO require a certain amount of technical ingenuity to provide product security, much like the similar free standing display unit fixture. In many cases, intelligent structural design in combination with robust materials is already enough to prevent quick smash-and-grab thefts – breaking through solid glass fitted in steel frames is, after all, no easy feat. Passive security is also a necessary element of any counter display including physical interactive elements. A classic example for this is the video game console stand. While the console itself can safely be stored inside the display unit, the controllers, by their very nature, need to be moved around freely. Segmented steel cables and similar elements can reliably prevent these independent objects from being removed by customers, while electronic alarm systems can report attempts at tampering with the display case containing the console itself.

Our company is highly experienced in designing and manufacturing any type of interactive or non-interactive shop fitting for any type of shop, product or brand. Our extensive portfolio includes acclaimed work for international companies, ranging from the electronics sector to fashion and hygiene products. We are familiar with both the retail design requirements of a wide variety of brands as well as the purely practical considerations of construction and day-to-day counter display use in stores. In addition, ARNO provides in-house solutions for every step of the way; from the initial design concept to final counter display manufacture and shipping. Our team is made up of experts from every profession useful to the process. Our graphic designers and marketing professionals come up with an inspired display concept, our architects and carpenters simultaneously think of a way to make the designs structurally viable and our project management and shipping departments consider the best ways of organising the finished fittings to provide for on-time counter display shipping and flawless order picking.

Thanks to our in-house structure, we are able to create your retail counter displays quickly and to your precise specifications, reliably avoiding communication problems. All we need is a brief outline concerning the parameters of your marketing situation, including such aspects as:

• Brand identity
• Competing brands
• Marketing environment
• Target audience

From these parameters, we draw our conclusions as to how the target audience can best be reached and develop a design based on this. Of course, should you already have feasible blueprints at hand; we can also simply manufacture counter display units according to your pre-determined specifications. If desired, we can also give suggestions as to the practical aspects of your own design – Which materials can be used without either compromising the structural integrity or incurring unnecessary costs? Can the fittings benefit from being modularised, like shelving units? And what changes could be made to allow the display to provide a sufficient amount of interactivity?