Touch – Browse – Play – Yawn
Adrian J Cotterill, Editor-in-Chief
Despite all the help that Dave Haynes and PressDOOH give the industry, everyone of course is still a ‘leader’ and none more so (obviously) than Intava, ‘a leader in touch screen solutions for retailers’ who sent us this press release announcing that Ethan Allen has deployed Intava Vector™ interactive merchandising screens in its Design Centers across the country.
World leading screen on wall
How boring and how uninspirational is that? I am sure we will be told that is what the client wanted but for goodness sake, its just a screen hung on a wall over a table.
The press release told us that “Ethan Allen Design Centers now have the ability to showcase and sell all available products (both online and in-store) in a visually compelling and informative way, regardless of store size” – umm, not sure about the ‘visually compelling’ bit.
The press release continued “The touch screens inspire furniture shoppers by giving them the ability to discover, select, and visualize their dream home interiors through intuitive style quizzes and interactions with the screen” – umm again.
In a separate announcement, Intava announced the latest features and capabilities of Intava Vector 2.0, it’s visual merchandising and shopper assistance solution.
The industry is mature enough now and (supposedly) experienced enough to see that a screen hung on a wall such as this just doesn’t cut it these days.
November 24th, 2010 at 16:32 @730
Actually you don’t know that from this picture or the press release. You also don’t know what the attract loop looks like. You should send Jones to look at it.
If the space around this area is conducive to dwell, the app is a value add (which if you’re ever shopped furniture so many options are not on the floor), and the sales people use it as an extension of their selling process, it could be fantastic.
They are probably getting a lot of pressure from the successful Room and Board chain competitively. Their in-store associates actively leverage the web in store to show further options and expand the sale.
I think rather than reject stuff like this out of hand, you should ask questions first.