The Benefits of Digital Signage For Vape Shops
Although digital signage is commonplace in conventional establishments like supermarkets and restaurants, it is also widely used in businesses like vape shops.
As with any other business, vape shops have unique needs that digital signage serves, making it possible to maximize profits while offering an unbeatable customer experience.
If you have never heard of digital signage being used in vape shops, it is easy to wonder what benefits a simple screen might offer. Are you wondering why you might need digital signage in your vape shop? Here are some astounding benefits this innovative digital technology has to offer in your business!
Does Digital Signage Belong In The Vape Business?
Vape shops are brick-and-mortar establishments that deal in the sale of e-cigarettes and other vaping alternatives. Over the years, the vape business has strived to be catapulted to popularity and has successfully attained this to some extent.
The global e-cigarette and vape market size was valued at USD 18.13 billion in 2021, an astounding number for a business market so volatile due to friction in specific governmental laws. And that isn't all. This figure is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 30.0% from 2022 to 2030.
Vape products have a long history of acceptance, backlash, and modifications. Vapes, vape pens, or e-cigarettes were created as an alternative to cigarettes, tobacco, and tobacco-based products.
Vape products had a rocky start, mainly because they took off as a non-nicotine product. The idea was to create a cigarette-like product that could help tobacco-smoking cessation. However, the original vape design was modified to introduce nicotine.
This worked wonders because the number of vapers increased rapidly from about seven million in 2011 to an estimated 41 million in 2018. Vapes began their steady climb to popularity, with a large part of the market expansion taking place in the United States, the United Kingdom, and France.
As popularity grew, so did the backlash. Vaping had become so widespread that it began to be used by people outside the target marketplace. Since modern vape products contained nicotine, the high teen-use rate was a significant setback for the vape market as health advocates began to push for the banning of vape products.
Regardless of the bad press, vape shops began to pop up in several locations. All was going smoothly until, of course, the pandemic reared its head and threw the vape business- like many other businesses- askew.
Foot traffic in vape shops reduced drastically, and as the restrictions grew even tighter, many vape shops closed. In contrast, many others took to doing business online to retain their shrinking customer base.
The lockdown restrictions have since been lifted, and like other establishments, vape shops struggled to return to business. Competition in the vape business is at an all-time high.
As a result, vape shops are implementing new strategies to encourage walk-in customers and sales. One of the many solutions vape shops are now adopting is using digital signage in their establishments.
As with many other businesses, digital signage in vape stores offers many benefits that can be used to drive traffic, increase awareness, and improve revenue. When implemented correctly, digital signage is pivotal in the success of a vape shop among the competition.
Not sure what these benefits are? We have highlighted some below!
Benefits of Digital Signage For Vape Shops
Digital signage is a modern and digital alternative to traditional signage. It involves using digital technology like LED and LCD screens to display dynamic content like pictures, videos, and web pages.
When implemented to its maximum potential, digital signage offers numerous benefits to vape shops. Some of these benefits include:
1. Create Better Brand Awareness
Vape shops are booming, and there is no better time to let people know about your brand than now. Implementing digital signage in your advertising campaign is an excellent way to put your brand out there and get the brand awareness you crave.
Although vapes and vape products are now widely accepted in several places around the world, mainly because they are not as harmful as other traditional nicotine and tobacco products, there are still some limitations to the acceptance of vape shops in some places.
This means there is a limit on how well you can advertise your brand while abiding by the set, yet mostly unspoken rules, like the Smoke-Free Ontario Act. As a vape shop with limited advertisement options, it can be very frustrating to find an offline platform to talk about your brand.
In cases like this, digital signage is an excellent solution to grab attention by delivering targeted content to your audience. With digital signs strategically positioned outside your vape shop or in windows facing the street, you can create appealing content that will drive more foot traffic into your establishment.
This way, you maximize brand awareness while not overstepping whatever vape advert bans are imposed within your location. In those cases where it is legal to advertise your vape brand without restrictions, digital signage remains an easy way to use dynamic content to attract potential clients to your vape shop.
Digital signage has a 47.7% effectiveness on brand awareness, much more than any static sign can offer vape businesses.
2. Share Product Information Easily
Vape shops sell various products that range from e-juices to vaporizers and other vape devices. What better way to tell your customers about the different products available than to use digital signage and engaging content?
With the many different products sold in vape shops, it is easy for clients to become confused about what products they should buy. This is a significant pain patient, especially for new vape users who are too skittish to ask for help in product selection for fear of looking like an amateur.
Using digital signage as a digital catalog to list the properties of the products in your vape shop is a fun and unique way to inform your clients of the products on your shelves. This not only makes the product selection easier but also reduces wait times and the pressure placed on staff to tell customers about your products constantly verbally.
By displaying product information clearly for customers to see, you have contributed to their satisfaction and, ultimately, improved their customer experience. This enhances customer happiness and loyalty, creating a solid customer relationship that forces them to become returning clients.
3. Offer Customer Education
Many people have begun to dabble in vaping as an alternative to smoking cigarettes and tobacco products. This is expected as it is precisely why the Chinese pharmacist Hon Lik invented vapes in 2003. However, not all people who smoke vapes do it as a healthier option.
Vapes are popular among teens and young adults who indulge in the activities for recreation. Because some vape products sold in many places contain nicotine, these young users use vapes to get a ‘hit’. However, like any other nicotine-containing product, vapes, when misused, can be harmful and cause problems like lung injuries.
These injuries, which are a result of vape abuse, are caused by a lack of proper education. So, how can digital signage in your vape shop help? Digital signage can be used to display graphics, texts, videos, and audio educating walk-in clients on the benefits and risks (if any) of the products being sold in your vape shops.
Digital signs can be used as a medium to educate your clients about the different types of vape products or devices you sell, how to use them safely, and how to choose suitable devices to use.
Because 90% of the information transmitted to the brain is visual, your clients are more likely to pay attention to the information displayed on a screen than those shared via word-of-mouth or on static posters.
Using digital signage as a medium of education in your vape shop is a great way to help clients make better purchasing decisions and better judgement calls that will help them stay safe as they use your products.
4. Brand Differentiation
Vape shops everywhere are looking for easy solutions to have the edge over their competition. Since many vape shops already sell similar products, it is crucial to have a unique strategy that sets your shop apart from other vape shops.
Technology has offered exciting ways to create a unique brand image for your business. One of these is the advent of digital signage. Before the mainstream use of digital signage technology in vape shops, it was more common to find static signs like posters and fliers than attractive screens showing unique dynamic content.
Even today, many vape businesses still use static signage to share information within and outside their establishment. Digital signage is a modern alternative to set your vape shop apart from other vape shops that use traditional static signs.
This technology has a ‘wow’ effect that appeals to potential customers, creating a significant positive impression of your brand that works wonders in alienating other brands from your potential customer's minds.
With digital signage, potential customers immediately notice that your vape shop differs from other vape shops. With quality content, you offer a better in-store customer experience that becomes your brand identity.
This raises the bar against your competition, differentiating your brand from other vape shops that use traditional signage.
5. Foster Customer Loyalty
A better customer experience improves customer satisfaction. A satisfied customer is a happier and more loyal one. A loyal customer is one willing to come back, again and again, to purchase products from you.
A digital sign and the messages it displays work wonders at creating and retaining loyal customers. By using digital signage to provide useful and valuable content, you can grow a network of motivated customers to come back for future purchases.
With digital signage, you can display loyalty programs by offering coupon codes that urge your clients to return for more purchases. You can also encourage them to sign up for specific loyalty programs and provide incentives to guarantee their loyalty to your brand.
6. Easier Sales With POS
Other than being the perfect solution for sharing information, digital signage can also be used as a practical solution for a personalized shopping experience. This is possible by using digital point-of-sale stations.
Using a digital signage point-of-sale station is an instant counter upgrade that is both aesthetically pleasing and a great marketing technique. Digital signage POS stations are a great way to keep people entertained while waiting in line to make payments.
This increases customer satisfaction and experience by cutting the perceived wait time in half. By enjoying quality dynamic content while waiting, customers are kept busy and engaged until it’s their turn to make payment.
Implementing digital signage as a point-of-sale tool is also a great way to up-sell and influence a customer’s purchasing decision. More than 60 percent of buying decisions are made at the point of sale. By displaying discounted vape products, new stock, best-sellers, or combo prices, you can convince customers to make unplanned purchases, thereby increasing your business revenue.
POS stations are also the perfect place to display loyalty programs and rewards. Essentially, Digital Signage POS stations are integral in creative marketing to increase sales.
7. Create Social Media Awareness
Social media plays a massive part in the expansion of the vape market. Although many social media platforms have policies against advertising smoke products on pages, these platforms remain a crucial medium for building an online community and connecting with prospective clients.
As a modern vape shop, you can use digital signage to connect with walk-in customers online and create social media awareness. By displaying your social media details, live streaming social feeds, and sharing some of the social media activity on your display screen, you can motivate more people to join the conversations on your page.
You can also incentivize the process and reward client's who comment, like, and share content on your social media platform as encouragement. Essentially, digital signage is handy in merging the physical and social consumer experiences.
Digital Signage For Vape Shops
Vape shops, like other businesses, have unique signage needs. When meeting these needs, you need an equally impressive digital signage solution.
Loop TV offers businesses a world of free and unlimited entertainment and digital signage solutions. With more than 145 entertaining channels and free digital signage solutions, vape shops can give customers the type of experience they want without boundaries.
In addition, vape shops can also enjoy a financial boost by using Loop TV to save and make money. Since Loop TV offers unlimited free services, you do not have to worry about subscription fees that may affect your finances. Your business can also earn monthly rewards such as cash, prepaid Visa cards, gift cards, or charitable donations for playing Loop TV’s content.
Loop TV offers a world of opportunities that other signage solutions do not offer. To get started, sign up for a free media player on the official Loop TV website.