AOpen Video Case: Interactive Digital Wayfinding in Retail

May 3, 2012 - PRLog -- The Alexandrium Woonmall home decoration and interior design section in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, was completely re-designed to cater to the needs of the visitor. The company PresTop Products designed the interactive wayfinding kiosks and digital displays for advertising purposes using AOpen Digital Engine media players.

Commercial center Alexandrium is one of the largest indoor shopping centers in the Netherlands consisting of approximately 210 stores, with around 60 stores in the home decoration and interior design section. The total property covers 44.000 square meters, nearly 500.000 square feet of shopping. The stores range from your normal fashion, jewelry and gift shops to the Megastores section and a section that focuses on home decoration and interior design.

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THE CHALLENGE
With such a large ground of shopping space, the management of Alexandrium Woonmall decided to give innovations such as digital signage and digital interactive wayfinding a place in this modern mall. Mid 2011 the project implementation started and was led by system integrator PresTop Products, a valued AOpen partner. In December 2011 the refurbished mall was officially re-opened.

“Alexandrium Woonmall has been transformed into a real shopping experience thanks to the renovations”, according to the management of this center.

THE SOLUTION
At the entrance of the home decoration and interior design area of Alexandrium Woonmall you will find two touch kiosks and three 42” touchscreens. In the heart of the mall there is a custom built double sided 42” Touch Totem. In addition nine displays are placed across the shopping center for digital signage/narrowcasting purposes including advertisements and interactive information feed. The displays are strategically placed above the elevators, entrance and across the ground floor close to the restaurants.

THE SHOPPING EXPERIENCE
A visitor of the home decoration section can now easily find the way to the shop or shops they would like to visit. The shops are categorized in sections to make the search easy. Once you find the shop that you would like to visit you can select it and receive an animated route description. A QR code will also appear, so you can save the information on your smartphone. The displays will show advertisements combined with information and promotions of the mall. The advertisements will be a way of generating income for the mall, because the retailers will have the possibility to run commercial advertisements.

THE BENEFITS
A fundamental benefit of digital wayfinding in Alexandrium Woonmall is its flexibility. It can be used to display the total floorplan, interactive maps from starting point to the location, store information such as opening hours and promotions. Visitorscan also use their smartphone to directly upload the store information by scanning the QR code that is displayed on the wayfinding system. All in all a great tool to help people navigate their way through big retail centers such as Alexandrium Woonmall. Additionally the system helps visitors decide where they would like to go, because the system allows to search per category such as Kitchens, Living room, Bedroom etc., and they might end up in different stores than originally planned.

The extra displays that are located across the mall are installed for messaging and promotional activities. This form of promotion is also a lot more flexible than the old static posters, because messages and promotions are changed on demand with a touch of a button via a central remote management system. Thanks to the displays it is also possible to show online newsfeeds and animated, full motion video promotions. Digital messages are more likely to catch the eye and therefore better able to bring the message to the customer to support the goal of getting the customer in the store and the possibility to sell your promoted product.

KEY BENEFITS
• A new stylish design to attract new customers to benefit the retailers
• The proven track record of the technology used
• Creation of a shopping experience

SOLUTIONS
• Project owner: PresTop Products
• AOpen Digital Engine DE7000
• AOpen Digital Engine DE57-HA
• Philips Information Kiosks and Totems
• Omnitapps Wayfinding Software

CHOOSING THE RIGHT SYSTEM INTEGRATOR
The WPM Group was the initiator of the project and its division for Shopping Center Management is responsible for the maintenance, administration, marketing and promotion of the Shopping Center Alexandrium. The development of a shopping center is regularly monitored through studies of customer satisfaction, traffic flows and business experience. It was their idea to look for an innovative solution to replace the existing static wayfinding posters with digital and interactive signs. This is where WPM Group decided to hire PresTop Products.

PresTop is a System Integrator in the Digital Signage industry. Their services reach from the drawing board to the actual installment including: design, creation and installation. Products include: touch displays, touch tables, touch computers, kiosks, software and services. PresTop took on the whole project for the Home Decoration section of Shopping Center Alexandrium in Rotterdam using Philips displays, AOpen Digital Engine media players and Omnitapps software.

PresTop has been using AOpen Digital Engine media players for more than 5 years. “The advan¬tage of the AOpen media player is that the size of the housing never changes thanks to the unique small form factor. That makes the system ideal for us to build into our customized kiosks and totems.”
Richard Roggeveen, Account Manager at PresTop Products

DIGITAL SIGNAGE IN RETAIL ENVIRONMENTS
Digital Signage is the ideal way to disperse content and messages in a targeted manner. Displays are now used to project HD video content, sound and text. Synergy is possible between various devices, enabling retailers to connect and interact with their customers, using the latest mobile technology.


ABOUT AOPEN
AOpen, Inc. has more than 15 years of IT hardware manufacturing experience along with keen insights into IT industry trends that help drive the continuous development of high-end IT solutions.

As the leading manufacturer of reliable, powerful and green hardware solutions world-wide, combined with the unique small form factor of the specially designed media player called AOpen Digital Engine, AOpen is able to provide an outstanding platform for 24/7 operability in applied computing. The range of players, from low-end to high-end with fan or fanless, are designed for excellence: from basic bare systems to state-of-the-art multimedia solutions built to fit customers’ needs. The WarmTouch series complements the AOpen product line with small and extremely sleek displays with or without touch. With in-depth market knowledge AOpen can offer advice for complete digital signage platform solutions. AOpen cooperates with its global value added channel network to go to market.

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