Korean cosmetics retailer Innisfree is taking North America by storm, and the brand is counting on in-store digital experiences to draw in customers and create shareable moments that appeal to today’s connected consumers. Following the success of an enhanced digital design at its second Manhattan location in late 2018, the company knew it had a winning formula for retail stores and contracted the digital signage experts at Creative Realities, Inc. (CRI), to implement large NanoLumens LED displays at multiple U.S. stores slated for openings through Q2 2020.
“The Innisfree Lexington store in New York City achieved the impossible, drawing attention away from long established competitors that are located just steps away — competitors with loyal customer bases,” said Beth Warren, SVP of Experience Planning and Design at CRI. “By using large, bright NanoLumens LED displays to draw in customers and create a center of gravity for storytelling, shoppers can experience the brand’s natural-ingredient theme in a way that encourages excitement and sharing on social media.”
Engaging with the needs of millennial and younger crowds is crucial to the brand’s North American retail rollout, helping to build brand loyalty and create a network of beauty connoisseurs who share their retail experiences and product preferences.
The rollout is progressing quickly, with two California locations, one in Santa Monica and one in Santa Anita (pictured), already opened in May and June of this year, respectively. According to Warren, the stores vary in size and layout, but all heavily feature digital displays that draw in customers, along with other high-tech shopping tools and interior design focusing on organic, natural ingredients.
“NanoLumens is an ideal fit for the Innisfree retail stores because its LED displays are absolutely not a one-size-fits-all solution,” Warren explained. “Each store has slightly different space availability, and with NanoLumens we are able to specify exact sizes and pixel pitches unique to each store to achieve a consistent aspect ratio and pixel count that vastly simplifies content creation and display. It’s important to us as technology designers and installers that consumer-facing digital infrastructure blends with its environment, and doesn’t appear as a bolt-on afterthought. NanoLumens affords us that control and design freedom.”
The brand has integrated other high-tech features, such as touchscreen stations that instantly analyze a shopper’s skin tone to recommend products for their specific needs, and smaller digital displays that promote products and identify different areas of the retail space. The NanoLumens displays are much larger and are used to create an inviting environment, displaying natural scenes and landscapes that evoke a calming effect and relate to the brand’s ingredient sourcing on the remote South Korean island of Jeju.
“Innisfree successfully integrated large digital displays, underscoring how customer-focused retailers can create the future of physical spaces by joining forces with an amazingly talented retail design firm and a display partner capable of engineering displays in custom sizes, shapes and curvatures to fit any architecture or space,” said Geoff Berkeley, Regional Sales Manager at NanoLumens. “By engaging customers and passersby with direct connections to today’s digital lifestyle and culture, brick and mortar retailers can successfully redefine the channel to drive the next generation of memorable retail brands.”
A core requirement for the stores’ main displays is that they be visible from outside the store, to catch the eyes of passersby and draw them in. With superior brightness and clarity, backed by a six-year down-to-the-pixel warranty, NanoLumens LED displays ensures all Innisfree U.S. stores have guaranteed traffic drivers for years to come.
“The NanoLumens displays are the hero piece,” Warren said, “and for a main attraction, we wouldn’t leave the results to chance by using anything less than the best manufacturer and product. I personally picked this product and told the client they only had one chance to get it right, and that if it was my business, NanoLumens is what I would use.”
