News: Ratio

It is almost impossible to overestimate the significance of sales areas for customer purchases.Consumers make over 70 percent of all their buying decisions actually in the store.

A new concept from T-Systems is designed to exploit this potential: Instore Communications (IC) is a solution that allows dealers, manufacturers and service providers to address their customers directly and personally. In this system, screens bring important information and advertising directly to the consumer in the store.

The trading firm Ratio is also counting on the solution in a pilot project. At a hypermarket in Trier, Germany, 20 modern 50” screens are currently informing the customers constantly about the latest offers and services. One example is if crates of lettuces are still waiting for customers one afternoon, the Fruit and Vegetables Manager now simply needs to reach casually for the phone. After a short conversation with the Content Manager, a special offer for the salad will appear on the plasma screens in the store just 30 minutes later, and the run on the lettuce can begin.

Understanding customers better

The users of IC are particularly impressed by the spontaneity and flexibility of the system. “With this solution, we are learning to understand the customers and their needs and wishes much better. That means that we can align not only the hypermarkets themselves but even all our internal communication processes much more closely to the customers’ expectations,” said Jürgen Küper, Advertising Manager at Ratio.