Ira Somers, writing for Massivit 3D, discusses how PSPs can help retailers capture foot traffic through various means of signage and display, namely 3D printing.
As the ‘Retail Apocalypse’ ravages through retail stores worldwide, an unexpected hero may be waiting in the wings. It’s true that online sales are growing, but recent research from Deloitte shows that 90% of worldwide sales still take place in-store. People explore products online and then visit the mall to test or try them.
Even online giants like Amazon and Zalando host physical locations, most likely to serve their customers who want to go from clicks to bricks. Here is the opportunity for PSPs to help other nearby retailers increase their business by capturing this ‘online’ foot traffic. How? Captivating window displays. And this is where large 3D printing can help PSPs develop new revenue streams.
Retailers have always made the most of their available window space with signs and lights. But 3D-style props and displays can attract even more attention. In the past, 3D models were created with conventional subtractive fabrication methods like CNC machining or foam carving. Fabricators would use these to make point of purchase (POP) and window displays to help retailers increase store traffic.
Today, large format 3D printing offers a revolutionary solution to fabricating 3D displays: a solution that is significantly faster, offers complete customisation, and removes the roof on creativity.
Large format 3D printing makes creating anything possible. Nespresso are experts at manufacturing coffee and coffee making machines. If you look at their breadth of window display advertisements, you will see they are experts in this area, too. Yet, one 3D printed window display stands out even among all the other great window displays.
Australian-based Composite Images used their Massivit 1800 3D printer to create this milk splash in motion to advertise Nespresso’s new centrifuge feature. The concept is creative and the execution is compelling and only achievable with Massivit 3D. In fact, Composite Images 3D-printed two milk splash window displays, one for a smaller window in another location.
Earlier this year, Composite Images brought a touch of omnichannel advertising to this David Jones window display. The PSP 3D-printed the main empowering and exciting element in Estee Lauder’s television advertisement for the brand’s fragrance, Beautiful Belle. Construction Effects was the primary conceptual artist, 3D artist, designer, fabricator, and installer.
The 3D-printed rear end of this classic MGA 1600 was 3D printed in only 18 hours and recreated the excitement of the TV ad for passing shoppers. The car took just 18 hours to print on the Massivit 1800 3D printer.
3D printing is digital printing technology that prints material that is layered upon itself to create a solid object. While most 3D printing technology is slow, Massivit 3D technology is fast. Super-fast. Not only that, Massivit 3D printers print hollow models that can be illuminated, are lightweight yet durable, and do not require support material.
For a fashion store, mannequins portray the brand and display featured products. They are the all-important silent salespeople in the store and in window displays, but manufacturing mannequins is a tedious and time-consuming process. 3D printing changes that.
Steve Beckman, president and COO of custom mannequin manufacturer, Greneker, said, ‘3D printing produces something in six weeks, which would have normally taken six months.’
In Australia, SEEN Technology helped women’s fashion brand, Hermes, celebrate the Chinese New Year with a stunning window display. It showed a series of 3D-printed roosters.
3D printing uses digital files which takes away the guesswork and inaccuracies of foam carving. Duplicates, even in modified positions, are extremely easy to create with digital files. Against a red-backdrop, all of Hermes’ roosters were exceptionally eye-catching, especially the one covered in 18K gold leaf.
When Roots, the Canadian clothing brand, showcased its line of puffy, winter coats, they implemented a larger-than-life 3D coat replica that captured the spotlight in the store’s window.
Created by Toronto-based Cameron Advertising, this XXXL 3D-printed coat looked perfectly warm, cozy, and authentic, and it successfully drew mall visitors into the store to try on the real version, in a more appropriate size.
In an earlier blog, we wrote about Bertil Hulten’s 2012 experiment in Ikea that showed the longer consumers stay in a store, the more products they are likely to purchase. Help your retail clients bring customers into stores with captivating 3D window displays and keep them inside and engaged longer with amazing in-store displays.
MLB, a sports-centred fashion shop in South Korea, installed an expertly-painted, giant 3D-printed baseball player before the store opened, and even before the products were on the shelves.
MLB understood the importance of visual displays and contacted printHpole to 3D print this project.
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