How a sense of touch helped Eton shirts double expected sales

Eton equipped their brick-and-mortar stores with a range of touchscreen displays

The fashion retail space is evolving. The fact is, more and more consumers are tethered to devices, their faces glowing in a blue, e-commerce-hue of smart phones, tablets and laptops. That’s not to say the in-store fashion shopping experience is going the way of the dodo bird. It’s just that to thrive, stores must ‘sell’ more than clothes and win over customers with a robust and engaging in-store experience.

Eton equipped their brick-and-mortar stores with a range of touchscreen displays to showcase their whole line of shirts within the company’s retail spaces.

Source: Elo

No longer is it good enough for designers and sellers to display goods in retail spaces – no matter how clever or eye-catching those displays might be. When you think about it, even the most brilliantly designed and well-displayed fashions simply hang from racks or lay flat and too-perfectly folded on tabletops. Plus, with ever decreasing retail space available, having the ability to digitally display additional stock is vital. Today, customers are looking to create a holistic and personalized shopping experience that integrates physical and digital experiences.

Fortunately, the fashion industry is all about being tactile, whether that’s through the many textures of clothing material or a cool, smooth
touchscreen. And, despite the ease and speed of online purchases, touching, comparing and trying-on apparel is still a large part of the shopping
experience. But how do retailers go about wrapping digital and in-store shopping into one robust experiential package?

That’s where Elo Touch Solutions truly shines. We’re experts when it comes to seamlessly integrating the soft, elegant world of fashion with the sleek world of digital touchscreens. In fact, Elo Touch Solutions is a retail industry leader with more than 20 million interactive touchscreen installations. We also have more than 40 years of retail market experience in providing customers high-quality and reliable product designs that get results – just like we did for Eton Shirts.

Give limited space unlimited possibilities

Eton has creating some of the world’s finest shirts since 1928. Today, their diverse styles are highly sought after and can be found in some of the most exclusive stores. And while the retailer’s reach may be global, the designer’s 90-square-meter stores limit just how much of their colorful collection can be displayed – just 15 percent of their entire line. As a result, Eton needed to make a bigger fashion splash in a small retail space pool. So, Eton turned to us with a few challenges. The fashion icon asked us to help increase sales, enhance customers’ in-store experiences and, of course, showcase Eton’s full line of apparel within the company’s modest retail spaces. Now those are challenges that are right up our alley.

Combining retailing & e-tailing

These days, it’s not uncommon to see companies that were once purely online e-tailers opening brick-and-mortar stores. But because Eton already had physical locations, our job was to help make the retailer an e-tailer as well.

The solution? Provide a range of in-store, touch-screen displays. These displays are not only highly visible, they encourage customers to interact with the brand – including the 85 percent that might not be featured in stores. Just like magic, and some clever behind-the-scenes programming and design, 90 square meters of retail space becomes infinitely larger, giving customers full, interactive access and the ability to explore Eton’s entire collection.

This omni-channel approach not only enhances customers’ in-store experiences, it also enables Eton retailers to be able to offer customers nearly 70 times more options and retain shoppers who are already in-store. Plus, the high-resolution screens are ideal for highlighting apparel aesthetics, quality and detail, while giving stores a sleek and modern look.

Now, regardless of availability and retail space, customers have access to Eton’s entire product line and styles at their fingertips within stores. Plus, should a product not be in stock, delivery only takes one to two days

Wrinkle-free results

Simply put, Eton’s original goal was to increase sales 5 percent. And, to be honest, we didn’t meet that goal, we doubled it. Thanks to this digital, omni-channel type of approach sales increased by 10 percent. As a result, Eton has announced that it will soon apply this same strategy in other stores and create Eton Express. This new service will take orders created at individual stores and deliver them to customers within that store’s city in an hour.