Signage! A discovery that emerged into commercial space by the early 20th century. From the inception of billboards to wall-mounting digital screens, the signage industry has always been searching for tech-mediated business solutions.
With businesses going digital, enterprises started off by using consumer products like TV, DVD player, VCRs as a medium of digital signage in retail stores. However, there was a massive opportunity in the industry to develop retail specific solutions, this pushed Henrik Andersson to establish Instorescreen, transforming retail stores with the digital revolution.
As a visionary leader and CEO, Henrik is keen on mapping visionary prospects of digital signage solutions with a technocratic approach!
Let’s dive into the inspiring journey of Henrik Andersson.
The Path to Screen
Before Instorescreen, Henrik had an impressive career at Cisco, where he was responsible for the reconstruction of several company’s network infrastructure. He later joined SonyEricsson, they hired him to invent, develop and run their entire multimedia department. His work in this area ended up being a huge success and motivated Henrik to design and manufacture digital signage hardware solutions, and Instorescreen was born.
Talking about the future, Henrik says, “Instorescreen helps making Lenovo OEM into a multibillion-dollar supplier of Smart Retail products and solutions. He focuses on developing smart solutions that facilitate high consumer engagement, with technological advancement.”
Trailblazing Digital Signage Hardware Solution
At Instorescreen, Henrik focuses on designing and manufacturing requirements targeted at Digital Signage hardware solutions for individual customer needs. Henrik notes, “We are specialized in custom branded solutions, leveraging the customer’s marketing investment, and developed standalone solutions. We became the leading display solutions provider for many major brands such as Diageo, Marlboro, and Lego during this period. These companies were thrilled how Instorescreen could showcase their products and influence customer actions at the point of purchase with motion media. Sales lifts of 80+ % were common, and as a result, Instorescreen proliferated.”
As the organization sales skyrocketed, Henrik moved Instorescreen headquarters to the US market. This helped the company grow by designing and manufacturing hardware solutions that retrofit perfectly in existing shelf solutions, leveraging the customer’s existing shelf investment, with Smart Retail 2.0.
Deploying Technology, Developing Smart Retail Solutions
With a vision of transforming Smart Retail 2.0, Henrik says, “InstoreScreen is developing optimized solutions called “Smart Retail” with a focus on easy to deploy and maintain systems. Shelves that can see, hear, and understand the world around them, will make retail shopping fun again, and we are ready to deploy now!”
“Smart Retail is our line of uniquely shaped screens, with sensors and triggers, that seamlessly blend into and fit existing retail gondolas. These displays are designed and approved for retail, in partnership with fixture manufacturers such as Lozier and leading retailers such as Whole Foods,” explains Henrik.
At Instorescreen, Henrik is leveraging technology to make digital signage solutions resourceful and cost effective. He says, “inDAISY+ is one of the key features enabling the scalability of the Smart Retail displays. This daisy chain technology reduces the number of computer and Wi-Fi endpoints needed, reducing the corresponding number of Operating System and Content Management Software licenses. Minimizing the computers and Wi-Fi endpoints improves the system’s reliability, and limiting the number of software licenses needed lowers the cost to maintain the system.”
Henrik mentions that the Digital Signage industry is changing quickly, and it has become essential to implement the data-centric approach to enhance the consumer experience.
Adapt & Change!
Henrik is deploying Lenovo edge computers into retail, in order to empower the Smart Retail displays, supporting digital shelf edge pricing and providing processing power for advanced analytics at the shelf edge.
He notes, “When shoppers can enjoy an experience that anticipates their needs and shows them new things to try and enjoy, people will gladly flock back into the stores. That is why Instorescreen is developing analytics capabilities with our Smart Retail solutions in the coming year.”
We asked Henrik, if given a chance, what changes would he like to introduce in the digital Signage industry, to which he answered, “We see that one of the trickiest problems to solve to bring technology to retail shelves is the limited availability of power. Not only is there virtually zero power deployed across the main parts of the aisles, but the power conditioning is nonexistent. So, we are focused on this problem and plan to announce a new daisy chain soon utilizing the latest USB-C protocols. The plan is to have one cable for video, data, and power, and no need for hundreds of power supplies and all of the associated electrical infrastructure to support them.”
He believes that the daisy chain solution will be a game-changer in scaling Smart Retail.
Inspiring Budding Entrepreneurs
Henrik believes that digital signage can reshape the retail industry, and innovation knows no boundaries with technological expertise.
Henrik marks, “It is an exciting time to be in retail. New technologies are evolving very quickly, so keeping up with trends, and even driving them in retail is important. Visit trade shows, read industry publications, and be open-minded about emerging trends like cryptocurrency.”