Project: Sport Chek Retail Lab
Client: FGL Sports Ltd.
Submitted by: TELUS Digital Signage

Objectives of the deployment or the technology:

Duncan Fulton, the CMO of Canadian Tire/FGL Sports came to us to deliver on his vision for the next generation of digital retail experience in their new flagship store.    

His vision was to create a digital experience for the customer by creating an atmosphere where technology makes it more fun to shop by delivery of current product trends/information (visually in HD), technology choices (HD mfgr content), inspiration for new sports equipment (latest mfgr videos), their uses, what others are doing (interactivity) – so that customers are inspired and will bring their friends back to see it too.

Results achieved relative to the objectives:

The Yonge Street Sport Chek store (~14,000 square feet) represents the largest single retail digital signage deployment in Canada. FGL and CTC executives and their full Board of Directors have all seen and experienced the technologies first-hand. The Sport Chek customer feedback has been phenomenally positive on a daily basis. Media from Canada and the USA, other major (non-competitive) retailers, banks,  provincial /federal government agencies and enterprise-sized TELUS customers have toured this new store. All comments from customers, technical and non-technical people have been very positive. Vendor partners are demanding premium exposure for their latest products/services and have all been supplying HD digital media content to keep up with the store’s demand for fresh and new.

The key success indicator is the announcement of our designs and best technologies from this store will be rolled out to the new class of flagship stores set to start opening in late 2013, the first will be in West Edmonton Mall (78,000 Square feet) in Alberta Canada. Sport Chek has 300+ locations. The customer has already purchased a large volume of specific product choice for that project from TELUS.

Note: The FGL content team (in Calgary, Alberta) are delivering and managing from 1 to 3 GB of content per device, per week. Monthly content traffic alone runs over a TB. Sport Chek has truly raised the bar on the “retail digital experience” standard now for Canada and possibly the United States too. This is a very welcoming sign in a retail market that was hit hard with the recession, but has managed to crawl out stronger, better and embracing technology as the market driver and now leader. TELUS is proud to be a part of this experience.

Size and geographic location(s) of the deployment:

• The Sport Chek store is 1~14,000 square feet located at 2529 Yonge Street, Toronto, Ontario
• There are 140 Samsung displays/tablets 
• The FGL content team (in Calgary, Alberta) are delivering and managing from 1 to 3 GB of content per device, per week at the Yonge Street store. Monthly content traffic alone runs over a TB.

See more photos

Selected judges’ comments:

• A classy retail installation with good-looking content across a wide range of screens – the smaller table-top displays and the nicely varied escalator installation are especially pleasing.
• Very impressive digital merchandising showcase. Very effective combination of technology and content that seems engaging and effective. One of the best retail implementations I've seen.
• Excellent job; great variety of interactivity; fun, engaging, high-tech but blended into a fun environment
• Very elegant integration of media throughout the store.
• They leveraged partner technology and implementation to enhance product information and integration in an engaging way in-store.
• Nice retail experience.