FAQs
Cooler Screens Frequently Asked Questions
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Q. What is Cooler Screens?
Cooler Screens is the technology company powering the possibilities of digital in-store media and merchandising. We were founded on the core idea that consumers want, deserve and now expect a far better experience in brick-and-mortar retailers. This focus on consumer experience (CX) guides everything we do. To create this experience, we have developed the software and enabling hardware that allows retailers to create in-store digital experiences for shoppers, while enabling brands to reach shoppers on smart screens that dynamically adjust to shopper behavior and data-driven context at the point of decision in-store.
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Q. What does Cooler Screens mean for consumers?
Cooler Screens provides consumers with the ease, transparency and relevance of online shopping brought directly into aisles of their local grocery, drug and convenience stores and financial services locations. With access to better product information, they are empowered to make decisions to best fit their own preferences, budgets, and health. They do so without compromising their own privacy, because Cooler Screens does not need to collect or use personal information to deliver highly relevant experiences.
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Q. Where are Cooler Screens used in physical stores?
Cooler Screens’ smart screen software and enabling hardware seamlessly integrates into new or existing screens in stores, leveraging existing surfaces on walls, end caps, checkout lanes, banner aisles, pharmacy/healthcare areas, foodservice boards, windows, and, of course, coolers (where our journey began).
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Q. How does Cooler Screens work?
Cooler Screen is the most advanced proprietary retail media technology and operating platform, powered by analytics and AI, and tailor made for in-store applications. Our privacy safe IoT sensors and AI software can turn any screen into a smart screen, powering a dynamic and more relevant consumer experience that adapts to the shopper based on their attention, distance, motion, and actions. This collapses the marketing funnel into a matter of feet and seconds, enabling retailers and brands to influence decision making as it happens.
The Cooler Screens platform serves the entire retail ecosystem including consumers, retailers and product brands. The platform has four key components: Cooler Edge – our in-store, consumer-facing technology platform. Built using the latest digital technology and directly integrated into the physical shopping environment, the Cooler Edge delivers an unparalleled consumer experience. Consumer privacy is central to the design of the Cooler Edge. The platform is “identity blind” so sensitive consumer data is never gathered, used or put at risk in any way. Using our secure API’s, retailers and brands can extend the capabilities of the Cooler Edge and integrate it with custom applications.
- Cooler Edge – our in-store, consumer-facing technology platform. Built using the latest digital technology and directly integrated into the physical shopping environment, the Cooler Edge delivers an unparalleled consumer experience. Consumer privacy is central to the design of the Cooler Edge. The platform is “identity blind” so sensitive consumer data is never gathered, used or put at risk in any way. Using our secure API’s, retailers and brands can extend the capabilities of the Cooler Edge and integrate it with custom applications.
- Cooler Media – our proprietary merchandising and advertising application. Cooler Media gives retailers and brands the ability to define smart, in-context content and promotions, design digital planograms and deliver flawless product displays and real-time pricing at the point of sale. With Cooler Media, retailers and brands can capitalize on the critical 3-5 seconds of in-store consumer decision-making.
- Cooler Analytics – our proprietary analytics engine delivers unprecedented insights into shopper engagement, conversion, merchandising/planogram compliance, sales, pricing and promotion effectiveness, inventory and shelf availability, audience data and much more. Through our scale data infrastructure, we analyze consumer activity patterns in real-time using machine learning and other advanced analytics.
- Cooler Marketplace – where retailers publish their media inventory and brands place and manage advertising campaigns. Cooler Marketplace optimizes ad delivery with intelligent targeting and precise placement to ensure the right offering is delivered at the right time, in the right place, to the right customer. Our software supports the full advertising lifecycle including audience addressability, contextual targeting, campaign planning, optimization and management, A/B testing, performance and measurement analytics, and APIs.
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Q. Why was Cooler Screens created?
Since its founding, Cooler Screens has grown rapidly and gained unprecedented support from the world’s leading companies in retail, consumer products and technology. Cooler Screens is the largest in-store digital retail media network enabling some of the world’s biggest in grocery (Kroger), pharmacy (Walgreens), convenience (Giant Eagle, Chevron, Areas, etc.), and financial services (Western Union). Today, Cooler Screens reaches over 90MM shoppers per month, as measured by the number of humans in front of smart screens and will expand to over 200MM by Q1 2024 as rollouts continue. Over 180 of the top consumer product brands have joined the Cooler Screens’ brand network including Anheuser-Busch InBev, Nestle, PepsiCo, Unilever and Red Bull. Cooler Screens’ technology partners include global category leaders Microsoft, Verizon, Dover, BOE and Foxconn.
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Q. What is Cooler Screens data privacy policy?
Cooler Screens data privacy policy is “identity blind.” It does not use cookies and or profiling of individuals. Unlike other digital companies, we designed privacy into all aspects of our technology and operating model from day one. Unlike other digital platforms, Cooler Screens never seeks to identify individuals and never gathers or uses personally identifiable or linkable information. Our technology does not support it. Our business model does not require it. Without access to a consumer’s identity – and without incentive to associate private information – the usual privacy risks are eliminated, and consumers are safer.
The first digital retail platform to fully adopt Privacy by Design
While previous generations of digital retail have pursued personal data, we do not rely on capturing personal data and linking it to individual buyers to deliver new insights and make money. To ensure we are delivering on our privacy commitment, we have fully adopted and been certified in “Privacy by Design,” a rigorous framework developed by privacy advocates to advance user privacy. We are the first retail technology platform to make this commitment. Privacy by Design makes certain that privacy safeguards are proactively woven into every step of our processes and every element of our technology.
For more information regarding our approach to privacy please click here.
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Q. Is Cooler Screens collecting my data, using facial recognition or tracking me?
Cooler Screens does not collect, capture or store any data that at any time could be linked to an individual consumer, including facial recognition. The Cooler Screens platform includes privacy safe IoT sensors which anonymously detect consumer presence and interaction, such as dwell time (time in front of a screen) and door opens.
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Q. Does Cooler Screens use cameras? What images are captured?
The Cooler Screens platform includes several sensors that are placed on the inside and outside of the cooler doors. Among the sensors are three internally facing cameras used to track product inventory and positioning, and front facing, IoT-enabled optical sensors used to anonymously detect consumer presence and interaction with the platform. These optical sensors never capture or store images or any other data that at any time could be linked back to an individual consumer.
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Q. What consumer information is Cooler Screens gathering?
The Cooler Screens platform gathers a record of a person’s presence (not identity) in front of the screen, the dwell time (time in front of a screen) and door opens for merchandising and campaign performance information. The platform includes optical sensors which anonymously detect consumer presence and interaction. Cooler Screens does not gather any personally identifiable information.
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Q. How is the information that is collected being used?
The anonymous consumer presence and interaction data is used to display relevant product information on the screens. When a consumer approaches the screen, the view flips to show the products behind the door including relevant promotions and pricing. Internal sensors in the door track product inventory and positioning. The anonymous consumer data combined with product inventory and positioning provides valuable insights to Cooler Screens retailer and brand partners to understand consumer interaction (dwell time and door opens) and stocking levels enabling them to improve the consumer experience.
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Q. Who has access to the information that’s being gathered?
Retail and brand partners have access to their own information. Your personal privacy information is not captured and therefore never shared.
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Q. How is the Cooler Screens experience a better shopping experience for me or for others?
Cooler Screens is a better shopping experience. Independent researchers have conducted studies of the Cooler Screens digital shopping experience with over 20,000 consumers, using a combination of in-store and post-usage testing. Quantitative research confirms that over 90% of consumers no longer prefer the traditional glass cooler doors, confirming a strong preference. Furthermore, Cooler Screen’s goal is to create the best consumer “CX,” a far better experience than what is typically available at brick-and-mortar retailers. Cooler Screen’s ambition is to close the in-store consumer experience gap. This goal drives ongoing and active consumer testing to deliver a more positive experience to the consumer every day and in every Cooler Screen’s location.
Cooler Screens brings the power of digital to the cooler aisle
The CX journey begins by bringing what consumers love about shopping online to store aisles. Cooler Screens technology seamlessly integrates into new or existing retail surfaces in physical locations. They have built the world’s first and largest in-store digital media and merchandising platform for brick-and-mortar retail.
Cooler Screens brings shopping ease, relevance and transparency
The CX journey continues by improving product visibility and access. It does so by allowing consumers to:
- quickly scan brands and products;
- access relevant information on brand and promotions when they need it most–at the point of sale; and
- access up-to-date product, pricing and promotion information–just like when they are online—leading to better choices.
With improved convenience, relevance and transparency consumers can be more confident that they are making purchase decisions that best fit their budgets, taste and health preferences.
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Q. Why is it important to have the product image on the screen versus having the product just on the shelf?
Not only is the product more visible when it is on a Cooler Screens screen, it is also easier to find. For example, if a consumer scans a cooler door for a specific favorite flavor of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, they can quickly see if the retailer carries it, whether or not it’s in stock and learn more about its key nutritional benefits. It may also be on sale. The consumer can learn all this information without even opening the cooler door or ever reading product labels. Additionally, this eliminates an endemic industry problem: cooler door condensation that can make it difficult to see products.
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Q. Why is the image larger than what appears on the shelf?
Cooler Screens uses digitized versions of impeccably lit, high-resolution product photos. As a result, the products are vibrant and legible. While the actual products may, in fact, be larger or smaller than the images on the Cooler Screens screen, professional lighting and high-quality photography displays them with greater clarity and precision, increasing their appeal.
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Q. Am I able to see information that might be helpful, like nutrition information, on the product image on the screen?
Yes, you are able to see information that might be helpful, such as products’ nutritional information, on a Cooler Screens screen. In fact, Cooler Screens has rolled out nutritional badges that detail calories, sugar, fat, and sodium which can help consumers select products that meet their dietary needs without having to read the fine print. Our “More Coming Soon” label lets consumers know when a product is out of stock. When the last product is removed from the shelf, the label will display on the screen.
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Q. Can I learn about pricing promotions on the screen?
Yes, you can. We show the pricing discount and label that are on the shelf – only they are larger and easier to see because they are well lit. Pricing and promotions can be updated in real time by the retailer automatically without going to the shelf.
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Q. Can I learn about new products?
Yes, you can. New products and flavors information are easily discoverable on screen and can be updated real time by the retailer.
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Q. Does Cooler Screens help diverse populations in any way?
Cooler Screens helps diverse populations in general by improving the consumer experience, but specifically through particular benefits it offers vision-impaired and diet conscious consumers.
Vision Impairments and Seniors
Because Cooler Screens’ product imagery is vibrant and better lit than what consumers see in traditional coolers, products are more “readable.” This is important to an increasingly growing senior population. In 2019, about 16.5% of the American population was 65-or-over, a figure that is expected to reach 22% by 2050. This is a significant increase from1950, when only 8% of the population was 65-or-over. This same population experiences eye problems that make simple daily tasks difficult or impossible, even when wearing glasses or contact lenses. The risk of severe eye problems has been found to increase significantly with age, particularly in those 65-or-over.
Dietary Restrictions
Cooler Screens has the ability to flag packaging for those that have dietary restrictions – a benefit for the more than four in 10 Americans that now follow nutritional rules (with low or no-carb intake the most widespread nutritional regimen). A significant number of consumers must have lactose-, gluten- or hormone-free products; follow specific diets such as vegetarian, vegan, Keto or Paleo: or require Kosher or Halal products. Cooler Screens can easily flag all of these characteristics.
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Q. Can this help the retailer stock the shelves faster?
Yes, it can. When the last item is removed from the shelf, a “More Coming Soon” message is displayed on-screen allowing them to easily see how quickly a product sells through and expediently restock it.
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Q. Does Cooler Screens cause more “out of stocks?”
Cooler Screens assigns the label “More Coming Soon” when a product is out of stock. Its sensors note when the shelf is empty. Given the supply chain challenges causing out-of-stocks, Cooler screens is committed to collaborating with retailers to help solve this very important issue.
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Q. Why does Cooler Screens encourage brand advertising?
Cooler Screens encourages brand advertising to improve product and brand awareness at the point of sale. 75% of consumer grocery purchases are impulse-based decisions that can be influenced by in-store messaging. However, brands are spending more than $100 billion per year on advertising that is most often placed out of stores, where they cannot directly impact consumer impulse purchase decisions. With Cooler Screens, brands are able to assess consumer response to their ads in real-time and provide them with relevant information about products and brands as they are considering and selecting products.
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Q. What is Cooler Screens’ impact on brands?
Traditionally, product brands have had limited visibility into the effectiveness of their advertising and merchandising, and limited influence on consumers at the point of purchase. The Cooler Screens platform allows brands to directly engage with consumers digitally in-store at their moment of decision. Brands have been shown to drive 5-8% incremental sales lifts when they advertise on the Cooler Screens in-store platform while also building brand KPIs such as equity, awareness, favorability and purchase intent
With Cooler Screens, brands are able to measure the performance and consumer response to their media buys in real-time. With instantaneous feedback, brands can rapidly test and refine their offerings. Unlike other digital offerings, Cooler Screens also provides advertisers with a brand-safe marketing environment and 100% verified views. For these reasons, many of the world’s largest consumer product companies have become a part of the Cooler Screens ecosystem.
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Q. What is Cooler Screens’ impact on the retailer?
Cooler Screens accelerates digital transformation for retailers and provides new paths to growth by digitizing their in-store experience and automating merchandising. Retailers gain insight from advanced analytics and IoT sensors driving efficiencies and improving on-shelf availability. This allows retailers to meet the demands of today’s digitally savvy consumers in-store.
With Cooler Screens, retailers can also enter the digital media business with speed and ease, tapping a massive growth opportunity as they offer brands access to millions of consumers with contextually relevant messages and promotions at the point of purchase. With Cooler Screens flawless merchandising, new revenue streams and an enhanced brick-and-mortar shopping experience, satisfied shoppers increase their purchases and return more frequently.
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Q: Who should media partners contact for coverage or media related questions?
Media contact: Chris Harihar at Crenshaw Communications, chris@crenshawcomms.com
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If I have a question about Cooler Screens or a suggestion, where do I go?
We would love to hear your feedback. Please contact us.