New York Famous Bagel Biz Upgrades to Digital Menu Boards to Maximize Foot Traffic Store Sales
Learn how one of New York’s most prestigious bagel shops utilizes digital menus boards to improve profits while gaining the ability to earn recurring revenue from in-store local area advertising
About Bagel Biz
In 1986 Bagel Biz open a small bagel shop called Dan’s Bagel Cafe of only 1,500 square feet in East Meadow, NY. In the beginning, they made freshly baked bagels, homemade cream cheese and offered freshly sliced nova lox salmon. As a result of their freshness and high-quality bagels, they open a second location on Route 110 in Melville, NY. Since then, the store has grown to 3,800 square feet and offers both local and nationwide delivery of their bagels.
Every week, they receive over 4,000 in-store customers and deliver thousands of bagels daily across the country. Due to their high counts of in-store traffic and customer-focused culture, Bagel Biz was in search of new ways to improve the way they communicated with customers using digital signage and digital menu boards.
The Challenge
Bagel Biz’s owner, Dan, and his two daughters Tanya and Alicia wanted the ability to have vibrant and eye-catching forms of signage. They wanted the ability to be able to easily display their menu in a manner that was visually appealing and highly visible to customers waiting in line. Based on what they were looking to accomplish, they identified three primary challenges that they wanted to resolve to meet and exceed their goals.
1. In New York Area, the # 1 Cold cuts distributor is Boars Head, and they dictate what you can sell and not sell in terms of cold cuts for sandwiches. Boars Head had had two 42-inch digital menus installed at BagelBiz that displayed the Lunch and sandwich specials for the day. When Bagel Biz wanted to make a change in pricing or items, they would have to directly through Boars Head digital signage marketing. The changes would take days to occur and the digital menu boards that were provided by Boars Head were elementary and bland in design.
2. Bagel Biz used based black wall-mounted signage and an easel stands as forms of in-store signage to display breakfast and daily specials. The easel signage used a magic marker that could easily get smeared and the messages posted did not capture the eyes of their consumers very well. Whenever a change had to be made to the black wall mounted signage Bagel Biz had to incur the cost of printing and installing new menu signage every several months.
3. Bagel Biz also has a massive catering customer base clientele and wanted to look at the possibility of using digital signage as a vehicle to generate advertising revenues for the business to offset the cost of the digital signage solution while generating incremental revenue.
The Solution
After meeting with S3 LLC (an official partner of NoviSign), they were quickly able to see why NoviSign was the clear choice for digital menu boards. S3 provided a complete site survey of Bagel Biz; their requirements, the current signage process and pain points were identified. Photos of existing display and signage locations were taken and a complete solution was presented. A demo was made showing how their digital menu boards could look using NoviSign and a comprehensive advertising program was created that Bagel Biz could use to offset the cost and a reoccurring revenue stream for profit to the business. After seeing how easy Bagel Biz could use NoviSign, they decided to upgrade their entire store’s signage to NoviSign.
The Results
The result was a total upgrade of the current solution. A total of 7 new digital menu board and advertising screens were installed:
1. We replaced two 42-inch Digital Signage displays from Boars Head with two 55-inch Sharp Model PN-R556 Displays with Shuttle PC’s and NoviSign displaying new Looping Lunch and Sandwich specials.
2. We replaced two 42-inch Samsung TVs showing local news broadcast with two 55-inch Sharp Model PN-R556 Displays, Shuttle PCs and NoviSign. One was showing a local news broadcast and the other used strictly for local customer advertisements for generating revenue.
3. We replaced one 42-inch Toshiba TV showing Deli food catering displays through the use of a USB jump stick with a one Sharp Model 65-inch PN-M651 display with NoviSign showing a more vibrant catering menu display of food looping from one screening to another with the catering manager’s contact information.
4. We replaced two Black 60-inch wall-mounted signs displaying the list and types of Bagels and spreads. The other with breakfast specials with two Sharp Model 65-inch PN-M651 presents with NoviSign showing a more colorful form of the bagel types, available spreads, menu and breakfast specials and a looping screen advertising food delivery services from Door Dash and Grub Hub.
The Benefits
Because NoviSign’s Digital Menu Board software is a straightforward product to use, Bagel Biz gained the ability to control and manage their entire operations in-store signage and menu boards easily. From being able to easily make on-the-fly changes to prices and specials, to be able to update the digital menu boards from any computer at any time remotely, Bagel Biz had full control over communications and advertising.
Bagel Biz can now sell on-screen advertisements to local businesses. Since the December 15th, 2019 installation of NoviSign, Bagel Biz has acquired five customers that are paying for on-screen ads.
Testimonial
“After seeing NoviSign and how easy it was to use, we were expecting a high-cost solution,” said Dan, owner of Bagel Biz. “Once we received pricing, we’re blown away. The solution that NoviSign has given us is by far the best value and highest quality digital menu board system available in the market today. When paired with SHARP displays, we now have a vivid, eye-grabbing digital menu board system that helps us sell more bagels while making monthly recurring revenue of selling advertising spots. Our walk-in traffic and busy store/restaurant provide a significant opportunity for quality advertising exposure at a very reasonable cost. Numerous local businesses have chosen to advertise with us on our boards. The response from the local business community has been outstanding.”