Physical Stores Still Dominate: While 86% of shoppers research online, 64% shop in stores weekly and 76% of purchases will happen in physical stores in 2026, making the in-store experience critical for capturing revenue.
Win the Attention Challenge: 25% of shoppers check their phones in-aisle, but digital signage re-captures attention – plus, content with motion captures 400% more views than static displays
The Right Content Strategy Drives Revenue: Inspirational content that shows customers what products can do for them - gorgeous plated salads, complete head-to-toe outfits, finished room setups - drives 7.3% higher spending than discount-focused messaging, with digital signage delivering 11% category spend increases and 24.5% impulse-purchase lifts
Different Generations Need Different Digital Approaches: Gen Z prefers digital interactivity, while Gen X (representing 31% of retail spending despite being only 19% of population) demands helpful tech like real-time inventory and self-checkout wayfinding
Retail Media Opportunity Remains Largely Untapped Beyond Major Brands: The retail media market will hit $203.9B in 2026, yet physical locations outside of global retailers remain underutilized as media channels, leaving significant revenue on the table
Unified Platforms Become Essential as Retail Media Matures: The most sophisticated retailers rely on consolidated, single-view media platforms that control and measure content in real time, provide business impact analytics and performance tracking, and scale these capabilities across all locations from one system
Physical retail, and the role it plays in the modern customer journey, is evolving. While 86% of shoppers start their product research online, 64% shop in stores on a weekly basis and 45% shop primarily in stores, according to Capital One. What’s more, the study confirms that 25% of shoppers visit the store’s website while in-store.
The omnichannel reality for today’s consumers is not without challenges. Customers may be distracted from in-store promotions, looking down at their phones in the aisles (and potentially exploring competitor prices). What brings them back? Retail digital signage can bridge the gap, creating the seamless omnichannel customer experience shoppers expect and re-capturing attention.
Retail digital signage uses digital screens like LCDs, LEDs, and video walls to show promotions, ads, and interactive content in stores. While this isn't new technology (digital signage was available as of 1992), its capabilities have changed dramatically.
Brands have quickly come to realize that hanging out a digital shingle is not nearly enough. Successful retailers offer consumers an engaging experience, and that experience involves a place where shoppers can interact with whatever is for sale.
Online shopping is losing some of its foothold. In fact, over two-thirds (65%) of online brands saw declines in customer satisfaction scores during 2025, according to ASCI. If online-only experiences are increasingly frustrating customers, brick and mortar locations with digital enhancement offer the best of both worlds.
Until recently, the brick-and-mortar store was a forgotten marketing channel. It was seen as only a means to an end (i.e., a sale). Still, online marketplaces and e-commerce simply cannot offer consumers the same immersive, interactive, and tangible experience as physical retail environments. The interaction is not just about increasing sales, as is often the case in the digital realm.
In-store experiences offer a range of opportunities to engage consumers on many different levels, which can leave an impression that lasts well beyond a store visit – an impression that will bring people back again and again. Case in point: 53% of consumers who prefer to shop in-store say this preference gives them a more enjoyable experience.
The shift toward experiential retail transforms stores from transaction points into destinations worth visiting. As evidenced by digital-first brands that open physical locations (think Warby Parker and Fabletics) and invest in pop-ups (like Shein and Pinterest) the in-store experience has become a critical component of a comprehensive marketing strategy.
As the research indicates, digital signage delivers measurable impact across revenue, customer engagement, and operational efficiency. Here's what recent data shows:
According to BDO research on smart stores and retail innovation, 63% of midsized retailers report revenue and profitability increases from their digital initiatives in the last 12 months. Digital signage (perhaps the most visible digital initiative a store can implement) can be a powerful driver of financial returns.
A 2025 study in the Journal of Marketing speaks to the power of in-store digital marketing:
Shoppers exposed to digital in-store advertising increased their total spending within the advertised product category by an average of 11%
Digital ads create a "halo effect" that leads to a 6% increase in spending on related, non-advertised items in the same aisle (for example, a digital ad for pasta sauce also drives sales of pasta, parmesan, and wine)
The impact of digital signage on sales is 2.5 times higher for new product launches compared to established "mature" brands, making it essential for challenger brands breaking into customer consideration
Further research reveals why digital signage content strategy matters as much as the technology itself:
Retail digital signage that uses dynamic motion captures 400% (4x) more views than static traditional signage
Inspirational content on digital displays leads to a 24.5% increase in unplanned (impulse) sales
Shoppers who feel more inspired by what they see via digital technology spend 7.3% more overall than those exposed to purely deal-oriented retail signage content
Retailers that use strategic digital signage only for sales and discounts only are missing out. Lifestyle and inspirational content (i.e., showing a finished room setup or complete outfit) is actually more profitable – namely, it shifts the screen's purpose from a "digital flyer" to a "lifestyle consultant."
The right solution for retail digital signage is flexible. Teams can quickly update content to reflect seasonal promotions, targeted offers, or real-time inventory changes – this keeps messaging relevant and impactful. In contrast, when you're merchandising products, print and boxes don't change.
Indeed, it can often be expensive to reprint signage and change it out, so many retailers rarely change what's being displayed beyond seasonal shifts. Retail digital signage gives you the option to update your signage on a daily basis if you so choose. You can do so regionally, as well, allowing you to personalize the experience to a specific audience segment or community. These advantages of digital signage vs. print signage exemplify the power of the smart in-store media.
With digital displays and interactive signage, retailers can capture data previously only available online, including impressions, number of sessions, and content preferences. Retailers can set meaningful digital signage KPIs that help drive results, especially when this signage is integrated with technology like sensors, camera analytics, or foot traffic counters.
The most sophisticated retailers rely on unified platforms that display content and integrate analytics, track performance across locations, and enable real-time content updates based on what's working. This style of solution eliminates the complexity of managing multiple vendor systems or centralizing data on customer engagement.
Different approaches to retail digital signage can help businesses maximize investment, as well as create experiences that influence customer behavior.
Static digital signage displays content that changes only when manually updated – for example, a digital menu board that shows the same promotions all day. Dynamic digital signage, on the other hand, can be set up to change automatically based on time of day, inventory levels, or weather conditions, for example.
The distinction matters. For retail digital signage, transforming static displays into dynamic digital displays can keep customers more engaged throughout their shopping journey. Dynamic content (including motion, for example, and contextual relevance) attracts attention in ways that fixed displays cannot.
This adaptability becomes especially valuable during peak shopping hours when retail businesses want to highlight fast-moving inventory or respond to weather-driven demand shifts (promoting umbrellas when it starts raining, or cold beverages on hot afternoons).
According to Near Intelligence research, 84.3% of Gen Z and Millennials are more encouraged to shop in brick and mortar locations with personalized in-store recommendations based on previous shopping history. The same research shows that 53.7% of Gen Z and Millennials shop more from brands that have an app.
Whereas static posters can't change based on who's standing in front of them, retail digital signage can support personalization in practical ways. Retailers are able to update content:
By time of day to target different customer segments (i.e., morning commuters vs. afternoon browsers)
By location to reflect neighborhood preferences
By season to showcase relevant products
With QR codes on digital displays, shoppers can access product details, check inventory at other locations, save items for later, or join loyalty programs. This creates a connection between the physical retail environment and the digital touchpoints, meeting shoppers where they already are – both in the store and on their phones.
Tempur-Pedic transformed their showrooms into luxury sensory environments where customers control every element – curated music, ambient visuals, lighting, and adjustable mattress settings – to experience their ideal sleep environment before purchase.
Custom digital media experience created by Rockbot at the Tempur-Pedic flagship store in New York, NY. (Image Source: Rockbot)
Rather than simply demonstrating product features, the brand created an immersive experience that positions sleep as a high-end, customizable lifestyle choice. It's a showroom that matches the premium positioning of the product itself.
Video walls are large-format displays created by tiling multiple screens. These walls create immersive brand environments that set the tone before customers interact with a single product. Strategically placed digital displays, such as video walls at store entrances, can attract customers and increase foot traffic by establishing brand atmosphere immediately.
These large-format installations work particularly well for showcasing brand personality, promoting seasonal campaigns, or drawing customers through specific pathways.
Window-facing displays extend your retail footprint beyond the store interior, capturing passersby attention and drawing them inside. These installations work particularly well for promoting limited-time offers, announcing new arrivals, or simply showcasing brand personality to foot traffic that might otherwise walk past.
Outdoor digital signage transforms your storefront into an active marketing channel rather than a static backdrop, especially valuable in high-traffic retail districts where competition for attention is fierce.
Opening a brick-and-mortar location isn't a guarantee for success. Like e-commerce, it's far from a case of 'if you build it, they will come.' The same holds true for implementing retail digital signage. Creating a synergy between physical and digital isn't without challenges, and successful implementation requires strategic implementation.
Modern consumers don’t follow a single path to becoming a customer. Gen Z (62.7%) and Millennials (64.6%) are twice as likely as Boomers to use more than one channel in their customer journey.
Digital displays can become a critical channel inside the store, creating an omnichannel customer experience that bridges online and offline. Bringing social feeds (like TikTok), online reviews, and web-only targeted promotions into the physical environment ensures the store doesn't feel disconnected from the rest of the brand.
Retail digital signage must serve multiple demographics with different needs, and the research reveals stark contrasts in what drives satisfaction and spending:
Specifically, the 18-25 age group expresses significantly lower satisfaction levels compared to older demographics, with factors like mobile shopping capabilities and website quality becoming increasingly important. Without digital interactivity, stores fail the demographic with the most future spending power.
Still, alternative research shows that retailers can't afford to forget older shoppers:
Gen X drives 31% of total retail spending (despite being only 19% of the population) and has the highest Revenue Per Shopper across almost every category
Nearly 80% of Gen X shoppers use self-checkout kiosks regularly, and they have "little tolerance" for long lines or lack of inventory information
Gen X prefers helpful tech to flashy tech – think real-time inventory, wayfinding to self-checkout, and clear product information. This pragmatic, tech-fluent demographic is retail's biggest spender.
Barriers to smooth implementation include issues with:
Compatibility: Modern digital signage relies on API-driven integrations and advanced solutions like System-on-Chip (SoC) technology to enable real-time updates, analytics, and centralized management. If you've been operating with older systems or networks, these newer platforms may not be backwards-compatible, limiting your ability to take advantage of dynamic content capabilities or integrate with existing retail infrastructure.
Installation and Integration: Successful deployment requires more than just mounting screens. You need a provider that can tailor digital signage solutions to your brand, ensure reliable connectivity across locations, and integrate seamlessly with existing systems - otherwise the technology creates friction rather than eliminating it.
Scaling: Managing content across 500+ locations while maintaining brand consistency and enabling location-level customization requires robust content management systems, clear governance structures, and workflows that prevent bottlenecks as you grow. Without centralized oversight and automated scheduling capabilities, even simple updates become time-consuming manual processes that drain resources and create inconsistent customer experiences.
From sleek media players and video walls to interactive kiosks and multiple screens, the right technology ensures a seamless and reliable experience for both customers and staff. Digital signage software and unified content management systems should enable centralized control with local flexibility.
When evaluating digital signage solutions, prioritize platforms that offer:
Centralized control with location-level flexibility: Manage screens, updates, and content scheduling across all locations from one platform while empowering individual stores to showcase neighborhood-specific promotions or respond to local events
Smart scheduling and targeting: Automatically adjust what customers see based on time of day, weather conditions, or foot traffic patterns – so morning commuters see different content than afternoon browsers, and rainy days trigger umbrella promotions
Seamless integrations and data-driven widgets: Pull in real-time information like local weather, social media feeds, inventory levels, or community events so screens feel current and connected to what's happening right now in that specific location
Reliability at scale: Keep every screen running smoothly across all locations without IT teams scrambling to troubleshoot individual displays or dealing with unexpected downtime during peak shopping hours
Complete visibility: Identify which content drives engagement, catch technical issues before customers notice them, and update hundreds of screens without sending staff to each location
For stores building comprehensive retail media networks, digital displays and digital signage software becomes the visible foundation of in-store advertising infrastructure, making technology choices even more critical.
Businesses must plan for content sustainability and operational maintenance to ensure the long-term success of their retail digital signage systems. This means answering critical questions upfront:
Who's responsible for creating fresh content each week?
Who deploys it across locations?
Who monitors performance to know what's actually working?
Who handles software updates, troubleshoots technical issues, and manages hardware refresh cycles as screens age?
Effective content creation and management are equally important, allowing retailers to deliver engaging content that aligns with their brand identity and business goals. Establish clear content calendars, approval workflows, and performance benchmarks to ensure display screens remain fresh, relevant, and effective over time.
Ensuring brand consistency across all digital content is essential for a cohesive customer experience and customer engagement, as well as a unified brand image. Whether a customer walks into your Manhattan flagship or your suburban strip mall location, the digital experience should feel authentically on-brand while remaining locally relevant.
Enhancing the customer experience in retail can take many forms, but the strategy will almost always have an element of technology to make it truly special.
The opportunity is massive, and increasingly urgent. With 76% of sales expected to happen in physical retail environments in 2026, retailers who bridge online expectations with in-store experiences gain a significant competitive advantage.
Perhaps more critically, a digital signage network is the essential infrastructure for in-store retail media, identified by Coresight Research as a major growth frontier in its analysis of200+ global retail media networks.
The retail media market is expected to hit $203.9 billion in 2026, growing at 14% year over year, yet physical locations remain "underutilized as media channels." This represents a massive revenue opportunity, but capturing in-store advertising dollars is only possible with digital signs in place. Without screens, there's no way to monetize physical locations or complete a retail media network.
Beyond revenue, the cornerstone of any brand experience is to make it unified across all touchpoints – and the right hardware paired with digital signage software makes that possible. Dynamic displays serve as that critical infrastructure, ensuring that no matter where the consumer first interacts with your brand, it must be consistent with your brand identity.
The ROI is proven. Whether you're meeting younger shoppers' demand for digital interactivity, experienced shoppers' need for helpful wayfinding, or building the foundation for retail media revenue, digital displays address both customer expectations and business objectives.
And it's easy to start. Just pick a store and do a pilot test to see the response from customers. If you need help, Rockbot is ready and able. Just contact our team to schedule a consultation and get a pilot program up and running.
Digital signage in retail uses digital screens like LCDs, LEDs, and video walls to display promotions, ads, and interactive content in stores. While this technology has been available since 1992, its capabilities have changed dramatically – today's digital signage can update automatically, transforming static displays into dynamic customer experiences.
The most sophisticated retailers use unified platforms that let them update hundreds of screens from one dashboard, see which content drives actual purchases, and respond to what's working in real time across all locations.
Here's why digital signage in retail matters: it can deliver measurable revenue impact, with shoppers exposed to digital in-store advertising increasing their total spending within the advertised product category by an average of 11%. Digital signage also creates a "halo effect" that leads to a 6% increase in spending on related, non-advertised items, and inspirational content on digital displays drives 7.3% more overall spending than purely deal-oriented content.
Beyond promoting sales, digital signage is becoming essential infrastructure for retail media – without screens in place, it’s challenging to monetize physical locations or capture even a portion of the $203.9 billion retail media opportunity expected in 2026.
When choosing digital signage solutions for retail stores, prioritize platforms that offer centralized control with location-level flexibility, allowing you to manage screens, updates, and content scheduling across all locations from a single dashboard. Look for digital signage software with smart scheduling and targeting capabilities that deliver the right message at the right time to the right shopper with automated scheduling by time, day, screen, or location.
The most sophisticated retailers rely on unified platforms that integrate analytics, track performance across locations, and enable real-time content updates based on what's actually working - capabilities that can't be managed effectively or efficiently across disparate vendor systems.
Digital signage trends in the retail industry are rapidly evolving around retail media and measurement capabilities. The retail media market is expected to hit $203.9 billion in 2026, yet physical locations remain underutilized as media channels - making digital displays essential infrastructure for retailers looking to monetize their store footprint and capture in-store advertising revenue.
On the measurement front, retailers are moving beyond basic metrics to capture data previously only available online – including impression counts, engagement rates, and content performance by time of day – especially when digital signage integrates with sensors, camera analytics, or foot traffic counters.
The difference between digital signage and retail media is that, while digital signage is the technology infrastructure (screens, content management systems, and displays) used to communicate with shoppers in-store, retail media is a monetization strategy that turns those screens into advertising inventory for external brands.
Digital signage can display a brand’s promotions, wayfinding information, product details, and inspirational content to enhance the customer experience and thus influence more sales. Retail media transforms that same infrastructure into a revenue-generating advertising network where CPG brands, suppliers, and other advertisers pay to reach your customers.