What if you could make your store easier to shop while turning more browsers into buyers? Digital signage helps you bring the speed and flexibility of digital experiences into physical retail, so shoppers can discover products, compare options, and move through your store with less friction.
There has been a lot of focus in the retail industry lately on finding new ways to connect with consumers in-store and differentiate the brick-and-mortar experience from ecommerce.
One way retailers have incorporated the digital experience into brick-and-mortar stores is through digital signage. Digital signage is exactly what it sounds like:
Digital signage opens up new options for store displays and can help shoppers discover products, compare options, and navigate the store more easily. In addition, many modern businesses choose digital signage specifically for displaying promotions. The LG webOS signage player is one of the most popular media players for powering those displays.
Mood Media reported that 58% of shoppers actively notice in-store displays, and nearly half say the technology influences purchase decisions.
Digital signage is a network of digital screens used to display promotional, informational, or interactive content in physical spaces.
Digital signage-display screens that convey a message-can be found in many places, including:
The message can be in the form of:
In a retail environment, digital signage is instrumental to marketing the store. You can use it to:
There are numerous benefits of digital signage, including:
In a world where customers are used to scrolling through hundreds of pieces of content online in an hour, digital signage allows retailers to replicate those fresh experiences in the physical world. Imagine being able to change your message in a matter of seconds, rather than weeks. This means you can deliver specific calls to action which can be as simple as buy now, use this discount or promotional code.
Let’s look at a few ways digital signage can help boost customer experience and grow your bottom line.
With digital signage, you can create powerful and engaging displays that attract window shoppers. You can take it up a notch by creating displays that move, like a video. Interactive signs pique a shopper’s interest, encouraging them to walk in and check out your store.
For instance, Bloomingdale’s put up this interactive display where you can try out sunglasses simply by standing in front of the display.
Even if you plaster your store with signage that talks about your brand, you only have so much space. Digital signage removes that limitation-you can tell your story the way you want.
Retailers like Toms and Ben & Jerry’s are known more for their brands than their products. It’s the story that draws customers in and keeps them coming back. Digital signage frees up the square footage to tell that story right in your store, and offers a high-tech, visual way to relay your brand story to shoppers.
“This is a place where, like I said, it’s harder to explain to my mom or the lay person, what is Peak Design?”
— Peter Dering, Founder and CEO, Peak Design (Source)
That same principle applies to digital signage: when your products or brand story need more context, screens can help shoppers quickly understand how everything fits together without relying only on packaging or staff explanations.
One effective way to use digital signage is to display information on your top-selling products. From product material details to comparisons with other products, these displays can help your customer make an informed buying decision and free up sales associates’ time.
Speaking of productive time usage, consider programming your digital displays to share promotions, complementary products, add-ons, and extra packages. Automated digital stations can help you grow your revenue beyond what sales associates are already doing. For multi-location retailers, centralized tools matter here too: Bambi Baby reported that its team can push new coupons to all POS devices remotely, so staff arrive and simply see the updated promotion button on-screen instead of manually changing offers store by store.
💡 PRO TIP: Try using apps to upsell and cross-sell more effectively. Apps like Marsello and Frequently Bought Together integrate with Shopify POS and recommend products to store staff based on what they’ve added to a customer’s cart, making it easier to suggest relevant products and increase basket sizes and order value.
Are you actively marketing your brand online? Consider sharing some of those efforts in-store. If you’re collecting customer testimonials from online buyers, for instance, consider sharing them through a digital display. Customers value social proof, and it can help them in their buying decision.
Did you write a blog post about the top benefits of your product? Consider creating an infographic and sharing it through a digital display. Succinct content on the display can help customers instantly understand the advantages of buying the product; because they have to explain less, it can also make the sales associates’ job easier.
This kind of online-to-offline continuity becomes even more powerful when store teams can see the broader customer relationship. In Amina Muaddi’s boutiques, staff use Shopify POS to access shoppers’ online purchase history across countries, helping them personalize service and create a more connected cross-channel experience.
💡 PRO TIP: Offering in-store pickup as a delivery method at checkout is a great way to get more online shoppers to visit your store. To get started, enable in-store pickup availability in Shopify admin to show online shoppers whether a product is available for pickup at one of your stores.
By simply adding engaging content on a screen near the register-to sign up and use your loyalty programs, download your brand’s mobile app, or sign up for the weekly newsletter-you can draw your customers closer. There are many ways to use near-the-register displays to build loyalty.
Since they’re already waiting in the queue, near-the-register displays are also a great place to play longer storytelling content that talks about your brand and its mission. This can make waits feel shorter and create a better customer experience.
📌 GET STARTED: Choose from hundreds of loyalty apps in the Shopify App Store and start rewarding shoppers for purchases they make both online and in-store.
Once you know why digital signage matters, the next step is understanding what makes a system work day to day.
While there are multiple ways to set up digital displays at your retail store, the essential parts of a digital signage system remain the same.
At minimum, most setups need a display and a media player, though some installations also require mounts, networking equipment, or touch hardware.
Digital displays: A digital display is the screen that plays your content. Although they look similar to normal television sets, many commercial digital signage displays are designed for extended daily use, but supported run times vary by model and manufacturer. Other types of digital displays include:
What to look for:
Media player: A media player is a device that connects to the display and sends content to it. These players also connect to the internet, allowing you to change content on the digital signage through a web-based portal.
What to look for:
You need a content management system (CMS) to show content on your digital display. There are different types of CMS available, but you should evaluate them against a fuller checklist that covers both daily operations and long-term scalability.
Must-have CMS features:
What to look for:
Ease of use matters in practice: in Amina Muaddi’s case, the retail team adopted Shopify POS with minimal training, with the brand’s head of e-business noting that the system was so intuitive the team started using it before formal explanation. When your signage, POS, or content tools are simple to operate, it’s much easier to keep in-store experiences current.
Digital signage is only as effective as the content it plays. Content creation and ongoing updates can become a major recurring cost in many digital signage programs. In terms of display content types, here are a few you can try:
What to look for:
With the core pieces in place, you can choose the format that best fits your store experience and budget.
Digital signage comes in many shapes and forms-some are simple, static images, while others offer some degree of interactivity.
Smart mirrors are for shoppers who require a little guidance on finding the right product for themselves. They allow shoppers to see what appears to be a reflection of themselves as they try on different options or find the right size.
For example, in , H&M rolled out smart mirrors at select COS stores in the United States. This followed H&M’s earlier test of voice-activated mirrors at its Times Square flagship.
The pilot stores featured smart mirrors in fitting rooms and on the sales floor. According to Retail Dive’s report on the COS pilot, the mirrors could identify product selections and provide personalized product and styling recommendations.
These are the most common digital signage setups, where a screen plays media to attract or engage customers. Digital displays are common in restaurants highlighting menus or at retail stores promoting offers or sharing a tagline or mission statement.
Here’s an example from MAC Cosmetics displaying a tweet about their multitasking primer
.
Self-checkout kiosks have been around for some time; retailers like Walmart, Target, and CVS have widely adopted them to help customers exit the store faster while freeing retail associates for other tasks.
Retailers including Circle K and ampm have used Mashgin’s AI-powered checkout, where customers don’t need to scan each item-instead, the countertop uses AI to identify products automatically.
📌 GET STARTED: With Shopify Payments, you can accept many major payment methods, subject to country and hardware availability.
Interactive screens are an excellent way to reel customers into a retail store and keep them engaged. Some interactive screens use technologies such as Bluetooth, RFID (radio-frequency identification, which lets a system recognize tagged products), or infrared touch (a touch system that detects finger movement using an invisible light grid), depending on the setup, and can offer more engagement than a basic looping video when interactivity is useful.
For instance, GE Lighting created a display that allows customers to press buttons to create different scenarios. In one situation, pressing and holding a knob plays music through a bulb. In another, the demo shows a bulb adjusting from daytime to nighttime lighting. The last act generates a fake lightning storm that causes the power to go out. After the light box goes dark, the bulb pops back on to highlight the battery backup feature.
If you want inspiration before investing, these real-world retail examples show how different brands apply the technology.
Many larger retailers are already finding creative ways to leverage digital signage in their stores. That means there are plenty of innovative use cases from which you can draw inspiration.
In , Adidas opened a digitally inspired store on Oxford Street in London. The Oxford Street store spans more than 26,000 square feet. Besides being enabled by tech with personalizations at every step, this store also features two digital fitting rooms.
The first fitting room has mirrors that use RFID technology to detect products instantly and provide the necessary information. Shoppers can also request different sizes and colors without ever leaving the room.
The second type of fitting room boasts an immersive experience-a giant screen allows the customer to choose a backdrop and check out the product they’re trying on in a real-world environment.
Nordstrom has used digital signage to make shopping for jeans much less frustrating. Its Digital Denim Doctor
display uses 360-degree imagery, intelligent programming, and filters to give shoppers a clear path through the choice process.
The display recommends the best jeans for your body type, lifestyle, and fabric preferences, so you don’t need to browse endless racks of denim.
Makeup and skincare is one category of product customers always want to try before they buy. Sephora used ModiFace virtual try-on technology to let shoppers test looks digitally without having to carry makeup remover wipes.
ModiFace can help shoppers preview products virtually before buying, and it can help draw attention to Sephora’s pop-in stores within larger retail spaces.
Finding the perfect fit for each body type is a challenge in the world of fashion. Fortunately, AdoreMe implemented a possible solution in at its 7,000-square-foot Chattanooga, Tennessee, store.
The store showcases nine large fitting rooms equipped with 3D body scanners from Fit3D. The fitting rooms have two separate areas so a sales associate can assist without compromising customer privacy.
After being scanned, customers can sit at a desk in a consultation area with a retail sales rep who can help them order the right fit and shape for their body type. According to Adore Me’s case study, the brand recommended repeat scans over time.
With all these benefits and use cases of digital signage, you may be considering whether digital signage fits your budget. It’s important, however, to understand which solution is the right fit for your business.
| Evaluation factor | What to assess | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Placement and brightness | Indoor vs. storefront placement, glare, viewing distance, and screen brightness in nits | Helps ensure content stays readable in the actual environment |
| Content ownership | Who creates, approves, and updates content | Prevents screens from going stale after launch |
| Installation and maintenance | Mounting, wiring, network access, service response times, and replacement plans | Reduces downtime and surprise operating costs |
| Integrations | Connections to POS, inventory, ecommerce, or analytics tools | Supports more relevant and timely messaging |
| Accessibility | Readable typography, contrast, audio considerations, and touch height | Makes signage easier for more shoppers to use |
| Total cost of ownership | Hardware, software, installation, content production, and ongoing support | Gives a more realistic budget than hardware alone |
Digital signage is used across many industries, from healthcare to restaurants. You need a solution specifically designed for retailers. Even within this niche, compare vendors based on store count, ease of deployment, content controls, reporting, support, and whether the platform fits your team’s technical resources.
If you run Shopify POS, it’s also worth evaluating how well a signage solution fits your in-store workflows, including promotions, inventory visibility, and omnichannel experiences.
Do your research, get demos, ask for case studies, and then make your informed decision.
Many of the most effective uses of digital signage for retail involve customers interacting with the display.
To get the most out of digital signage, you need a solution that supports engagement and interactivity. This can mean anything from setting up interactive screens to changing content at a moment’s notice to cater to the audience’s immediate needs.
Whether you expect your retail business to grow a little or a lot, or you regard your digital signage as a channel to scale, the last thing you want is to have to change systems as you expand. You want to invest in a solution that can grow with you and your store.
Of course, budget needs to be a consideration.
I think if you’re thinking about a budget to start trialing digital signage, you’re looking at about the $5,000 budget range to start.
That estimate should be treated as a starting point for a pilot, not a universal price. Entry costs vary widely based on hardware, software, installation, mounting, screen brightness, screen count, and content needs.
Again, the budget depends on your goals and how much you have put aside to spend on digital signage. Some brands spend millions on digital signage, while boutique retailers spend a few thousand.
Digital signage in retail is the use of screens, kiosks, or interactive displays to show promotions, product information, wayfinding, and brand content inside a store. Retailers use it to make shopping easier, highlight offers, and create a more engaging in-store experience.
A typical setup includes hardware such as a screen and media player, software to manage content, and a workflow for updating creative. Once connected, you can schedule and change messages remotely so content stays relevant by location, promotion, or time of day.
Common retail formats include smart mirrors, standard digital displays, self-checkout kiosks, and interactive screens. The best option depends on whether your goal is product discovery, faster checkout, brand storytelling, or hands-on customer engagement.
Costs vary based on hardware, software, installation, content production, and ongoing support. Start by comparing total cost of ownership, not just screen price, and consider piloting one or two placements before rolling out to more locations.
Look for a solution that fits your store environment, supports easy content updates, integrates with your existing systems, and can scale as your business grows. It also helps to define who will create, approve, and maintain content so screens stay useful after launch.
Digital signage can help you attract more attention, improve product discovery, and create a smoother in-store experience without relying on static messaging alone. Start with one high-impact use case, such as window displays, product education, or pickup messaging, then measure what drives engagement before expanding.
If you’re ready to connect your in-store and online operations, use Shopify to unify inventory, promotions, and customer experiences across every location. Explore Shopify POS, build a pilot signage workflow, and start creating a retail experience that’s easier to manage and more compelling to shop.
