Effective Positioning for Retail Digital Signage

When it comes to using a screen for advertising and information, all too often people get absorbed in the finer details of screen size, type of device and aspect ratio without thinking of perhaps the most important aspect to retail digital signage—the position of the screen.

Retail totem

No matter how good your content or how expensive your screen, the effectiveness of any digital signage screen can hinge on where it is placed. A screen tucked out of the way, surrounded by clutter may become invisible, especially in a retail environment or other busy location.

When looking to site a screen, identifying where people will be walking can help establish the location for the screen, but just finding the right location is not enough. Thought then needs to go into how the audience views the screen.

For retail stores, it is easy to identify several prime locations that get the most footfalls: the entrance, where everybody walks into the store, and the point of sale, where a captive audience is waiting in line. However, placing an advertising or promotional screen near the entrance poses some problems. While the footfall is high, research has shown the people don’t pay much attention when they walk into a store.

Placing a screen in the doorway, then, requires something that an audience can’t ignore, which is why in these locations kiosks or retail totems provide the most noticeable solution. Even outside the door, an outdoor retail totem can draw the eye of the consumer, preventing them from ignoring the sign.

Retail totem

Point of sale locations are busy areas, and are often locations where stores have a last-ditched attempt at a sale. Any screen placed in these areas has to compete with all this clutter. Furthermore, people in point of sale locations can often be occupied, sorting out their credit cards or cash, and going though their purchases.

And with so many screens now positioned in point of sale locations, people are becoming immune to their effectiveness, so any digital advertising display placed near the cash registers needs to stand out from the crowd and be bold, engaging and noticeable.