Digital signage holds great power in the retail industry – especially during the holiday season. Nielsen found that four out of five brands experienced up to a 33% increase in sales through digital out-of-home media.

And a Cisco study showed that over 40% of shoppers say that digital displays can influence what they buy. With numbers like these, it becomes a competitive tool to use year-round.

Digital signage creates brand visibility and lets retailers display relevant, customised digital content according to the season. Video reels, carousels, or static promotions can be uploaded and swapped instantly to showcase exactly what consumers want when they want it.

While these are excellent reasons to add digital signage to your business, you should also know how this tactic can be optimised for peak shopping seasons like December.

Improve product discovery

Product discovery is a challenge that all retailers face, which is even more relevant over high-traffic periods when a wider variety of new products can be found on shelves.

Here, digital signage can be a powerful tool to influence consumer behaviour in stores. For instance, displaying customer feedback and testimonials can convince shoppers to try products and services they wouldn’t otherwise have tried.

During peak seasons, consider displaying your social media pages on a digital screen or switch to a live feed where customers are talking about your brand online.

Customer feedback can easily be compiled and packaged for a digital screen by extracting snippets of positive comments, reviews, and pictures from your social feeds or looking for brand conversations on.

This tactic can potentially introduce customers to unfamiliar products and services that could benefit them, thereby shortening the decision process and converting them more easily.

Add value with information

If you’re running specials or offering discounts, digital signage is an attention-grabbing way to reach more customers.

A study showed that 79% of shoppers surveyed leave their shopping for the last two weeks before Christmas. This suggests there will always be procrastinators looking for a quick deal, and the easier you can make it for them to find those deals, the more likely they’ll be to spend their money in your store.

Consider how effective a digital sign is at displaying deals or products you’d like to promote. Compared to more traditional printed shelf wobblers or aisle signage, more people can see digital signs from greater distances because of their movement, lighting, and prominence.

You can also display more content on a digital sign and change it immediately without the long lead times associated with printed material.

Over peak periods, retailers need to adapt quickly – if a certain on-sale item has sold out, you can simply update your digital sign to focus on a different item instead of switching out printed signs which are costly and time-consuming.

Choosing the perfect digital display

The digital signage industry is forecasted to grow 8.6% annually from 2021 to 2026, showing that more retailers will use it as a promotional channel. However, even the most beautiful animations and strategically curated festive videos won’t grab attention if they’re displayed on a dull screen.

LG Digital Signage solutions for retail includes a range that is perfect for small convenience stores, large shopping malls and quick service restaurants.

The solutions boasts superior display quality with high color reproduction, wide-viewing angle and outstanding brightness and can be leveraged as a marketing platform connecting the brand with consumers, enabled by SuperSign CMS and LG ConnectedCare.

From eye-catching designs to interesting engagement opportunities, digital displays are a great way to stay relevant during the holiday season and beyond.

Now’s the time to quickly communicate information to influence buying behaviour and decisions – all in a visually attractive way.

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By supporting real-time decision-making, combining edge computing with digital signage improves the customer experience and boosts sales.

Although in-store purchases continue to make up the bulk of retail sales, a tightening economic situation means it’s essential to maximise every opportunity to make a sale once a customer reaches your door.

We also know that brick and mortar stores remain the heartland of retail sales in South Africa, even though 68% of local consumers are shopping more online since the pandemic.

Deloitte has found that the focus will increasingly turn towards an omni-channel shopping experience to still cater for the sizeable ‘offline’ market in the country. It is therefore important for retailers to extract maximum value from every store.

A digital signage solution powered by edge computing uses real-time decision-making to attract, convert, and retain retail customers.

Grasp a competitive edge

Edge computing is transforming retail, one store chain at a time. Effectively, it keeps data processing closer to where the data is generated, and this reduces latency and delivers almost instantaneous results.

This means that stores can respond to customers in the moment – tailoring experiences, building loyalty, reducing friction, and proactively trouble shooting.

Digital signage is flexible enough to support a customer who wants to be in and out quickly, as well as one who wants to browse and enjoy.

Edge computing turns digital signage into a vibrant, responsive tool that makes central management and control easy, with the ability to change displays across the chain at the touch of a button. It also refines how you engage with customers, unlocking service capabilities that depend on rapid responses.

This is crucial in an ultra-competitive environment where customer expectations are sky high. Research shows that South African retail customers are more price-conscious and value-seeking than many other markets.

This results in them being less brand loyal as they shop for specials. To restore loyalty in this segment requires the retailer to identify meaningful touch-points that engage with customers in the ways they prefer.

Use edge computing technology to attract customers’ attention

Digital signage powered by edge computing is an effective way to create an impact. Imagine a striking video wall of moving images in your window enticing customers in off the street.

And why not bring video cameras into your edge computing solution so your displays can change to reflect the demographic profile of passers-by?

Or respond to weather variations so, if it’s pouring with rain, you showcase umbrellas, and if it’s a sunny day you feature swimwear.

Once inside the store, digital signage can take on a guiding role, drawing customers towards displays and then providing interactive information as they touch the items. It’s an opportunity to educate and influence by sharing product features, providing comparisons to cross-sell and up-sell, and telling your brand story.

Interestingly, the screens don’t have to be large to be effective. Tablet-sized screens positioned strategically at key point of sale positions are equally as capable of moving a customer closer to a purchase – whether it’s planned or not.

All retailers want to increase basket size and this last-minute messaging can inspire people to buy products they may not have considered unless they saw certain signage.

Edge computing empowers retail customers

Digital signage boosts customers’ control over their in-store experience, removing the need to get a sales associate’s attention. With the rapid flexibility that local processing provides, edge-based signage can signpost key areas like pay and information points – and react to real-time fluctuations in availability, highlighting the shortest queue, for example.

Backed by edge computing, digital signage can also support self-service functions, like check-ins for loyalty coupons and promotions, requesting order pick-ups or finding out the store’s policies.

Plus, empowering customers is a proven way of building brand loyalty and a willingness to visit again. Digital signage lets you promote offers and discounts, capture customer feedback, and share relationship-building messages such as thanking them for their custom.