Vestel : The transformative power of digital signage in UK retail

Digital signage has become an essential tool in the modern retail landscape, driving customer engagement, increasing footfall and, ultimately, converting sales in any size store. Chris Moore , B2B Sales Manager at Vestel Visual Solutions, looks at ways of winning the race for customer engagement.

As the UK retail market continues to evolve, display screens are taking an ever more prominent place in stores, from high street fashion to fast food outlets and out-of-town retail parks to superstores. Large and small retailers recognise how digital screens can enhance the shopping experience for customers and ultimately lead to increased sales or sale value. The digital signage industry is expected to grow substantially over the next few years, driven by the need for dynamic, real-time customer communication. Enhanced communication with customers, particularly at point-of-sale, is a vital tool for in-person retail environments that combat challenges from pureplay e-commerce outlets, declining footfall and at-home delivery services.

Digital signage offers a powerful way to capture the attention of shoppers. Unlike static displays, digital screens can display dynamic content that is visually engaging and easily updated to reflect current promotions, product launches or seasonal campaigns. This ability to provide fresh, relevant content attracts customers and encourages them to spend more time in the store. For example, in the competitive world of fashion retail, digital signage plays a crucial role in creating a vibrant, immersive shopping environment. Large screens displaying high-resolution images and videos of the latest collections can captivate passersby, drawing them into the store. Inside, interactive screens allow customers to browse lookbooks, check stock availability, or even see how outfits might look in different sizes or colours, enhancing their shopping experience and encouraging sales.

The display technology is easily scaleable, too, bringing those benefits to smaller independent retailers in a broad range of market sectors and massive out-of-town warehouse stores alike. From hardware shops to garden centres and small electrical retailers to furniture barns, digital signage can attract customers in-store, guide them around, promote key items and create impulse purchase desire through dynamic, timely and targeted content. For quick-service restaurants (QSRs) that do not rely on Uber Eats or similar home delivery services solely for business, digital signage serves both practical and promotional purposes. Digital menu boards make it easy to update pricing and showcase limited-time offers or new menu items. At the same time, interactive displays allow customers to place orders, reducing wait times and improving service efficiency. These digital tools not only enhance the customer experience but also help to increase the average transaction value through upselling and cross-selling.

In larger retail environments, such as out-of-town retail parks and warehouse outlets, digital signage can guide customers to specific areas of the store, highlight promotions, and provide essential information, such as opening hours or health and safety guidelines. Using digital wayfinding screens can significantly enhance the customer journey, making it easier for shoppers to find what they want and encouraging them to explore more of the retail space.

Whatever the retail environment, digital signage offers the ability to deliver targeted messaging at the right time and place. By analysing customer behaviour and preferences, retailers can use digital screens to display personalised offers or recommendations, directly influencing purchasing decisions. For example, in a high-street fashion store, a customer browsing the footwear section could be shown matching accessories on nearby screens, prompting an additional purchase. In a fast food restaurant, digital signage could promote meal deals based on the time of day or highlight healthier options to health-conscious customers. For an electrical retailer, package deals of complementary products or showcasing the latest hot tech gadget can significantly increase sales order value.

Choosing the right display

Choosing the right digital screen is critical to the success of your signage strategy. Different retail environments have different requirements, and understanding these is essential for AV integrators, content providers and retailers alike.

The brightness of a screen is a crucial factor in retail, particularly in environments with varying and often very high levels of ambient light. For indoor retail spaces with controlled lighting, a screen with a brightness level of around 500 nits is typically sufficient to create visual impact, although a little more adds impact. While increased brightness equates to increased purchase, Vestel’s PR+ series displays are designed specifically for this environment, offering 700 nits for the same price as most competitors’ 500 nit models thanks to the economies of scale in being Europe’s largest display and TV panels manufacturer.

For high-ambient light environments, such as storefront windows or outdoor retail parks, screens with 2,000 nits or higher brightness levels are recommended to ensure visibility and impact. If you run a working hours or limited hours retail business, look to specify digital signage that has an up-time classed as ’16/7′ – designed to run for up to 16 hours per day, seven days per week. These are robust screens with circuits, components and panels designed to cope with the higher heat and constant images or messages of retail display signage.

For 24-hour-a-day retail outlets such as some supermarkets, ’24/7′ displays are essential. These commercial grade panels are designed to run constantly, with dedicated components to dissipate heat build-up and heavy-duty panels with long life spans to cope with 24/7 use year-in and year-out. The downside is that 24/7 panels are much more costly to produce, so there is little benefit in specifying 24/7 panels for a 9-to-5 retail business.

Another technology consideration is the display screens’ ability to run in just standard landscape mode or switch to portrait depending on the store’s requirement. If you need a display to work in portrait mode, do not be tempted to use a standard landscape screen and simply switch the image orientation within the content software. Rotating a traditional landscape panel into portrait orientation can reduce image visibility and exacerbate LCD backlight bleed.

In retail environments with lots of direct spotlighting or bright (south-facing) windows, screen reflection can become a problem. If this is the case with your planned display placement, look for screens designed as ‘high haze’ models. Most display screens have a near-glossy screen that offers the crispest picture quality but can suffer light reflections. Matt or diffused surface screens are known as ‘high haze’ models and reduce reflections by around 30% at the expense of some image clarity and contrast.

With the perfect specification and size of screens for the retail store, it is essential to have robust signage management tools in place to maximise impact and effectiveness. A flexible operating system that supports standard or fully custom content management systems (CMS) is vital, with several standard versions available. The majority of Vestel’s retail-focused signage models use Android OS for its flexibility and wide-ranging compatibility with third-party CMS systems. Choosing a suitable CMS can be a minefield but we have partnered with several preferred CMS providers that offer tailored solutions for retail and the many other verticals we supply with display signage. Retailers should choose a CMS that provides flexibility in content creation and updating, as the job is typically an ‘add-on’ task for an employee engaged elsewhere in the business. Quickly adapting messaging is key to staying relevant in a fast-paced retail environment.

Conclusion

Digital signage in retail is no longer just a trend for premium stores in affluent locations, it is a vital component of the modern retail strategy. By enhancing customer engagement, driving footfall, and converting sales, digital signage offers a powerful tool to transform the shopping experience.