Transforming the Customer Experience with Supermarket Digital Signage

Digital signage offers a powerful, modern solution that can improve your shoppers’ experience and more importantly, drive sales and boost operational efficiency. 

Supermarket digital signage is the use of electronic displays to communicate information to customers in a retail setting. These digital displays are designed to improve customer engagement and increase sales by providing real-time information about products, promotions, and services.

Why do supermarkets use digital signage?

There is a lot of information to take in within the average supermarket, with product choices, special offers and sometimes even presentations. Some of the reasons supermarkets employ digital signage can include:

• Eye-catching displays for promotions and pricing
• Upselling additional services and products
• Point of sale promotions to encourage impulse purchases
• Engaging customers and improving the shopping experience
• Better store navigation with digital wayfinding
• Consistent branding for franchises and supermarket chains
• Increased cost savings via less demand for printing
• Displaying digital menu boards at cafeterias or deli counters

This isn't an exhaustive list of reasons to use digital signage, but just an example of what supermarkets are doing with this emerging technology.

Types of digital signs for grocery and supermarket stores

Incorporating the right type of digital signage in your grocery store or supermarket can enhance the customer experience, drive sales, and improve operational efficiency. Here’s a breakdown of the most effective types of digital signage displays you can use in your store:

• Dynamic shelf displays: These digital screens are placed directly on or above shelves, allowing you to display product information, prices, or temporary offers in real-time.
• Video walls: Video walls are ideal for creating a visually striking impact in large supermarkets or for highlighting specific zones within the store.
• Multipurpose displays: These versatile screens can be placed throughout your store for various uses. Multipurpose displays can show anything from promotions and brand messages to helpful store information
• Digital menu boards: Digital menus show customers what’s available and on promotion. They are great for prepared foods sections or similar areas.
• Self-checkouts and interactive kiosks: Self-checkouts and interactive kiosks provide a convenient way for customers to pay without waiting in queues. They can also be used for upselling and cross-selling. 
• Product demonstration displays: These are used to show customers how certain products work, and the best way to enjoy them. Product demonstration displays can also be interactive to allow customers access a wider range of info.

How to use supermarket and grocery store digital signage

1. Help shoppers find current hot deals 

Real-time promotions can be a game-changer in a supermarket environment. With digital screens, you can quickly update customers on latest promos, discounts, and limited-time offers so they don’t miss out. 

This could be as simple as an interactive touchscreen in a popular aisle labeled “touch for savings.” Customers can then swipe to see what deals they can take advantage of.

Or, you could do a centrally placed digital screen with a playlist of current deals in the store. This can grab attention and direct customers to relevant aisles, quickly.

Pro Tip: Find more creative retail display ideas here.

2. Guide shoppers to important products

There are many ways to guide customers to important products with your digital signage for grocery stores. One way is to replace some aisle labels with screens that also hint at hot-selling products and limited time deals.

Or, you could use screens to draw customers to newly introduced products, especially when launching a new range. These screens in strategic high-traffic areas can help people find new, must-buy items.

3. Upsell and cross-sell at POS and checkout points

Upselling and cross selling are two easy ways to increase sales in a retail business. According to Convenience Store Magazine, upselling can increase promotional purchasing by up to 300%. Use this to your advantage by positioning POS digital signage displays near checkout counters. 

Display no-brainer suggestions that relate to their purchases, such as:

• Promoting meal deals and upselling additional products
• Highlighting customer loyalty programs
• Pointing people to money saving opportunities (for example multi-buys)

These messages can encourage impulse purchases and boost the overall value of each transaction.

Read More: How to Make More Retail Store Sales

4. Engage users with interactive content

Interactive content can help inform and educate customers about important products. These could be simple suggestions on how to enjoy a product, as shown below, or a more comprehensive guide on making the best of a purchase.

Interactive digital sigange can also provide fantastic opportunities for customer engagement, allowing shoppers to choose what information they can access

5. Create unique experiences with video walls

For an immersive experience, use large video walls to display high-quality visuals that tell a story. Large video displays tend to draw people in, so it’s a great opportunity to push your store’s premium products or important brand messages like sustainability efforts and charity contributions.(Research from Mintel shows that a business' charity efforts affect 73% of Americans' purchase decisions.)

You could also use video walls to display social media feeds, product locations or helpful shopping tips. One strategy that truly creates a more engaging shopping experience is setting up an interactive wall attraction where people can come and interact, take pictures, and make some user generated content.

6. Give shoppers more info on specific products

Did you know that at least 89% of customers will spend more than 10 minutes researching their purchases (salsify)? That’s one aspect of the customer journey that could be optimized with digital signage.

Position screens to offer important product information like ingredients, nutritional facts and potential allergens next to important products. This helps customers make better informed decisions, and simplifies their research process easier.

7. Answer the question, “why shop here?”

You can use digital signage screens to toot your own business’ horn by showing people why they should shop at your grocery store. Since you’re controlling the narrative you can even turn some weaknesses into strengths.

Are you a small retail store with a limited product range? Talk about your exceptional customer service, community involvement, and dedication to quality above quantity when it comes to products.

8. Share safety information and reminders

Digital signage is perfect for sharing safety information because you can quickly update your screens to reflect the latest information. 

Woolworths shows an example of this during the Covid-19 pandemic. Digital screens displayed reminders for customers to check in before shopping, thereby aiding contact tracing efforts in Australia. 

This could easily be a slideshow that displayed other info like directions to emergency exits, and safety info to keep in mind while shopping.

Read More: Digital signage for emergency alerts

9. Reward loyal customers and increase memberships

Your store can also feature loyalty programs on your screens , showing how customers can earn points, redeem them, and sign up for exclusive offers.

Great messages to consider include:

• Members save 10% on all organic products this week!
• Sign up today and get $5 off your next purchase

10. Give shoppers the current, best prices

Stores like Woolworth are using e-ink displays for product pricing. Walmart has also announced its intentions to upgrade all price stickers to digital screens. This means product prices can be updated quickly as new deals become available. This way, people who missed other cues can still enjoy the discounts.

Updated real-time pricing is a big enough attraction for shoppers, but with digital screens, you can take it one step further. By displaying previous prices and the current discount amount, you can prompt customers to buy now before the price rises again.

11. Reduce perceived wait times 

Long checkout lines are inevitable, but with digital signage, you can keep your customers engaged and reduce perceived wait times. 

You can entertain customers waiting in queues by displaying

• Fun facts
• Social feed and user generated content
• Promotions 
• Local news
• Directions to a self checkout kiosk
• Current promos 

Screens and also help you set the expectation for customers’ wait time. As a study found, people forced to wait longer than expected are less satisfied with their experience. By displaying a simple “estimated wait time is 3 minutes,” you can set an expectation and give your checkout staff a chance to beat it. The result? A satisfied customer. 

Four sales-boosting tips for supermarket digital signage

Feature high-margin products in prime locations

Maximize digital signs in high-traffic areas like entrances, checkout lanes, or key product aisles by using them to promote high-margin items. Highlight popular products, fresh local produce, or specialty goods to get the most out of your signage.

Leverage time-sensitive offers to create urgency

To get a stronger response, consider introducing some urgency in your signage. For example, a screen could display, “20% off all organic items until 3 PM!” or “Flash Sale: Buy one, get one free on all beverages, today only!” By showing countdowns or exclusive deals, digital signage encourages immediate purchases, helping you clear inventory and boost sales.

Promote seasonal or event-related products

Seasonal sales can be big for grocery and retail stores, and you can use digital signage to draw attention to them. Whether it’s holiday favorites like “Get your Thanksgiving essentials here!” For summer BBQ deals, rotating your content with the season or current events helps  shoppers to make purchases they might otherwise miss.

Read More: Sales Hacks Using Black Friday Digital Signage

Tailor your content to the time of day

Instead of just slapping some content onto your screens, adjust them based on the time of day to match what your customers want. In the morning, showcase breakfast specials or coffee promotions, and later in the day, switch to lunch deals or dinner ingredients.

Examples of supermarket digital signage in action

1. Interactive kiosks that dispense free samples at Walmart

Walmart is leading the charge in supermarket digital signage, and we’ve seen several examples in this post already. But we’d like to highlight how they use interactive kiosks to provide more information, nudge customers towards a purchase, and even plant the seed for future purchases.

This interactive kiosk gives out free product samples with options to let customers learn more about the product. This screen could easily be loaded with more helpful information like promo prices and other product information.

2. Tesco’s complete in-store digital experience

Tesco is another supermarket chain that’s using digital signage in spectacular ways. From updating walk-in customers on current deals, to upselling at POS displays on checkout, they do it all.

The business recently upgraded to over 1,800 screens on its digital signage network, rapidly elevating the customer experience at its locations.

The screens are used for everything from directing customers to hot selling promo products, to simply drawing attention to specific product shelves, like you have in this picture.

ScreenCloud - The best digital signage solution for supermarkets

When it comes to choosing retail digital signage solution for supermarkets, there are many option available.

But, you need something flexible enough to enable quick changes, scalable enough to handle as many screens as you supermarket needs, and simple enough so you can create screen-ready content without stress.

ScreenCloud provides a comprehensive digital signage solution designed to meet the fast-paced demands of grocery and retail environments. You can easily manage and update content across multiple screens from any location, easily create screen-ready content in minutes, integrate your current retail solutions, and even access 80+ apps and integrations to make your screens more engaging.

Sign up for a free 14-day trial today to see how ScreenCloud can elevate your grocery or retail business.