October 19, 2022

Retail Digital Signage Trends for 2022

Digital signage is very dynamic and keeps evolving, with new trends emerging each day.

Companies worldwide are leveraging new trends to boost their marketing strategy and deliver a positive outcome, while the adoption of digital signage is growing rapidly in many industries.

That's why many businesses are rethinking customer experiences and the new roles that digital signage will play in enriching customer engagement, and increasing sales in the years to come.


With this in mind, we’ve summarized the top digital signage trends for 2022:


Interactivity (touchless):


Interactive digital signage will only help accelerate the digitalization of retail businesses, which will benefit both retailers and customers.

Customers expect to be entertained and screens can satisfy that craving. Businesses are competing with each other in creative ways to interact with their target and digital signage can turn an ordinary screen into a thrilling visual playground.

Interactive digital signage offers a touchless solution that allows customers control of digital signages from the one screen they are constantly touching and engaging with comfortably — their smartphone.

Artificial Intelligence:


As digital signs can collect data with the help of AI, the use of next-generation digital signage solutions like OptiSigns, with facial recognition components, can give retailers insight into their audience and a better understanding of who their customers are. With this knowledge, businesses can even change or display real-time relevant content, especially for their customers.

With each year AI capabilities of the screens become better and in the year to come will definitely see some fascinating applications of this technology on a different scale. With more powerful machine learning algorithms, digital signage technology becomes more autonomous and content delivery more effective, changing how people interact with the screens and the modus operandi of displays themselves.



Rebirth of QR codes:


Digital signage and QR codes are an obvious marriage and the real-life applications of QR codes in restaurants and retail businesses are countless.

QR codes offer touchless solutions that are critical to keeping everyone safe as the world continues to battle the spread of COVID-19.

QR codes provide convenience and safety by enabling consumers to browse or interact with content by simply scanning a code using their mobile phones, thus eliminating the need to physically engage touch screens or paper menus, for example.


Here are some examples of how these two technologies work together:


  • Access restaurant menus: Customers can simply scan a QR code and receive the restaurant’s menu on their mobile device, without the need to type a website address or download an app.
  • Interactivity: Give customers momentary touchless control of interactive digital signs by letting them navigate the experience directly on their smartphone, without installing any additional hardware or downloading any app. Just by scanning a QR code displayed on TVs or screens, customers could get control with their phone, to scroll through content, select menu items,  view videos, and much more.
  • Give access to more info on products, giveaways, and more: Customers can scan the QR code and have more information on the products they are interested in, from size to color and so on. QR codes can also help you gather information about customers, by having a promotion or giveaway, you can request customers to fill out a digital form and participate.
  • Navigate wayfinding: Allow visitors at malls and retailers to access the wayfinding map by scanning a QR code, instead of clustering around the large physical maps or asking people for directions.
  • Contactless payment: Businesses can give customers a QR code to scan that takes them to a billing page, enabling them to pay their bills without needing to stand in a crowded line.


Retail ​​API Integrations:


The rise in retail APIs is hard to miss. We can’t talk about digital signage trends without discussing the connection of several services through APIs.


The exponential rise of retail APIs is a reflection that the retail industry is looking for new ways to use their data and connect their systems together to create great experiences for their customers and employees, drive new revenue channels, and gain a competitive advantage.


Retailers might further integrate APIs to help with tasks such as user login and registration, file access and storage, database modification, inventory, POS, client-to-client messaging, and more.

Dynamic Data Mapping:


With this feature, you can dynamically map data from Google Sheets to your digital signage screens. This is useful in case you have data changing frequently and/or differing from location to location.

Here are some common use cases:

  • Restaurant Menu, Promotion where prices, availability changes and/or differ from location to location
  • Retail, Hospitality promotions, messages
  • Employees birthday
  • Employees recognition, scoreboards

You can also use Zapier to integrate with your POS, Inventory management, HRIS, or other systems to Google Sheets to automate your pricing, availability changes, or employee engagement data.

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If you are ready to use OptiSigns, sign up today for a free 14-day trial and discover what digital signage can do for your retail business.