Is it worth it? Find out

12 questions to ask
before building your
digital store in 2026.

A guide from LCDMEDIA®

Based on 30+ years of experience and 25,000 installations.

Introduction

What 25,000 stores
have taught us.

We’ve been building digital solutions for retail for over 30 years. In that time we’ve seen most of it. Rollouts that simply worked, where everything went right. We’ve also seen plenty of the opposite: the wrong purchase, rollouts with struggling project management, and results that never showed up.

We’ve collected the 12 most important questions here. What matters is that they get asked – and answered, before the contract is signed.

PART 1

Question 1 - 4

Purchasing strategy.

This is where most projects are won or lost.

Question

01

What is the purpose of your digital solutions?

There are two overall purposes – and the difference determines the choices you should make. Many retailers need both, but not necessarily from the start.

Brand-nurture

  • 01
  • Emotion. Inspiration. Atmosphere.
Screens that inspire, build brand perception and create atmosphere in the store. No integration required.

Examples

  • Inspiration screens with the season's looks
  • Mood LED at the entrance
  • Brand film on the big screen
  • Sound and light zones through the day
  • Transparent LED in the shop window

Phygital

  • 02
  • Emotion. Inspiration. Atmosphere.
Digital solutions as an extension of e-commerce. The customer buys, orders or gets access to data in the store.

Examples

  • Self-service kiosks (in-store ordering)
  • Lift & learn with product info and stock status
  • ESL synced with ERP
  • Heat mapping and people counters
  • POS-integrated digital signage

Question

02

How deeply should we integrate - and at what pace?

Brand-nurture

It doesn’t have to happen all at once. Take it in four steps:

  1. Define the purpose

    Brand-nurture, phygital — or both? Which problem needs solving?

  2. Start in one store

    An MVP in one location. A three-month test. Small investment, big learnings.

  3. Measure and adjust

    What worked? What needs adjusting? Sales effect, customer behaviour, feedback.

  4. Scale what works

    Roll out to more stores, in stages. Adapt to store type and size.

Question

03

Which problems is the digitalisation meant to solve?

A screen without a clear purpose quickly becomes expensive decoration. The strongest thing you can do early is describe the effect you want – before you talk about hardware.

Examples of behaviour you want to change

  • The customer waits too long at the checkout
  • Self-service or in-store ordering can reduce queues and free up staff.
  • The customer can't find the right product
  • Lift & learn screens answer the questions staff would otherwise get again and again.
  • Campaigns don't reach the store
  • A central CMS gives you control of every screen across stores - from head office.
  • The atmosphere in the store is flat
  • Sound and light zones with time control change the atmosphere through the day.
  • Price labels cost man-hours and corrections
  • ESL - electronic price labels - sync automatically with your product data.

Question

04

Shall we help you?

If resources are tight in the team, let us handle
changing your content.
We also have a team of skilled creative ADs and graphicdesigners we can
bring in, if that would benefit you.

Who owns the content after go-live?

The hardware arrives on a Monday. The opening is on Thursday. Three weeks later, on a Wednesday, a screen is still showing the demo loop. That isn’t a technical fault – it’s an organisational one.

Harvard-cited

Analyses of digital signage projects point to content as the primary cause of failure, not hardware or installation.

Source: Harvard-cited studies, AIScreenV

Source: Harvard-cited studies, AIScreenV

Industry data

Outdated content is perceived as 60% less relevant by consumers compared with updated content – and can actively damage brand perception.

DID YOU KNOW

20-30%

Higher store revenue is possible
- when the technology has a clear purpose.

McKinsey has documented that retailers who invest strategically in in-store technology can increase store revenue by 20-30% through personalisation – when the purpose is clear from the start, and the technology matches the problem it’s meant to solve.

Source: McKinsey & Company – “A transformation in store”

PART 2

Question 5-9

In the contract

This is where many retailers sign something they later regret.

“We used it to show a film about our new acoustics concept, which wasn’t possible to present physically.

It became a really strong way to create attention.

The Cube made our stand stand out and attracted visitors we otherwise wouldn’t have had a conversation with.”

Mathias Meineche
Head of Sales,
Fischer International – Kurage

Question

05

How long is the ROI horizon
- and what do you measure?

Our experience shows

The projects that survive the budget rounds are the ones where you decided from the start what the money should bring back. It doesn’t have to be advanced KPIs.

Frequently measured KPIs

  • Add-on sales
  • A direct comparison of sales before and after installation, ideally on specific SKUs promoted digitally.
  • Shorter queue time
  • Less queuing at the checkout reduces abandonment and makes the day easier for staff.
  • Dwell time
  • How long does the customer stand at the display? How long do they stay in the store?
  • Brand recall
  • Do customers remember what they saw? Measured via exit surveys.
  • Fewer price mismatches
  • The number of customers who experience a difference between shelf price and checkout price.

Question

06

Can we rent the equipment
- and can we get out of it again?

Do you recognise any of these challenges?

Choosing to lease or rent is often about protecting liquidity – or securing flexibility if your needs change. But leasing agreements can also hide pitfalls: long notice periods, lock-ins, or “adjustment fees” if you want to switch CMS along the way. It’s worth reading the small print before the contract is signed.

Roland Berger

Retailers should build flexibility into all technology investments because store concepts typically change every 3-5 years – faster than before the pandemic.

Source: Harvard-cited studies, AIScreenV

Industry data

In leasing and service-based models, 36 months of lock-in with full service is common – but the variation in exit terms is large.
Source: Industry surveys

Question

07

What is the SLA on operations
- and what does downtime cost?

Our experience shows

The projects that keep running without problems over time are the ones where you decided early how operations and monitoring should be handled. 

McKinsey

“Store-of-the-future” implementations only deliver the expected ROI when operations and uptime are systematically monitored and reported.

Source: McKinsey, “A transformation in store”

Industry data

Cloud-based CMS platforms with remote monitoring can detect screen failure before customers see it – and significantly reduce typical average response time.

Source: Industry surveys
 

Question

08

Who covers it if the hardware fails in years 3-5?

Do you recognise any of these challenges?

The warranty runs out in year 3, and an LED module fails in year 4 – suddenly the spare part costs half the price of a new one. It’s rarely made clear at the time of purchase. It becomes clear in year 4.

  1. Year 1

    Product warranty active

    Everything is covered

  2. Year 2

    Product warranty active

    Stable operation

  3. Year 3

    Warranty expires

    The risk begins

  4. Year 4

    Components start to wear

    Spare parts get expensive

  5. Year 5

    Performance drops noticeably

    Time to reconsider

Question

09

Are hardware and software from the same supplier - or do you have a free choice?

Benefits of thinking it through

When hardware and software aren’t tied together, you can adjust your setup along the way without throwing the investment away. That gives flexibility both now and in two to three years.

Open systems

  • Hardware and software can be combined freely
  • You can change CMS in 2 years without throwing out the screens
  • A wider choice of suppliers – a better negotiating position
  • Adaptation to your specific setup
  • Easier to integrate with existing systems

Closed ecosystems

  • One supplier locks the entire setup
  • Changing CMS typically requires new hardware
  • Less negotiating power at renewal
  • The price structure follows the supplier – not you
  • Updates depend on the supplier’s pace

It works - measured

Nielsen measured the effect of digital screens in German supermarkets.

The recognised American analytics institute Nielsen carried out an extensive study in German EDEKA stores. With 1,400 consumers and 12 stores under controlled conditions, it’s one of the best-documented DOOH studies in Europe.

33%

Increased sales at point-of-sale

31%

Increased brand recall among consumers

74%

Actively noticed the screens in the store
Source: Nielsen – “Awareness and Effectiveness of Digital Display Screens in Grocery Stores”

Part 3

Questions 10-12

In operation.

This is where the difference lies between an investment and a black screen on a Friday afternoon.

Question

10

Who is going to use the solution day to day - and are they ready for it?

Our experience shows

A digital solution is no better than the person standing at the screen on Monday morning. A small amount of onboarding is often the big difference between use and decoration.

Examples of behaviour you want to change

  • An owner role in the store
  • A store manager who has the screen as their responsibility - not just an extra task for everyone.
  • Training in the daily tasks
  • How is it switched on and off? How are faults reported? How is content changed? It needs to be second nature.
  • A simple workflow for changing content
  • Less cumbersome systems mean more use. PRIME makes it possible for every store to report faults directly.
  • A clear 'who calls whom'
  • Who reacts if the screen goes black at 4pm on a Friday? That needs to be settled before installation.

Question

11

Can you measure the effect
- or is it a faith-based investment?

Benefits of thinking it through

When measurement is set up at the same time as installation, you have numbers for budget meetings and management. Sales lift, dwell time, conversion. That’s the difference between a faith-based investment and a data-driven decision.

Nielsen

Nielsen’s DOOH study in EDEKA stores (1,400 consumers, 12 stores) documented up to 33% increased sales at point-of-sale and 31% increased brand recall.
Source: Nielsen DOOH study, EDEKA Germany

Industry data

Heat mapping and dwell-time measurement can typically document 20-30% longer dwell at digital displays compared with static ones.
Source: Nielsen, AIScreen

Question

12

What happens to end-of-life hardware
- and what does it cost?

Things to consider

ESG reporting is no longer just marketing material. CSRD and Scope 3 mean you have to be able to document what happens to electronics when they’re retired. It’s worth having in the supplier selection.

EU CSRD

The EU’s CSRD directive requires from 2024-2026 that companies report Scope 3 emissions including electronic waste and end-of-life treatment of IT and display hardware.
Source: EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive

EU WEEE / EPR

Producer responsibility schemes in the EU require take-back solutions and documented recycling – but coverage varies markedly between suppliers.
Source: EU WEEE directive

Common challenges

Do you recognise any of this?

Concrete challenges from everyday life – and digital solutions that help.
Challenge Digital solution

  • Queues at the checkout on busy days

    Self-service and in-store ordering

  • Inspiration is missing in the shop window in the evening

    Transparent LED and brand film

  • Paper price labels cost man-hours and waste

    ESL synced with ERP

  • The customer looks, but doesn’t ask for help

    Lift & learn with product info

  • The atmosphere in the store feels flat

    Sound and light zones with time control

  • Two stores don’t show the same content

    Central CMS with store variants

  • Staff spend time updating price labels

    ESL and digital price tags synced with product data

  • The screen is still showing the Christmas sale in March

    PRIME asset management with reminders

  • You’re missing data on where customers go

    Heat mapping and people counters

  • The meeting room is a daily bottleneck

    AV solutions with smart booking

Recognise one or more? Then there’s something to talk about. Drop by our showroom in Give – or call Nicolaj on 6644 3194.

THINK ABOUT IT

60%

of digital signage projects don't reach their original goal.

Not because the hardware fails – but because the purpose, the content and the operation weren’t thought through from the start.

That’s the most important reason we wrote these 12 questions. They’re not about technology. They’re about everything else.

Source: MarketsandMarkets, industry analysis

“What we’ve learned over 30 years is that the best digital stores aren’t the ones with the most screens. They’re the ones where the purpose was clear from the start, measurement was set up from day one – and the supplier still picks up the phone two years later.”

Experience from 25,000 installations

Get in touch

We’ve built Denmark’s largest digital showroom at home in Give. Transparent LED, ESL, lift & learn, in-store ordering, sound, light, scent – we’d be happy to show you around, offer coffee and a good lunch.
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