Mastering Digital Signage: Essential Principles for Retailers
Digital signage holds immense potential for Australian retailers, but without careful design and implementation, it can quickly become a source of frustration rather than a value ad. Issues like ineffective messaging, wasted resources, and environmental concerns arise when not approached correctly. In this article, we’ll explore key principles to consider when implementing or enhancing digital signage networks across retail stores.
(1) Focus on Media Sales for All Externally Facing Displays
Maximising revenue from your store’s digital signage involves focusing on media sales for external displays. By doing so, you turn screens into revenue generators by charging businesses to display ads. This strategy blends your promotions with paid advertisements, enhancing profitability. Engagis offers seamless integration with programmatic platforms and expertise in media management, ensuring optimal revenue generation for your digital signage network.
(2) Orientation Matters – Portrait for External
When optimising your store’s digital signage, orientation is key. The rule of thumb for external displays: opt for portrait mode. Why? Portrait screens swiftly capture attention with bold, punchy value propositions due to their vertical layout. They’re easily visible from a distance, maximising impact. While narrow width limits content, brevity is effective in capturing attention. Additionally, portrait screens fit storefront windows, maximising valuable display space.
(3) Orientation Matters – Landscape for Internal
For screens within your store, landscape orientation is ideal. Inside your store, where attention spans are longer, landscape screens accommodate more content, perfect for storytelling and engaging your audience. When setting up internal screens, prioritise landscape orientation for effective audience engagement.
(4) Large Displays vs Video Walls
The trend is shifting away from video walls towards large displays for store digital signage, and for good reason. Video walls bring complexity with more failure points and maintenance issues, often without cost savings. On the other hand, large displays, like an 85″-98″, offer simplicity, achieving the same impact without unnecessary intricacies. When choosing between the two, prioritise simplicity for impactful signage without the headaches.

(5) Bright Is Best
When your digital signage displays are facing outwards from your shopfronts, screen brightness outweighs size. If sunlight or glass reflections obscure the content, its impact diminishes regardless of screen size. While you only need a brightness of 500 nits for internally facing displays, screens facing sunlight require a minimum of 700 nits, with 3000 nits recommended to ensure content visibility and impact.
(6) Single Content Management System / One Digital Signage Provider
To streamline your digital signage operation, embrace a single content management system (CMS) and provider. With a unified system, complexity diminishes, and managing content, scheduling, and updates becomes seamless. Engagis Impress CMS is a powerful cloud-based solution perfect for retailers. Engagis offers an end-to-end solution, covering everything from software and hardware procurement all the way through to deployment and maintenance.
(7) Remove All Paper
Moving from traditional paper-based signage to digital is a strategic shift with tangible advantages. Embracing digital signage eliminates the need for manual updates and ensures real-time communication. With instant changes from a centralised platform, concerns about outdated information vanish, ensuring 100% compliance and accuracy.
(8) Sustainable Removal of Old Equipment
Sustainability is a commitment to environmental, ethical, and secure disposal practices. Enter Engagis’s partnership with PonyUp, assisting us in diverting our client’s old technology from landfill and turning it into meals for those in need, in collaboration with PonyUp’s charity partner, SecondBite. Through this collaboration, we ensure that every step of the removal process adheres to the highest environmental and ethical standards. Last financial year, we managed to keep 3,123 kilograms of our client’s technology out to landfills, translating into 2,222 meals being donated to SecondBite.
Conclusion
With digital signage, Australian retailers can transform their stores into dynamic, engaging spaces that drive revenue and enhance customer experiences. By focusing on principles like media sales, orientation optimisation, and sustainability, retailers can unlock the full potential of their digital signage networks. Ready to elevate your store’s digital presence? Reach out to Engagis today to discover how our tailored solutions can improve your retail environment.