Selected Reading: What Works, and What Fails, on In-Store Screens

This is a short observation piece. The author walked through one shopping mall and sorted its in-store screens into good and bad examples. Its value is in the specifics: every problem it describes is a scene that anyone who has visited a store will recognize at once.

What does the article cover?

In a column for Retail4Growth, Chanda Kumar documents how brands at Phoenix Mall of Asia in Bengaluru use their screens. A watch and accessories brand uses cinematic footage as its storefront main visual. A beauty brand uses screens to introduce new arrivals, bestsellers and skincare routines. A sneaker brand uses its storefront screens to announce limited drops and sporting events. A home brand places a digital catalogue at the checkout counter, where it does not obstruct the flow of traffic.

The counter-examples are equally clear: several screens showing only a red "50% off" message, touchscreens left idle or not working, a "scan QR" prompt with no QR code beside it, and staff who are unfamiliar with the equipment. The author concludes that the mismatch between context and content remains a major challenge.

Why is it worth reading?

Screens and in-store technology are among the most expensive items in a store fit-out, as the author also notes. Brands spend the budget on hardware, but the content is often the last thing they think about. Through one mall, this article makes that gap visible.

What should you notice the next time you pass an in-store screen?

Stand in front of the screen for three seconds and ask three questions: Can you tell which brand it is? Can you see the product? Do you know what to do next? If the answer to all three is yes, the screen is working for the store.

Turning a main visual into motion content suited to storefront and upright in-store displays is the core of the ArsRes Academy Living Storefront workshop.