Global Digital Signage Market - Forecasts and Trends (2019 - 2021)

Read more about actual digital signage trends 2022.

A comprehensive review of the most important digital signage market trends and a few crucial forecasts regarding the digital signage industry growth.

Even though the digital signage industry can be called relatively young, the size of the digital signage market is growing rapidly. We believe it’s time to review the essential upcoming trends to follow and make a few forecasts regarding the future of the digital signage industry.

The digital signage trends of 2019 included the rise of newly developed software that introduced people to a more convenient interaction with the signage system itself. The digital signage industry also faced new hardware players, including the Apple TV-based solutions that mostly made the signage networks more affordable and easy to use.

Indoor or outdoor?

When it comes to digital signage trends of 2020 and further, people wonder how will the market shares change in the indoor vs. outdoor fight. We believe that indoor usage in the digital signage market will continue to grow. There are several reasons for indoor digital signage to become more and more popular:

• Retail business owners want not just advertise their place, but improve the indoor user experience
• Digital signage serves as a multifunctional Point of Service
• More and more restaurants are switching to digital menus cause cheaper, fancier and simply more convenient
• AR and other new technologies serve better for indoor needs
• etc

We genuinely believe that the key digital signage industry players will focus on creating even better software for indoor signage usage. 

What type of digital signage screens we’ll see more on the market

The digital signage 2019 trends included the rise of LCD vs. LED competition. They’re still fighting for their market shares, and we’ll see this in upcoming years as well. We would bet on LCD to keep their relatively stable positions on the market. 

Let’s not forget that we’ve just said about the indoor usage among the digital signage trends. Since LCD screens are usually better for the direct close-up view and interaction, this means they’ll be on the rise as well. Also, since they’re less expensive than the LED systems, it will affect the market share they’ll get. 

Note that this doesn’t mean that LED will lose everything. The digital signage market size is so big right now that they will both find their end-user after all. The LED screen is still the best choice if you plan a substantial outdoor advertisement campaign or want to build a big video wall. 

Software development will dominate over hardware

Last year the digital signage market faced a rapid growth of companies that decided to go with the Apple TV as a hardware platform for their signage needs. Thousands of business owners consider it an affordable option that has powerful features under the hood. 

We believe that this opens a door for software developers who can focus on software development and direct all of their efforts on creating the most seamless user experience. 

Therefore, we believe that we’ll see the software development boom in the signage market in the few upcoming years. Competition is always high; this is what gives birth to the best companies and most convenient products.

Transportation industry to face a rapid growth of digital signage presence

Subways, taxi cars, buses, trams, and other means of public transportation are getting rid of their old advertisement platforms. They start looking into the digital signage market and are trying to figure out how to switch to this new technology faster. 

The reason is simple — the ease of use and fewer maintenance expenses. We think that the transportation companies will dive deep into the digital signage industry and take the most out of it during the upcoming years. This may become a grand switch, and in a few years from now, we’ll live in a world where advertising on a bus is an easy task. 

The digital signage market size will directly depend on the results of these significant collaborations. Basically, if everything goes well with the transportation industry, digital signage will speed up its adoption dramatically, cause more and more brands will be interested in trying it.

Retail businesses will integrate digital signage faster than others

The retail business owners are looking at every new technology that can ease their life and boost in-store conversions. Since we’ve seen how popular the PoS terminal became among the digital signage trends, we believe that signage will be widely spread among the entrepreneurs improving the experience of their clients from A to Z.

Digital shelves, points of sale, booking screens, etc. There are tons of ways for an average retail business owner to benefit from the digital signage trends. We think that they’ll stay a #1 target audience on the digital signage market. 

AR may become an essential element of successful signage campaigns

We’re entering the decade of AR and VR integration. People find more and more ways to use these exciting technologies that can help their clients get an unusual experience. Since AR is emerging from the game industry and entering other industries, it can become an essential thing for a successful viral advertising campaign. 

AR is already used by some brands in their ads and signage systems. We think that it won’t leave the list of digital signage trends in upcoming years. We’d even say that it will stay closer to the top of the most popular signage solutions.

Regions that will adopt digital signage listed by predicted market share

We think that the North America region will stay on top of the list since they’re technologically advanced and the digital signage market here is full-speed in its active growth. They won’t slow down and continue to be a few steps ahead of other regions. 

Europe and Asia will play catch up, while the Middle East and Africa will stay way behind, but still in the game. 

List of digital out of home advertisement types that will dominate the market

We believe that digital posters and touch screen solutions will be on the top of upcoming digital signage trends. Kiosks will remain their positions despite the indoor advertisement dominating the digital signage market. 

Video walls and screens will be widely used by industries that are slowly studying the signage market — banks, government institutions.  

Wrapping the forecasts up

We’re witnessing the rise of one of the best tools we’ve ever got as marketers since the invention of the outdoor advertisement and TV. The upcoming years will mark the next step towards the extensive usage of this technology in every corner of the Earth. Let’s make the most out of the digital signage and improve our businesses, bringing the best customer experience to our clients.