According to the State of Digital Signage 2026 report by Kitcast, retail screens are promo machines: 90% show media and 68% show video — both among the highest of any industry — while 88.5% of retail devices were active in the last quarter. telemetry
Retail uses screens the way it uses windows: for merchandise. Media (90%) and video (68%) dominate the content mix; weather rides along on 72% of screens, social on 39%, and in-store menus (cafés, counters) on 32%. Calendars and dashboards — the institutional widgets — barely register.
The operational numbers are middling-to-good: median content age is 24.5 days (the all-industry median is 16.8), device activity is high at 88.5%, and the typical retail workspace runs 1.5 screens (mean 5.8 — chains pull the average up). One uncomfortable survey finding: 88.1% of retail operators don't measure ROI at all — the highest of any surveyed vertical survey n=59.
What retail screens actually show
Top content types on retail screens, % of screens. telemetry
| Content type | Adoption (% of screens) |
|---|---|
| Media | 90% |
| Weather | 72% |
| Video | 68% |
| Templates | 52% |
| Social Media | 39% |
| Dashboard | 33% |
| Menus | 32% |
| Web Pages | 22% |
| Date&Time | 20% |
| API | 14% |
| Calendars | 12% |
| News | 10% |
| Business Apps | 8% |
% of screens in the industry displaying each content type. Content scan, 10,000+ screens, 21 industries. Cells N≥30. Full matrix in the dataset.
Frequently asked questions
What do retail stores show on digital signage?
Mostly promotion: 90% of retail screens show media and 68% show video — both among the highest rates of any industry. Weather appears on 72% of screens, social feeds on 39%, and in-store menus (cafés, food counters) on 32%.
How fresh is retail digital signage content?
Median content age on retail screens is 24.5 days — slower than the all-industry median of 16.8 days, despite retail's promo-driven content mix.
Do retailers measure digital signage ROI?
Mostly no: 88.1% of surveyed retail operators don't measure ROI at all — the highest non-measurement rate of any vertical in the 515-operator survey behind this report.
If you run retail screens and want the patterns behind these numbers — promotions, product video, window displays — see how stores deploy them in practice on the retail digital signage page.