How To Compete With Online Retail

It’s up to brick-and-mortar retailers to deliver something shoppers can’t receive online: a memorable in-store experience.

01. Outward-facing LEDs

Since LED-based signs can be installed to face either inward (toward the store’s interior) or outward (toward the mall or street), it’s possible to use LED technology for exterior-facing signs, lit from the inside. When doing so, it carries a distinct advantage. When you’re projecting through glass, you need that extra brightness and LED-based signs are the best solution for that.

Not only do outward-facing LED-based signs expand display possibilities, they also offer a significant (and hidden) operational benefit. Simply put, indoor LED displays don’t require the same permitting that outdoor installations do.

02. Create More WOW

While LCD displays still have their place in indoor retail, the falling price of LEDs has led to fewer LCD sales (flat-panel liquid crystal displays). Instead, more and more businesses are opting to replace their LCD displays with LED. One reason: LED’s brightness makes it stand out. And, as pixel pitch continues to drop, LED’s content capabilities can match, or even surpass, LCD for great picture clarity.

For the uninitiated, bezels frame the monitor or glass surrounding an LCD display. Bezels limit the density of an LCD display, since they take up valuable (unlit) space. LED cabinets have no bezels. So long as the tolerance (i.e., the distance between pixels) is less than 1% of pixel pitch, LED technology can be made into nearly any size or shape, minus light-dampening bezels. As a result, LED signs will always be bright, crisp, and dense.

03. Bigger, Sharper, Better

Overall, the screen size of retail displays keeps growing. As size increases, LED pixel pitch has plummeted, making for denser, more populous light clusters on any given screen. In short: today’s LED displays are bright, sharp, and splashy. Ten years ago, the only place you might have glimpsed a glowing wall of digital signage would have been at a stadium, a casino, or Times Square. Today, bigger screens within retail stores are not only quite common: they’re becoming necessary, especially for multimedia product promotions and attention-grabbing feature displays.