15/09/2026
🟢 Signage has one problem it could never solve on its own: a printed poster cannot prove that anybody looked at it.
Everything that happened since has been a step towards fixing that. Posters gave way to digital screens, which could be scheduled and updated remotely but still spoke to a passive audience. Touchscreens turned that audience into users, and every tap became a data point. Now those screens are becoming retail media, where retailers and brands treat interactive displays at the point of sale as advertising inventory in their own right.
💚 The data layer is the part that changes the business case. A static poster proves nothing. An interactive touchscreen registers taps, dwell time and product interest, which is what an advertiser needs before paying for the space. Retail media is not a new screen, it is a new way to sell the attention in front of one.
🌱 And the market gap is striking. Roughly three-quarters of purchases still happen in physical stores, yet in-store retail media accounted for just 3.3% of non-Amazon retail media spend in 2025 (eMarketer). The global retail media market as a whole is projected at roughly $203.9 billion for 2026, a 14% increase year over year (Coresight Research). The interactive display market sits at $52.14 billion in 2026 and is forecast to reach $76.48 billion by 2031 (Mordor Intelligence).
Adoption is the easy part. Shoppers already know the gestures from their phones, so a large-format touchscreen needs close to no explaining.
👉 Read the full whitepaper, including the stage-by-stage comparison of analog, DOOH, interactive and retail media: https://www.eyefactive.com/en/whitepaper/what-is-interactive-digital-signage