Interactive Digital Signage: Turning Passive Viewers into Engaged Customers

The digital signage world is evolving fast. What passed for an exceptional customer experience just five years ago may be average at best today, as companies invest considerable amounts of money into reviving their retail locations post-pandemic.

Driving engagement with younger audiences who are not just digitally native, but now AI-native means staying ahead of the ways that both digital signage and artificial intelligence are evolving. It means choosing the right technologies for your business, and it means thinking carefully about how to integrate them into your everyday operations.

Here’s how digital signage is evolving, and what business leaders can do to stay ahead of the changes.

How Interactive Technology is Transforming Customer Engagement

The shift from traditional to digital signage hasn’t just been about having a fancier or more attractive way to display information. It marked a shift in how businesses connect and engage in-store customers and made their experience a central focus.

Whether it’s a touchscreen kiosk, a voice-activated display, or a QR-powered promotion, this technology enables two-way experiences that feel natural, helpful, and fun. This mirrors a larger transformation we’re seeing across retail environments—the shift from passive consumption to active engagement.

Touchscreen Displays That Invite Action

Touchscreens have been around for a while now, and they’ve become one of the most recognizable and expected forms of customer interactivity. But what we have today goes way beyond the simple tap-to-navigate experience.

Today’s touchscreen displays support multi-touch gestures that are just as smooth and intuitive as using your smartphone. You can pinch and zoom to see product details, rotate and view products in 3D, flip through color options, or browse through an entire catalog without ever feeling like you’re dealing with clunky “store tech.”

As these interactions start resembling the smooth, familiar experience of their own smartphone, it changes the paradigm for what an in-store experience should be. Familiarity builds comfort, and comfort makes conversion far more likely.

QR Codes: Bridging Physical and Digital Spaces

It’s no surprise that customers, especially younger ones, are leaning more and more toward convenience and self-serve experiences. And when it comes to making that experience frictionless, QR codes remain one of the simplest and most effective tools available.

Think of them as a bridge between your physical space and your digital one. A customer sees a product on a screen, scans the code, and they’ve got instant access to reviews, size charts, availability at that location, or maybe even a short product video.

This transition happens in seconds, without ever having to ask a staff member or wait in line to get help.

When you remove those small points of friction from the process, you open a world of opportunity for deeper engagement and smoother conversions. Research data backs this up: a study by GS1 US found that 79% of consumers are more likely to purchase a product if a QR code provides additional information about it.

It’s the best of both worlds: tangible, in-person evaluation of a real product combined with the flexibility and depth of online browsing.

Voice Activation and Audio Interfaces

We tend to focus a lot on touchscreens when we talk about interactive signage, and they’re great, but not every customer wants to or can interact with a screen. And not every environment makes that easy or even possible.

Voice activation technology is filling that role. It’s still interactive, it’s still personalized, but it gives people a way to get what they need by simply speaking. They can ask questions, check current deals, or get directions without ever touching a thing.

Plus, adding voice capability to a digital signage solution provides an important layer of accessibility. For older adults, people with mobility limitations, or customers with visual impairments—voice isn’t just helpful, it’s essential. And if your goal is to create an inclusive, seamless customer experience, then this is something you need in the mix.

Interactive Navigation That Guides (and Sells)

Nobody likes feeling lost. Whether it’s inside a massive shopping mall, a sprawling airport terminal, or even a multi-level hospital, people want to get where they need to go without feeling confused.

Moreover, from a business perspective, confused customers rarely convert. That’s why effective navigation isn’t just helpful, it’s a critical part of the customer journey that directly impacts sales.

Digital Wayfinding

As shopping, healthcare, and other environments grow larger, there’s a distinct need for signage to evolve and keep up. Visitors shouldn’t have to rely on a static map anymore. Instead, they need something more dynamic; something that reflects real-time situations, guides them turn by turn, adjusts based on live foot traffic, and even offers alternate routes if an area is under maintenance or if things have shifted.

This added layer of real-time context makes the visitor experience just a little smoother and a lot more hassle-free. Improving store outcomes and customer experience isn’t just about helping people find their way, it’s about removing friction at every point in their journey.

Interactive Catalogs and Real-Time Promotions

Now imagine the same level of contextual insight when digital displays are positioned as interactive catalogs and can support real-time promotions.

With smart digital signage, you don’t have to clutter shelf space or overwhelm shoppers with too many signs, you can simply display what’s in stock, what’s trending, and what’s on sale right now. And you can update all of it in real time.

You can even time promotions with local events, weather patterns, or seasonal holidays. So, if a cold front’s moving in, you can highlight jackets or scarves. When Christmas is approaching, you can showcase holiday-related collections and enliven your store with holiday graphics.

This gives you precise, real-time control over both merchandising and promotional strategy that customers overwhelmingly enjoy.

Motion Sensors and Smart Triggers

Motion sensors take digital signage a step further by making it responsive to customer presence. For example, when someone walks by a display, it can automatically light up, play a short message, or highlight specific products based on the time of day.

When combined with AI, these systems don’t just react, they improve over time. By analyzing patterns in foot traffic and customer interaction, they can fine-tune what content gets shown and when. That might mean adjusting promotions during peak hours, showing different content on weekdays vs. weekends, or even identifying which messages tend to drive more engagement.

The longer they run, the more they learn, and the more relevant they become to your customers.

Turning Interaction into Actionable Business Intelligence

Here’s where things get interesting. This entire interactive push has a powerful benefit. Until recently, retail interactions were something you could feel, but not really quantify or capture in detail.

But now, with digital signage, you can truly tap into and harness all these insights. Just being able to turn those valuable interactions into something measurable gives you a gold mine of information about your visitor base.

Analyzing User Data from Cameras and Displays

Smart signage equipped with sensors or cameras (that respect privacy and anonymize data, of course) helps you understand how people interact with your displays—how many people noticed them, how long they paused, what drew their attention, and what they skipped.

This helps you make informed decisions in real time, which directly impacts how effective your promotions are and how quickly you can adapt when something isn’t working.

Optimize the Store, Not the Screen

And here’s the part that really ties it all together: interactive signage doesn’t just improve what’s displayed to your customers, it can help you optimize how you operate your store.

For example, digital signage has also been shown to reduce perceived wait times at service points by up to 35%, creating a smoother overall experience.

By understanding customer flow, engagement levels, and foot traffic patterns, you can make informed decisions about layout, product placement, staffing, and even lighting. These little insights, when compounded over time, can result in massive performance improvements, both in terms of customer satisfaction and profitability.

Coffman Media is Your Customer Experience Partner.

As shoppers become more savvy and expectations continue to increase, the arms race for digital experience will continue to intensify. The good news is that the tools to meet those expectations are already here. What matters now is how you use them—thoughtfully, contextually, and with the customer journey at the center.

Coffman Media is a global leader in AI-powered video systems for retailers, providing companies across North America with help to achieve a strategic, ROI-driven approach to signage, analytics, and customer experience that reduces uncertainty.

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