Evan Schuman's StorefrontBacktalk

This kind of ideal customized localization (or should it be localized customization?) with digital signage can work quite well with real-time or near-time information, but it might work even better with reminders, said Hiatt, who today runs Dynamic Retailing LLC. “The more compelling idea is being able to remind people of what’s coming up. People actually buy a lot more beer if the forecast suggests the weekend will be nice and sunny,” he said. “It doesn’t end up mattering what happens over the weekend. It could be raining.”

In other words, forecast accuracy might become irrelevant, at least in terms of digital signage strategy. Hyping the prediction could push sales, always leaving the opportunity to push more this weekend if, by some miracle, the forecast is correct. And if it isn’t, the message can be changed with a few keystrokes.

Digital signage can also be used effectively for regional events or holidays that might be seen as meriting national marketing attention. “Not everyone cares about Three Kings Day,” Hiatt said.

The POS data near-time recommendations are certainly doable, he said, but the challenge there is the analysis load. Typically, POS data is zapped to corporate for chain-wide analysis, with an eye on regional differences. A store-specific approach would require that the data be sent to corporate and that a store-only copy be saved—and an analytics engine used—locally. That approach can be done, but it might require more effort than it’s worth for a general manager, who could get much of that information from talking with cashiers and walking the aisles.

Theoretically, the most effective use of digital signage is not keyed into the chain, the regional or even the store but to individual shoppers. However, such CRM-based approaches—whether directly through an RFID tagged loyalty card or alternatively using wireless smartcarts or shopping assistance devices that are associated with the loyalty card—are expensive and difficult to get to work properly.

Technically, a smartcart might have less of an ROI benefit because the cart itself could already broadcast its own ads to that identified consumer. And the customer would be shown that ad continuously, regardless of where—or how fast—she pushed that cart. A complimentary, coordinated ad effort—with the cart and the aisle-based signage working together to reinforce messages—might be powerful, but it’s probably too complicated and expensive to be practical in the near term.