What: In-store digital out-of-home (DOOH) screens are a media tool built for visibility, not a solution to shopper problems, which require recognition and personalization that screens cannot provide.

Why it is important: In-store screens broadcast to passersby, but shoppers' problems are individual, so department stores need to connect CRM, loyalty, e-commerce and app data to recognize shoppers, which a screen alone cannot do.

Writing in a column for Lucky Cart, Nicolas Trannoy argues that in-store digital out-of-home (DOOH) screens have become central to retail media, but that they answer a media problem rather than a shopper problem. DOOH offers visibility and proven stopping power in an environment used to paper and cardboard formats.

Measurement is its weak point. GDPR rules out identifying viewers, so performance is structurally an approximation: it shows that someone passed the screen, not what that person chose next. Trannoy considers this acceptable for a media objective and fragile for anything else.

In-store needs such as finding a product, comparing alternatives, staying within a budget or saving time are individual and contextual. They require recognition, context and personalization, and connected commerce depends on linking CRM, loyalty, e-commerce and mobile app data, which a screen cannot do.

Shoppers already turn to their phones to compare prices, check reviews, find wish lists or activate offers, because the phone is the one screen that recognizes them. Trannoy concludes that starting from the shopper also serves brands and retailers, through more recognition, relevance and proof of impact, and that DOOH remains a visibility tool.

IADS Notes: The measurement limit described in the article shows up in the push to standardise in-store media reporting: IAB Europe's proposed "opportunity to see" metric estimates who walked past a screen without showing whether anything sold, and more than 99% of European retail media spend stays online because brands invest where they can prove effect (Inside Retail, September 2026). One response that avoids identification altogether is in-store audio, which reads time of day, store, department and crowd levels rather than recognising individual shoppers, with restraint treated as a performance criterion (Journal du Net, October 2026). The article's point that screens serve the business rather than the shopper has a counterpart in the warning that screens placed where shoppers select products risk becoming visual noise, while those in dwell zones can be useful (The Robin Report, August 2026). The recognition and data link the article calls for is already in use at John Lewis, where ROPO measurement draws on loyalty card activity to connect online ad exposure to in-store purchases (Retail Times, June 2026). The phone is not always available as the shopper's answer: in stores where metal construction blocks mobile connectivity, fixed connected screens are often the only reliable digital interface between the entrance and the checkout (Journal du Net, March 2026).

In-store screens address media issues, not those of the shopper