Storefront Window Digital Signage by Business Type

Short answer: A storefront window is the cheapest street-facing advertising space most businesses will ever own, and the display that goes in it is an indoor screen asked to do an outdoor job. The right choice depends less on the product catalogue than on what kind of shop you run: a real estate agency, a pharmacy, a mobile-phone shop, a bank branch and a restaurant all put different content in the window, at different distances, for different amounts of sun. Here is how the seven decisions play out for each.

The seven decisions, briefly

Brightness — set by how much sun the window gets: about 1,500 cd/m² for a shaded or north-facing window, 3,000 for partial sun, 4,000 for direct sun.
Auto-dimming — an ambient-light sensor that turns the brightness down after dark; check it is standard on the model, not an option.
Heat — a sunlit window is a greenhouse; a fanless sealed unit has no fans to fail and no filters to clog.
Single- or double-sided — a second face toward the shop serves customers inside from the same hanging point.
Size and mounting — 43" to 86", ceiling-hung or floor-standing; keep the screen close to the glass.
Readability — large text, high contrast, slow changes; the viewer is walking past on the pavement.
Running cost — power, content, and whether the power supply and media player can be swapped without removing the unit.

By business type

Real estate agencies

The classic window user. Listings change weekly, paper cards fade and curl, and the window is where walk-in enquiries start. A double-sided unit earns its place here: listings face the street, while the inside face shows the same properties to customers at the desk. Portrait orientation suits property cards; 55" or 65" is typical, with two or three units side by side in a wide window. Text height matters more than resolution — a passer-by should be able to read a rent figure from two metres away.

Pharmacies and drugstores

Promotions, seasonal health notices, opening hours. Pharmacy windows are often on busy, sunlit corners, so this is where 3,000–4,000 cd/m² and auto-dimming are most often needed. Content is short-lived and changes centrally across a chain, so the media player's CMS compatibility is the second question after brightness.

Mobile-phone and telecom shops

Tariff offers and handset launches, updated on the carrier's schedule. These shops tend to have large glass frontages and long viewing distances from the opposite pavement, which pushes the size up — 65" to 86" — and often calls for landscape orientation to match the carrier's campaign artwork.

Bank branches

Interest rates, service hours, and increasingly, digital-service guidance. Branches are usually on the ground floor of solid buildings with deep window recesses, so the sun load is lower and 1,500–3,000 cd/m² is often enough. The priority is a quiet, reliable unit that runs for years without attention: fanless construction and a long-life backlight matter more than peak brightness.

Restaurants and cafés

Menus, daily specials, and the evening's promotion. Restaurant windows face the street at pedestrian eye level and at short distances, so 43" or 55" portrait units close to the glass work well, and a double-sided unit can double as an indoor menu board. Auto-dimming is essential: a menu screen at full brightness after dark in a residential street is a fast way to meet the neighbours.

Questions to put to any vendor

"What is the rated brightness of the complete unit, and which brightness class do you recommend for a window facing [direction]?"
"Is auto-dimming by ambient-light sensor standard on this model?"
"Is the unit fanless? If not, what is the filter interval and who does it?"
"Is the double-sided version available in this size, and what does it weigh with mounting hardware?"
"Can you provide the mounting drawing for ceiling-hung and floor-standing options?"
"What is the power consumption at full and dimmed brightness?"

How EKAA's window-facing displays fit

For reference, EKAA's window-facing series is fanless across the whole range; available in 1,500, 3,000 and 4,000 cd/m², with automatic ambient-light dimming standard on the 3,000 and 4,000 cd/m² models; single- or double-sided; 43", 55", 65", 75" and 86"; ceiling-hung or floor-standing.

Storefront Window Digital Signage: How to Choose for Real Estate Agencies, Pharmacies, Phone Shops, Banks and Restaurants

author: EKAA