cool things to do with lcd displays in stock

Unused electronics are the bane of the modern life. Perfectly functional gadgets sit quietly in a corner of the store room, doing nothing. If you"re wondering what to do with old computer monitors, here are a few easy ideas to repurpose unused screens.

In this guide, it doesn"t matter if your old monitor is still working or not. Even if it isn"t, you can use its parts to make a great new gadget. From turning it into a super-tiny computer or dashboard to refashioning into a smart mirror, here are some of the most productive ways to repurpose a computer monitor.

The Raspberry Pi 4 is an incredible device. While it has a wide range of uses, at its core, it is a tiny, low-cost, full-fledged computer. And that means your old monitor can be turned into a PC for less than $60.

Perhaps the best thing to do with an old flat-screen monitor is a DIY DAKboard. The DAKboard is a LCD wall display that shows the current time, weather forecast, calendar events, stock quotes, fitness data, and news headlines. It"s all displayed on a soothing photo. You could buy an official DAKboard, but the makers themselves have shown how to build your own wall display with a Raspberry Pi. when you can build one for far less money and a little geeky fun, the choice is obvious.

Attach your old monitor to a Pi and it can be put in your kitchen as a recipe and video source. Make a Pi-based retro video game console as a treat for your kid (or the kid in you).

Sometimes, you"re working on something private in an open office, or browsing certain *cough* sites *cough* at home. You can"t have your colleagues or kids see what"s on the screen. To keep snooping eyes at bay, make a "your-eyes-only" monitor from an old one.

To anyone else, it is going to look like a blank white monitor with nothing on it. But wearing a special pair of spectacles, you"ll be able to see things on it like a regular monitor. It"s magic! It"s a tough process, but dimovi"s guide at Instructables is thorough and precise.

Basically, you will be cutting out the polarizing film of the old LCD monitor. This film will then be put on a simple pair of glasses. Now your screen appears white, but the glasses can "see" the content. It"s one of the best ways to keep prying eyes out of your PC.

The reason you should use an old computer monitor is that things can go wrong. You will be disassembling and then reassembling the monitor, along with cutting out the anti-glare and polarizing films. You"ll also need to separate the polarizing film from the anti-glare one.

If you have a broken old LCD monitor, it can be re-purposed into a usable mirror; but if you have a working old LCD monitor, adding a Raspberry Pi can turn it into a smart magic mirror!

You can choose from different Raspberry Pi smart magic mirror projects, but for our money, go with the MagicMirror². It"s the original, most popular, and perhaps now the easiest way to build a smart mirror. It comes with a clock, calendar, weather forecast, and news feed.

If you"re on a tight budget for a first-time DIY project, consider the $100 smart mirror. It"s not the best version of turning an LCD monitor into a smart mirror, but you"ll get the basic features and not spend a bomb.

If you have the space available, the best thing you can do with an extra monitor is to boost your productivity with a dual-monitor setup. A second monitor has many potential purposes, such as extended screen space, a dashboard for your social media or news updates, or a dedicated video conferencing screen.

All desktop operating systems support the ability to use dual monitors. It"s pretty easy to setup dual monitors on Windows, and you can then customize how you use the two spaces. To connect two monitors, you will likely need a graphics card with multiple HDMI ports, or use an HDMI and a VGA port on desktops.

Make it a dedicated screen for Nintendo Wii:The Nintendo Wii can connect to a VGA monitor, so if you don"t have a Wii, buy one. In fact, buy a used one, they"re pretty cheap on Craigslist.

Like any gadget, monitors have a limited shelf life. If you"re looking to upgrade, you now have a few ideas of what to do with your old monitor. And that age should influence which project you chose. For example, given the effort involved in building a smart mirror, don"t go with a screen that"s already shown signs of trouble. The Raspberry Pi-based projects are usually the easiest to keep changing.

In fact, if you have an old monitor and old PC parts, you can repurpose the whole PC. You can turn it into a home security system, a home server or media center, or try other unique creative projects.

Breaking your beloved computer monitor is a tragic situation to find yourself in. While you may not be able to enjoy your PC like you used to, you don’t have to mourn the loss of your screen: you can upcycle it. But how can you turn a broken computer monitor into something new? Let’s take a look at some of the best projects from around the web to help you to achieve this goal.

While it doesn’t look like it, the pixel panel inside your monitor is semi-transparent. This makes it possible for the backlight to shine through it, in turn making it possible for images to be displayed on the screen. Of course, though, you can take advantage of the transparent nature of your broken monitor’s panel when it comes to turning it into something new.

Building your own transparent LCD screen, as in this Instructables guide, takes patience and a broken monitor with a working panel. That makes this king of project great for those with monitors that have broken speakers, backlights, or other components that aren"t needed for it.

This LCD computer side panel guide shows you how to create a transparent LCD side panel for a computer case, but there are loads of other ways to use a see-through monitor. You could attach your monitor to a fish tank, using the lights inside as the backlight (as long as it doesn’t upset the fish). Alternatively, you could also attach a monitor like this to the inside of a window to use natural light as the backlight.

LCD, LED, and other types of monitors contain semi-transparent sheets called diffusers. Diffusers spread the light created by backlights to make sure that it covers the display evenly, much like the diffuser panels used by photographers.

This project is ideal for those with monitors that don’t work at all. Diffusers don’t require a power source or working electronics, and this means that physical damage to the diffusers themselves is the only issue that will render them unusable.

Using monitor diffusers to create photography lighting is affordable and easy. You just need to get your hands on some LED strips to get started, and there are plenty of guides around the web to help you through the process. This type of lighting is perfect for photography, videography, and even live-streaming.

Smart mirrors have been the subject of much excitement around the web in recent years. Like something out of the pages of a sci-fi novel, smart mirrors offer a glimpse of the future, turning a usually boring household item into something more. You can use your smart mirror to check the weather, catch up on news, and even shop for your next outfit, all while staring your beautiful self in the face.

Like the first idea we covered, your old monitor needs to be in relatively good condition to work as a smart mirror. You can choose from mirrors small and large, as long as you are able to remove the backing of the mirror your choose and expose the clear glass it is made from.

Raspberry Pis are perfect for powering smart mirrors. These mini-computers are powerful enough to perform basic tasks, while also being affordable. You can check out some of the best LCD smart mirror projects around the web with our handy guide.

Wireless speakers are great, giving you the power to take music whenever you go. Of course, though, who wants to buy new speakers when they have an old or broken monitor with great speakers built-in? This video shows you how to turn your old monitor or TV speakers into a wireless Bluetooth speaker with a soldering iron, some batteries, and a Bluetooth module.

Building a DIY Bluetooth speaker is easier than it used to be, but there are still things to keep in mind. You need to have the right type of speaker connections available for this to work, and your finished device won’t have advanced features like waterproofing. With that aside, this project is fun and easy to take on for yourself.

Drawing, arts and crafts, and other types of DIY projects often benefit from a good light source. Artists have taken advantage of light tables for a very long time, providing a backlight for artwork that makes it much easier to see what you are doing. You don’t have to buy a specialized light table when you have a broken monitor available to you.

This Instructables guide shows you everything you need to do to create a light table with a broken monitor. The panel doesn’t have to work for this, but you need to make sure that the backlight is still functional. Light tables are great for a variety of artistic activities, from drawing and painting to playing with the kids.

If you finished school more than a decade ago, you probably remember old-fashioned overhead projectors. Having made way for modern digital projectors, old overheads are very cheap to buy online and can make a great DIY project for those with an old monitor.

Overhead projectors work by shining light through a semi-transparent sheet and reflecting it through a lens and set of mirrors. Anything on the sheet will appear on the wall the projector is pointing at. By turning your monitor into a transparent LCD, like in the first project we looked at, you can make a static overhead projector into something much more.

You need a dark room for this to work properly, and you will also need to buy a couple of parts online. Once you close the curtains and find some good speakers to use, though, you can create your own home cinema without spending much at all.

Recycling the broken tech in your home is one of the best ways to have a positive impact on the environment. With more than 60 million tons of e-waste being shipped across the world each year, it always makes sense to embrace DIY projects that reuse old gadgets. Your broken monitor is the perfect place to start, but you can apply this to other objects, too.

Well, not only can you save a piece of old technology from the scrapheap, but you also can repurpose a mundane blank screen into a range of intriguing projects.

Not only can you now spend a rainy afternoon or two taking apart your busted LCD screen, you’ll get that insider’s view of all the interesting circuitry that goes into these electronic devices that are a part of everyday life.

If you are an artist or photographer, you will be well aware of the importance and expense of lighting. But what if we told you that you could make a powerful, portable DIY light panel from an old LCD screen?

This amazing LCD screen hack produces a high-quality panel light that radiates daylight quality light. An equivalent panel light can cost well over a hundred dollars!

We have to admit we were skeptical about this LCD screen project, but the walk-through provided by the BrunaLab team in Florida was convincing. These scientists were more than qualified to take apart an old Panasonic screen to make a StarTrek-worthy infinity table.

This tutorial is a little more than purchasing some IKEA table legs to screw into the screen to make a coffee table (the original hack). Emilio Bruna decided to take his project in a high art direction to produce an infinity lighting effect with blue LEDs.

Again with a little electronic know-how, wiring and battery-powered LED lights an infinity TV coffee table was born. The turnaround of this project was within a day which makes it doable on a weekend that you have free.

We love the futuristic results of the LCD recycling project and the low costs. Emilio Bruna’s project came in at $73 all in, with a wacky blue lighting pattern that kept his kids glued to the coffee table screen!

If you are a tech and electronics enthusiast, you will be aware of the Raspberry Pi revolution. These remarkable single-board computers have the processing power to be put to work in a wide range of projects, including partnering with your broken LCD screen to make your high-end digitized smart mirror!

There are loads of tutorials for this LCD screen mirror which vary in cost, complexity, and overall swagger. The majority of them, place the LCD screen behind a two-way mirror and rely on the WiFi-enabled Raspberry Pi3.

The basics of this build include combining an old OHP projector and laying a stripped-down LCD on the glass of the projector. The OHP does all the hard work of projecting your movie or game.

The like the old school OHPs the visual effect of this projector will be strongest in very low light as the claim to High Definition projection may be a little too enthusiastic.

Also, the LCD does age quite quickly in this arrangement as the light passing through the denuded screen damages the LCD. However, you can definitely gather the family round for a decent movie night or two before it all falls apart!

Raspberry Pi comes to the rescue again as the perfect partner for repurposing your own screen. After all the Raspberry Pi is a computer with no screen to call its own.

This hack is very similar to the smart mirror and uses the slightly more powerful Raspberry Pi 4 which has the comparable processing power to a regular computer.

This project totally blew us away. How cool is a transparent screen that you can see through while you stream films or play games?! Though this project is not for amateurs it is possible to requisition a discarded LCD TV and create a see-through screen.

To achieve this, you will need an expert takedown of the TV, sepearating every single layer of the screen and building up a custom design and housing.

A broken LCD screen is a potential hazard to your health and the environment so it is important that you handle the screen safely to prevent injury or harm.

Though the screen has liquid crystal, the amount contained within a busted screen is small and unlikely to cause a hazardous spill because it is viscous.

However, there are certain substances to be careful off including N-(4-Methoxybenzylidene)-4-butylaniline (MBBA), a compound that is often used as liquid crystal is hightly irritant and can cause blood poisoning if ingested.

It is best to wear gloves, goggles, and a dust mask when taking apart electronics as you cannot be sure what you will encounter. Be careful handling circuit boards as capacitors can have retained enough power to give you a nasty shock!

According to researchersDr. L.D. Rosenblum, Dr. Harold Stolovitch and Dr. Erica Keeps, here is the breakdown of how our five sense processes information:

Clearly, human beings are highly visual in nature, and this is a fact that is particularly important when you’re running a physical store. One of the main reasons why people decide to shop offline is to see merchandise in person, and this is all the more reason to design winning retail displays.

The best way to make a lasting impression is to immerse your customers in a particular environment or setting. Check out the example below. The displays themselves are simple, and the retailer only makes use of a few simple racks and fixtures.

But because all the other elements of the store (i.e., the color of the walls, the cold-weather items, and the text “it’s cold outside”)  follow a unifying theme, the overall effect is quite powerful. It engulfs customers into the “cool” theme of the store, creating an immersive experience.

Keep this example in mind for your next display. Recognize that you don’t necessarily have to build something fancy. If you have a strong theme and ensure that all the components of your shop are in line with the story you want to tell, you can create a compelling and immersive experience using just a few simple products and fixtures.

In a survey by Ripen eCommerce, they found that the top reason people shop in brick and mortar stores instead of ecommerce is that physical retail enables shoppers to touch and feel items in person.

The key takeaway here? Create displays that encourage people to touch and feel for you products. If your items are sitting on a shelf or a table while still inside their respective boxes, you could be missing the chance to connect with your customers.

So, take your products out of their packaging and get shoppers to really experience your merchandise. Ulta Beauty, for example, does this with their hairdryers. While other stores keep the products in their boxes, Ulta has their hairdryers out for people to touch and feel them.

Need an easy and affordable way to breathe life into your visual merchandising? Use plants. Doing so doesn’t just make your displays more attractive, they can also create healthier and more pleasant shopping experiences.

In an interview with Retail Focus, Joey-Michelle Hutchinson, associate vice president at CallisonRTKL, said that having more greeneries in retail environments “makes them feel more inviting, which in turn decreases customer stress levels and increases their dwell time.”

Having more “green” displays clearly has some benefits, so consider incorporating plants into your designs.For inspiration, look no further than homeware retailer Harper & Grey House. Plants are a staple in their displays and the greens do a tremendous job in accentuating their merchandise.

Cross-merchandising is a subtle but effective way toincrease basket sizes and average order values. The practice promotes product discovery and entices shoppers to look at items that complement what they’re already buying.

There are a number of ways to implement cross-merchanding. One is to merchandise items that go together. You could, for example, create a display with a blouse, jacket, and matching purse.

Another idea? Display gift cards next to relevant products. Have a look at what Target is doing. The retailer has some baby-centric gift cards next to some toys in the store’s baby section to remind shoppers about their gift cards.

Speaking of little ones, have you considered creating kid-friendly displays? The practice can be quite effective particularly if you cater to Gen X and Millennial consumers.

Even the most creative displays will fall flat when they’re not well-lit. So invest, in the equipment to make sure that your products are displays in the best possible light.

Is your store on the small side? Consider using portable displays so you can make better use of your space. Such displays are easier to move so you can quickly re-merchandise your shop or make room for other things if necessary.

Portable displays can also help in keeping your visual merchandising focused and on-point. Since you have limited space, you’re forced to only display the most important and most high-impact products.

The following cookware display at Crate & Barrel does exactly that. The top part of the display has images of the items for sale along with a quick description of what each product is and what it does.

Colors can make or break your retail displays, which is why it’s essential to select the right color scheme. A big part of this will be driven by the colors of your products. If most of your items are come in pastel shades for instance, then those colors will be quite common in your displays.

That being said, how those products are displayed together matters a great deal. There are various ways to mix and match colors, so have a think about how you’ll do it in your displays.

The folks at Live By The Sword salon did an amazing job merchandising their shelf of Amika products, which come in a variety of colors.By really leaning into the colorful nature of Amika’s items, they were able to set up a vibrant display that pops.

Take this example from The LifeStyled Company. The team created a display featuring Babe Australia’s products, most of which come with predominantly white boxes and labels.

Timely displays are sure to grab the attention of your customers. Keep a close eye on your retail calendar and make sure that your visual merchandising coincides with relevant shopping events and seasons.

For instance, during last year’s back-to-school season, Target dedicated an entire corner to school supplies and relevant merchandise. The area of the store was filled with large, back-to-school displays that were impossible to miss.

If you’re running multiple stores, make sure your displays reflect the tastes and preferences of each location. Pay attention to local trends and popular products in the area and ensure they’re front and center in your displays.

You can shed light on these insights using your POS reporting and retail analytics. Identify the top categories or items in different cities and use the data to inform your merchandising decisions.

It also helps to call out the name of each town or city. For instance, the homeware retail chain Home Goods has a sign that reads, “Happy to Be in Cerritos” in its Cerritos branch.

Got a bunch of quotable quotes up your sleeve? See if you can incorporate them into your retail displays. When done right, a bit of text can complement your products and encourage shoppers to take a closer look.

And as a bonus, walls or displays with quotable quotes are a magnet for Instagram users. With the right display, you’re bound to gain a bunch of social shares and tags along the way.

If you’re looking for ways to showcase your full product lines without cramming your shelves and racks with too much merchandise, then see if you can use technology to “extend” your displays.

Case in point: when the online retailerShowpolaunched their pop-up store in Los Angeles, they chose to display a small selection of products in the shop.

Showpo even took things a step further and used another table to capture customers’ details in-store. To encourage people to provide their email, they threw a 15% discount that can be redeemed online.

In retail, space conveys value. The more space there is in a store or display, the higher the perceived value of the merchandise. This why many luxury retailers display items in standalone cases while discount stores overstuff their shelves with merchandise.

The right amount of space to use in your store depends on how you want to be perceived. But one thing is clear: if don’t want people to think that your products are cheap, then you’ll want to use fewer items in your display.

Take a look at this window fromSaks Fifth Avenue. The display features a single mannequin and table on which there’s just one pair of shoes. Aside from the paintings on the right, there aren’t a lot of details to distract people from the products.

Upcycling — the practice of using old or discarded materials to create something new — can help you build out-of-the-box retail displays. In the example below, we can see that the retailer used old chairs to create racks on which to hang their merchandise.

Now, don’t get us wrong: traditional racks and fixtures are still essential. But hopefully, this example encourages you to reimagine the use of old items. You never know — that old chair, box, or frame could be just the thing that would get your display to stand out.

If you’re celebrating a special holiday or occasion in your store, use your shop displays to show your festive side. Materials like balloons, tassels, garlands and other party supplies could help your displays pop.

With retail being more competitive than ever, there’s just no room for uninspired and mediocre retail displays. Now, more than ever, you need to constantly cook up in-store visuals can stop people in their tracks and encourage them to buy, share, and come back.

And remember that no matter what kind of display you have, it won’t be effective if it doesn’t showcase merchandise that your customers want to buy. That’s why it’s important to make data-backed decisions when it comes to merchandising. Use your POS or inventory management system to generate sales and product reports that will inform your decisions around what items to show off in your store.

Francesca Nicasio is Vend"s Retail Expert and Content Strategist. She writes about trends, tips, and other cool things that enable retailers to increase sales, serve customers better, and be more awesome overall. She"s also the author of Retail Survival of the Fittest, a free eBook to help retailers future-proof their stores. Connect with her on LinkedIn, Twitter, or Google+.

At the heart of every great digital signage display is this: content. Make it look good and people will stop to look at it. Make it look bad or outdated, and chances are they won’t be looking at your screen again.

But with the flexibility of scheduling and real-time editing in ScreenCloud, all you’ve got to worry about is what you want to show. So here are 30 good examples of digital signage content to inspire.

The most obvious is social media. If you invest your efforts in social media, why not use this to bring your digital screens to life too? You can also utilize user-generated content.

Showing social media feeds on your digital signs can help pair your online reputation with your offline one, building credibility and helping customers buy into your brand.

Walls.io offers a unique feature to showcase sponsored ads from brands you partner with. This feature is called Sponsored Posts, and they are special posts on your social wall that aren’t filled with regular social content from your sources. Instead, you can upload specific images (or videos or just text) that you want to display there and have it show up on your wall in regular intervals.

The main function of Sponsored Posts is to make money by offering ad placements to sponsors. Tomorrowland, for example, made sure that their sponsors received a prominent advertisement space on the festival’s official social feed.

However, these posts are a versatile tool that can be used in various other ways as well. Make sure to check out their guide How to Use Sponsored Posts on a Social Wall.

You can show your website (or any URL in fact) on a screen by simply adding it into the Links section on ScreenCloud Studio. This can then be added into a Playlist.

Customers are 10 times more likely to observe dynamic digital signage content than static messages, which makes video the perfect content form; it’s also usually screen-ready in 16:9 format. Video to share on digital signage could be your showreel, a new demo video, or a customer caught on screen talking about how great you are. Add to your screen playlist either by direct upload or through an app such as YouTube or Vimeo.

ScreenCloud supports pretty much any image formats, including JPEG, PNG and GIF, so you can upload images from company workshops, events, product showcases - anything you like really. Create your own image showreel within a Playlist simply by uploading the images, setting the duration of each one and then leaving them to play.

If you need to create a quick notice, perhaps detailing a room change or a meeting time, there are a wealth of apps to make that happen. Like Noticeboard - an app that can be found in the ScreenCloud App Store. It allows you to create a quick and easy display in seconds, and also allows for real-time edits.

Most of us have a preferred news site or newspaper we turn to when we want to find out what’s going on in the world. That’s why we’ve created apps that cover many of the most popular news sites including Aljazeera news, CNN news and ESPN.

Add a news app to your digital signage playlist and you’ll always be up to date with the latest headlines. Your customers will sip their coffee longer, your guests will loiter in your reception hall.

As well as general news you can make your digital signage even more specific. RSS feeds are the gateway to unlocking any content you like, from Buzzfeed to your company blog to specialized news from your niche.

We’ve found these three apps to be among our most popular as they appeal to almost all audiences - we even have one of our schools using them to help students brush up on their economics.

This type of content works well as ‘filler’ content in between video, ads and social media displays to stop your viewers from getting digital-overload.

Food is such a big part of our lives, it’s natural that we’re drawn to images, descriptions and menu boards showing it. Enter the digital menu board digital signage display.

This is one of the most important content displays you’ll create if you work in a restaurant, fast food chain or bar. It also works in an office cafeteria, an event setup or even as a fun noticeboard where you can swap menu items out for things you’re working on or fun descriptions of your team members. If you’re a franchise, this works especially well as you can change the price of an item across all screens and locations from one ScreenCloud login.

Add your reviews from sites like TripAdvisor and Yelp on your screen and share them with other customers. This is great for enhancing sales, and also customer engagement.

Data-driven companies are more likely to succeed – because they can easily see the areas that need attention. But most of the time this business-critical data is siloed and not seen by the teams that can make an immediate impact. Historically this data hasn’t been shown on screens due to security fears, which is why ScreenCloud developed Dashboards.

If you have a product, gaining visibility over feature development, customer number or what the future holds is kind of central to your work. That’s why pulling project management insights from Jira, Trello or your favorite project management tool and sharing them through digital signage in your office helps everyone to stay on the product pulse.

We love Slack at ScreenCloud. Like many startups, it’s how we do about 90% of our communication. So when a room’s really crucial to what we do, like our #praise room, we share it on our digital signage screens. This is made really easy with the Slack app.

Digital signage is a great canvas for all of your sales, small or large. Share real-time sales messages, promote offers and encourage customers to buy when the price is right. These can be easily created in Canvas.

How much time do you think your reception staff spend directing people to the right floor or meeting room? We love using the building directory app to share details of where everything is through our digital signage screens. The best part? If a room changes, you can update the screen easily unlike your static signs. Here are some non-obvious benefits of wayfinding in retail.

As well as advertising your own content, digital signage is a great method for selling advertising space within your building or store. Simple Playlist setup means you can schedule specific advertising slots, upload sponsored content between your own notices, or have dedicated days or areas where only advertising is shown.

If travel is essential to your customers or employees, then sharing a live travel information board is a great use of your digital signage. As you can see here, this provides up to the minute travel details on buses, trains and trams for your local area.

Adding a dedicated screen to travel information in your office by the exit is also a great addition to your internal comms and employee engagement strategy.

User generated content is a goldmine of free marketing material. This could be reviews, social media feeds or customer quotes. Tools like Walls.io and Taggbox can help pull UGC from social media platforms while giving you moderation controls and the ability to only show posts with certain hashtags or mentions.

The benefit of digital signage over static signage or printed pamphlets is that it can be updated in real-time and pushed out instantly. This gives you the power to update signs with last-minute offers or promotions on items that are low in stock.

Imagine having a method of internal communication that allowed you to broadcast to your entire company, at the click of a button… That’s exactly what ScreenCloud Broadcast can do for you. This makes it easy to share company broadcasts that go out to all screens simultaneously with news, praise or health and safety announcements. Broadcast can securely live-stream meetings or announcements to screens in your office, and also onto the mobiles or desktop screens of remote or deskless workers, making sure everyone gets the news.

Digital signage can be used in retail to show-off in-store promotions and increase the number of customers who take up offers as soon they’re available. Couple posters with reviews, user-generated social media content and ads to really drive your brand home.

SOLETRADER uses digital signage to share the company’s Instagram feed, promoting more discussion and helping customers to see its shoes out in the world.

Who doesn’t love an inspirational quote? Using digital signage to share motivational quotes works in almost any scenario. In the ScreenCloud office, we even share quotes of things our Founders have said to keep the team inspired and uplifted.

In churches, sermon timetables, sermon quotes and hymns are both ways you could use digital signage to attract and retain more members to your sessions.

Everyone likes to see where they are in a leaderboard, whether that’s in sales or counting reps in the gym. Use your digital screens to show off this leaderboard and add an additional layer to your customer/employee experience. You can create it easily using Google Slides, or for something more automated, check out a tool like Bonusly, as shown below.

In the same way you might use your digital signage to share leaderboards, you could also entice employees or customers in with competitions. Promoting giveaways or asking them to submit something (like an Instagram image) for the chance to win, is a great use of your digital screens. Create a poster using Canvas and add a QR code to link through to a competition landing page.

Screens are great for all of the good stuff we like to put out into the world, but they’re also a good vehicle when you need to make an emergency notice that needs to reach a lot of people. For (planned) fire drills, you can schedule the alert to pop up on your screens, otherwise, have a template at the ready to push live should you need to display it in the moment.

Ever had a bad meeting room experience? Someone waiting awkwardly outside? Knocking before you’re finished to ask ‘how long’? Same. It’s why using small screens, iPads or tablets you have laying around is an awesome use of digital signage. We wrote more about how to set this up here.

Companies with fast growth will know the pain of getting to know employees, when there seems to be more new people arriving faster than you can say “All hands”. It’s why the Meet the Team app is a fast and easy way to upload employees, old or new, and show them off to all of your team.

If you work in an art gallery or somewhere you want to show off work, then digital signage is a great way to showcase photos, videos or actual designs of something special you’ve been working on.

Of course digital signage can always be used to create a pretty picture, but when it’s seriously useful, that’s when it makes the biggest difference. Digital signage is increasingly being used to facilitate and improve internal communication strategies. From sharing company notices, to key information and reinforcing health and safety training messages, so that they’re always seen.

Now that you have so many ideas about how to create content and how easy it is to get it up on your screen it’s time to get started. Try our 14-day free trial - we can’t wait to see what you create.

There’s an abundance of retail product display options for today’s store owners. Knowing what they are and when to use each type can impact your retail sales revenue.

In this article, we’ll take a look at what retail product displays are, how to display products in your store, and the most popular types of product displays.

The look of retail product displays relies heavily on your visual merchandising strategy. Generally, the first interaction customers have with your products in-store is via your displays.

If you have a brick-and-mortar store, retail product displays are a must. You or your visual merchandiser can create a planogram and arrange displays to showcase your products and increase sales.

It’s also a visual merchandiser’s responsibility to manage and maintain your retail product displays over time. Fixtures may break or become worn down.

Use Shopify’s analytics and reporting to make the right merchandising decisions at each of your store locations. Spot seasonal trends, see which products require promotion, measure your display"s impact on product sales, and more.

There’s an endless list of ways you can display products in your store. It depends on what types of products you have, who your customers are, and how creative you want to get.

Strategic placement of each retail product display can impact your sales. It’s key to keep your visual merchandising strategy in mind when choosing how to display your products.

Think outside the box.Creative signage like “Insta worthy” wall art can get the attention of your shoppers. It can encourage people to engage with your products (and share a picture on their Instagram feed).

Use cross merchandising.You can merchandise by color, product type, or theme. Cross merchandising complementary products on the same retail display is one way to use secondary product placement to increase sales.

Location, location, location.You can place displays that house new products and bestsellers in high-traffic areas. Smaller, impulse buy or add-on items can get displayed near the checkout counter.

Change displays on a weekly basis.Changing retail product displays on a regular basis keeps your retail store looking fresh. It can also help your regular customers discover new products with each visit.

Add decorations. Go above and beyond to improve the shopping experience by adding decorative items that suit your customer’s lifestyle. For example, if you sell yoga clothing and mats, add plants, candles, and lighting on or near your displays to set the mood.

Maintain your retail displays. It’s important to always keep retail product displays clean, spaced, and organized so customers can easily find (and buy) products without feeling overwhelmed.

Every retailer’s visual merchandising strategy is different. Take a look at other stores to see how they set up their displays. We don’t suggest copying directly, but pulling different elements from displays you like is a great way to get started.

Retail product displays can be broken down into three categories: standalone and point of purchase (POP) displays, store shelving displays, and clothing and furniture displays.

Trying to decide which layout is right for your store? Download these free templates to learn which types of layouts work best for different industries and draw inspiration for your own design.

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Clothing and furniture can be displayed using standalone POP displays and store shelving, but there are also retail product displays that are perfect for these types of products. Creating product displays for apparel and furniture is distinctly different from grocery store merchandising.

Racks are a good way to display clothing. They come in several configurations, including circular, multi-level, and with shelves. Garment racks also come in a range of materials like metal, wood, and plastic.

You can create a clothing display that showcases items grouped to create an outfit along with accessories. Or display home products that can be purchased together to complete a set.

Use mannequins to give shoppers a visual presentation of your products and how they go together. This is a great opportunity to promote add-on purchases and impulse buys.

Make a lasting impression by immersing your customers in the environment or experience where they’d use your products. The example above of an apartment setting is simple and cozy.

Both examples are simple, but follow a unifying theme that makes the overall effect powerful and persuasive. Immersive product displays pull people in and help them visualize using the products.

You don’t need to build something extravagant. Use themes and simple fixtures to display products and personalize the customer experience. Tell a story your customers relate to and they’ll be compelled to stop and take a look.

For example, a furniture store may have various material options for the same sofa. Shoppers can test the product by sitting on it, and alternative fabric swatches can be placed nearby for people to touch and feel.

A point-of-purchase display (POP) is an in-store display that is used to attract customers to a special offer or particular brand in your store. In some cases, the displays are made of cardboard and printed with advertisements. It’s more common to see printed POP displays in grocery or box stores.

Unlike wall shelving, a more permanent retail display fixture. You can change POP displays completely—from the display itself to the merchandise it holds.

Standalone displays are a type of POP display that stand independently of common aisle shelves. These displays are usually seen in the middle of large store aisles, also known as “action alleys.”

You can use standalone displays anywhere there is open space. They play a vital role in your visual merchandising strategy and require thoughtful design to make an impact.

Dump bins are stocked with small impulse buy items. Consider using bins when you need to show a lot of low-price merchandise quickly. Bins can be accessed from all sides and are easy to move throughout the store.

Freestanding displays are also simple to set up and can be made of cardboard or other materials. They are usually filled with larger items than dump bins and are more organized.

With a freestanding display, you can showcase products on hooks or shelves. They’re accessible from all sides and give you the opportunity to cross merchandise similar items.

Display cases are usually encased on all sides in glass, plastic, or Plexiglas. They are standalone displays, sometimes accessible from one side, sometimes from all around.

Customers usually can only access products in the case with the help of a store employee. These cases are used to securely display high-end merchandise.

You can also use these cases to entice shoppers with a beautiful product display and then store the products for purchase on a shelf or in a separate storage case nearby.

Window displays are found in the front window of a brick-and-mortar store. This is a way to make a first impression with your shoppers. Make sure your display showcases your store’s merchandise in a visually appealing way to draw customers in.

They can be used at your checkout counter to encourage customers to buy impulsively. Or you can place countertop displays throughout your boutique on tables or shelves to showcase small products and add-on accessories.

Retail shelving is fixed and sturdy and can display a variety of different goods. Shelving is the core of many grocery and big-box stores. However, they are also a great option for boutiques of all sizes.

Shelving helps to direct the flow of traffic and display items in an orderly fashion. It can be single-sided and placed along walls or double-sided to create aisles.

Think of these displays as little islands of merchandise in the sea of your store. They are freestanding and accessible from all sides. In some cases, they rotate.

A shelf stopper is signage that highlights an item on a retail shelf. The signage sticks out perpendicular to the shelves and gives the item increased brand recognition and stopping power.

A small pop-up display is called a sidekick or power wing. Like freestanding displays, they are an effective merchandising tool to increase basket size.

These displays set products apart from other items on the same shelf. You can use additional branding, trays, or other items that break the visual monotony of shelves.

The shelving on end caps is sturdy so that you can display heavier merchandise on them. Use them to highlight specials or new inventory and cross merchandise complementary products.

A glorifier is a small glass or plastic box that stands out from a standard shelf and highlights an item. This is a unique and non-traditional way to showcase your products.

For example, if you’re selling perfume, you can use a glorifier to make each scent stand out from the shelf. Think of it as a podium for your products.

Developing your visual merchandising and retail product display strategy takes time, creativity, and testing. The results can mean the difference between great sell-through rates and dead stock that you need to markdown.

Deciding which retail displays are best for your boutique gives you a chance to roll up your sleeves and have fun. Use retail product displays to tell a story and help your customer discover new items.

Whether you use garment racks, display tables, or shelving, the return on investment makes spending time and money on retail product displays a no-brainer.

The effectiveness of retail product displays is not dependent on how flashy they are. Keep it simple. As long as you keep your visual merchandising strategy and your customers in mind, the right product displays can increase sales.

Use Shopify’s analytics and reporting to make the right merchandising decisions at each of your store locations. Spot seasonal trends, see which products require promotion, measure your promotions’ impact on product sales, and more.

A retail display is a physical structure or space used to promote and sell merchandise in a retail environment. Retail displays can be found in both physical stores and digital stores. They are typically used to showcase products in an appealing way, to attract customers and encourage them to make a purchase.

Product display is the way in which a product is presented to potential customers. This can include factors such as packaging, color schemes, and labeling.

Brick-and-mortar retailers have just a few seconds to attract—and hold—a buyer’s eye with a window display. In New York City, 10,000 people pass the Macy’s window every hour. That’s nearly 1.7 million people each week!

Your shop doesn’t have to be world famous or located in the middle of busy Manhattan to benefit from a well-designed store window. According to NPD Group research, window displays influence purchases an average of 24% of the time.

The right window display design can engage shoppers enough to cause them to stop, look back, and walk into your store, where your floor staff can help close the sale. Not only do attractive window displays help bring in customers, they also let you display new products, highlight promotions, enhance your brand image, and differentiate your store from the competition.

With increasing competition from ecommerce, and the COVID-19 pandemic keeping shoppers at home, store windows are more valuable than ever. In order for window displays to benefit brick-and-mortar retailers, Mujica says, “it’s important they have a very specific vision for the people they are pandering to.”

Window displays can help your store boost foot traffic and brand awareness, highlight products and promotions, and differentiate itself from the competition.

Plus, they’re a great way to show off your brand, according to Nicole Haddad, co-owner and Designer of Philadelphia-based sustainable fashion brand Lobo Mau.

“We painted a mural on the outside of the store that looks like we splashed paint splatter all over the building. It’s our way to draw in the customer—to get them to take a closer look so that they want to check out the store on the inside.”

Window displays preview what’s inside your shop. You can use them to entice customers with products they’ll like and to highlight new arrivals, limited-edition products, or even holiday gifts.

Leverage windows to let customers know about sales. If you’ve ever entered a store after seeing a huge “SALE” sign in its window, then you understand how effective this tactic can be. Synchronize in-store offers with online promotions to increase the impact of your displays.

Let’s say there are two shoe stores in your neighborhood that feature the same shoes in their window. Store A displays the shoes in a creative way, while Store B unimaginatively places each pair on top of its box.

Which store do you think attracts more customers? Most likely Store A. Making an effort with your window displays will help you stand out from the local competition.

They’re great for exhibiting clothes on mannequins and body forms and showing off your store’s interior design. However, open window displays are revealing, making it difficult to hide fixture accessories, like wires.

Closed window displays have a wall or backdrop separating them from the store floor. These displays emphasize the products on view by eliminating distractions from inside the shop. Yet, they block natural light from entering your shop, so you’ll have to compensate with ample lighting on the floor.

Shadowboxes are small, box-like, and most often used to display petite, detailed items, like jewelry, shoes, or makeup. They’re usually only big enough for one or two people to look at at once.

As the name implies, you get a corner window display when two windows come together in a corner, creating a large, box-like display. Corners are optimal for attracting shoppers approaching from any direction and showing off products from more than one side. But, it can be difficult to arrange products in these displays, since they need to look attractive from multiple viewpoints.

Setting up your first retail window display may sound a little daunting. Luckily, you don’t need to have a design background to create a compelling store window display. Even if you don’t have the budget to hire a visual merchandising professional, it’s possible to DIY your own display.

Here, we’ll help you set your fears aside so you can master the art of putting together unforgettable window displays. We’ll guide you through the process of assembling your store window display, as well as offer some window display ideas to get you started.

Use Shopify’s analytics and reporting to make the right merchandising decisions at each of your store locations. Spot seasonal trends, see which products require promotion, measure your promotions’ impact on product sales, and more.

Before you start brainstorming complex ideas for your first retail window display, let’s start by making sure we"ve got the necessary tools to set you up for success. In other words, you don’t want to be halfway through the process only to notice you don’t have a tape measure or another essential tool.

Depending on the design of your store window display, you may need other materials to complete your project. However, these tools will keep the ball rolling and can serve as a skeletal shopping list to start your display design.

When it comes to conceptualizing a store window display, it’s best to start with a pen and paper. Before sketching out your window display ideas, start with a story based on a theme. Yes, your window display design should tell at least a basic story. After all, it"s proven that storytelling can serve as a strategic business tool.

Doing so will help you determine where your focal point should be. The focal point is where you want your prospective customers to look first and concentrate their focus. The central point of your display should be big enough to catch a shopper"s attention, even on the other side of the street.

Start thinking about the arrangement of products based around your focal point. Will you arrange your products on wires or shelves around the focal point? Or maybe set them up in a pyramid? Explore different configurations to see what would work best for your window display.

Let’s be honest: society’s attention span is shrinking to about less than a millisecond, and your buyers are no exception. You can bet that most people walking by your store will either be engaged in conversation with friends, texting, or walking their dogs. So, you’ll need to pull out all the stops to make sure you catch their attention. At the very least, you can create a store window display they’ll want to take photos of with their smartphone and share them with the world.

So, when creating your retail window display, don’t be bland. Be bold with colors, shapes, and props. Think outside of any cookie-cutter colors and opt for more eye-catching hues like fuchsia, orange, or electric blue. Just remember to exercise your best judgment and keep everything consistent with your brand.

Props are also a great way to think unconventionally, especially given that your local art store will be stocked with many different art materials. Think about cutting up foam boards, creating papier-mâché props, or anything else you think would be appropriate for your brand and store.

With all the window display ideas available for you to use as inspiration, it’s easy to get carried away and create an overly complicated display. However, too much clutter is likely to repel and overwhelm potential passersby, rather than draw their attention. Don’t try to do too much or you’ll just end up with a busy, unfocused display.

Always keep your goal in mind: ultimately, you want to draw attention to your products and help customers quickly understand why certain products are grouped with others. That also means keeping your display clutter-free and being able to justify why each component of your display is included.

When you’re creating a display, you’re going to have small and large objects, dark and light colors, lights and shadows, and so on. It’s important to balance the different elements you’ll be deploying in order to create a pleasing aesthetic.

Typically, you’ll want to place larger, darker items near the bottom, and items that are lighter and more colorful at the top. This arrangement will prevent your display from looking top heavy. Similarly, if you place all the large items to one side and all the small ones on the side, you’ve got an unbalanced window display. Imagine you’re balancing items on a scale, which means doing things like balancing a large item on one side with lots of smaller items on the other.

Trust your judgment and get a sense of what emotion your display is evoking. With a balanced display, you’re more likely to create feelings of happiness, excitement, and joy, whereas an unbalanced display may signal anxiety or instability.

When it comes to creating an effective window display, lighting is often an afterthought, or something to consider if you’ve got the budget for “extra costs.” But lighting can be a crucial component in getting people to stop and notice your display.

Lighting can create moods, highlight certain products over others, and establish a dramatic setting for your store window display. Being strategic with lighting can pay dividends in helping you get your focal point right on and directing onlooker’s eyes to where you want them.

We don’t recommend lighting displays directly from the top, as this can lead to unattractive, harsh shadows. Instead, consider lighting displays from the sides and front. This technique will bring out the 3D quality of the display. Plus, you can really have some fun when you have light coming at it from different angles.

Once you’ve got all the pieces where you want them, make sure to take a look at your window display from every possible angle. Very rarely is a person going to only notice a display when they’re standing right in front of it. Walk up to it from different directions and check things like your focal point, how visible your signage or calls to action are, and if it all appears balanced.

Your audience will impact the products you choose to display, colors you use in it, and the stories you tell in your windows. Keep your ideal customer at the forefront of your strategy.

When you design your windows with a target audience in mind, you’ll draw those people in and make them excited to shop with you. If you try to create a display that appeals to everyone, you’ll end up watering down your design and appealing to no one.

It’s a well known fact that grocery stores display cereals for kids on lower shelves and cereals for adults on higher shelves. Why? Because this is where these customers’ eyelines land, and therefore, where their attention will be.

Keep window shoppers’ eyelines in mind while building external-facing displays. If you own a children’s clothing boutique, for example, you could display products that would appeal to kids, like toys, low enough for children to see, and more practical products at parents’ eye level.

Beyond considering eyelines, it’s important to remember that you’re designing a 3D display and not a flat one. Make sure that products and props can easily be seen—and look good—from various angles.

According to McKinsey, technology will help retail double its profitability. Interactive technologies like augmented reality, touchscreens, and QR codes help give a new meaning to the term “window shopping.” Embrace them to engage passersby and influence purchasing decisions.

Augmented reality (AR) technology enhances real-world objects and settings by placing virtual objects over them. AR lets shoppers try on products, like makeup and jewelry, virtually. This technology helps customers make purchasing decisions, even when your store is closed.

When placed within a window, touchscreens help customers learn more about the products on and off display. They also make it easy to entice window shoppers with coupons in exchange for contact information, which opts them into your email marketing efforts.

Touchscreens are best for stores that sell valuable, high-consideration items (i.e., electronics, furniture, or vehicles) since they can be used to share product specifications and details. They’re also commonly used in the real estate industry to show listings that aren’t featured in the main display.

Quick response (QR) codes are bar codes that open up a link, share a phone number, send an SMS, or share a plain text message when people scan them with a smartphone. Follow the example of Rose City Goods and put them in your window display to link to your ecommerce website, product pages, and more.

QR codes make it easy for window shoppers to make purchases even when your store isn’t open. They’re also cheap and easy to implement through a QR code generator.

For its Hallucination campaign, Gucci extended the technology to its window displays by installing classic artworks reimagined with characters dressed in designer clothing. What makes this display unusual is that most of the mannequins are facing away from the window, as if they were visiting an art gallery.

A scannable QR code on the glass breaks the fourth wall by inviting passersby to download the Gucci app and experience an animated version of the art.

It’s always to your benefit as a retailer to create an experience. You want to create a moment that will show up well in an [Instagram Story], a Snap, or a video.

An experiential window brings products to life and attracts passersby to immediately interact with your brand. Inviting buyers to download an app on the spot encourages in-store sales and future online purchases, while giving you access to these engaged customers for marketing purposes.

Toronto apothecary Leaves of Trees unveiled a window display featuring oversized tubes of its skin care products suspended upside down, with cascades of dried roses, grapefruit, and lavender “pouring” out.

Leaves of Trees’ unique window displays attract a lot of walk-ins, but this wasn’t always the case. When the shop opened in 2014, its displays featured colorful florals made from paper, but none of the brand’s actual products.

Founder Roohi Quereshi soon discovered that people were stopping to look but didn’t know what she was selling. The shop was mistaken for a restaurant, a juice bar, and even a pot dispensary.

Since we started incorporating our products into the window and aligning that branding with promotions and social media strategy, we’ve seen an increase in walk-ins from our target customer. And, almost every walk-in has led to a sale.

Creativity in any window display is important, but for smaller retailers, it’s crucial that products be clearly presented, not only so passersby know what you’re selling, but to target the right buyer.

Known for its elaborate window displays, Saks’ collaboration with French design collective Vetements did a complete about-turn by featuring nothing but a pile of old clothes.

An overt statement about sustainable retail and the rise of fast fashion, the pile was made up of donated clothes, out-of-season stock, and loose hangers. It grew bigger each day, representing excess and consumerism in fashion.

“It was something vastly different than [Saks] had ever done,” says Mujica. “No one has ever put trash in a window and made a statement, and it was all about a good cause.”

While many walking by did a double take assuming the display was a work in progress or even a mistake, it enhanced Saks’ image as a retailer with a conscience.

Highlighting a good cause in your window display can help boost your brand image. Also, putting something in your window that is unexpected will grab the attention of passersby.

The goal of this window display wasn’t so much to attract a new audience to the brand, but to tap into the nostalgia of its existing young buyers who grew up eating Frosted Flakes and Corn Pops.

According to a study in the Journal of Consumer Research, people are more likely to spend more when they’re feeling nostalgic. To tie in the product with the display, the clothes were carefully curated to match the color grading of the boxes behind.

By combining nostalgia with bright colors, the Alice + Olivia window invokes a positive