In-store Media Measurement for a Leading U.S. Home Improvement Retailer

A large do-it-yourself home improvement retailer in the United States has spent decades helping customers tackle projects ranging from simple home repairs to large-scale renovations. With expansive store footprints, wide aisles, and dedicated departments for everything from lumber and lighting to appliances and garden supplies, this retailer was continually looking for new ways to improve the in-store customer experience while creating value for brand partners.

In 2022, the retailer launched an initiative to expand its in-store digital advertising network by installing digital signage throughout stores nationwide. The vision was to create a retail media platform where brands could promote products directly to shoppers at the point of purchase decision. To support the program, the retailer needed a reliable way to measure audience impressions so advertising inventory could be accurately valued and priced.

Challenge

Traditional store-wide traffic counts were not detailed enough to support the retailer’s advertising goals. Rather than measuring overall foot traffic for an entire location and projecting per-signage impressions, the retailer wanted precise impression measurement for each digital screen and advertising panel throughout the store. Brands needed visibility into how many shoppers were exposed to advertisements within specific departments and product categories.

The retailer also required a measurement solution that aligned with its commitment to customer privacy. Camera-based systems introduced operational and privacy concerns that made them less desirable for deployment at scale.

Because stores featured large footprints, tall shelving, and wide aisle spacing, the retailer also needed a flexible deployment model that could adapt to different viewing environments and signage placements throughout the store.

Solution

The retailer selected BlueZoo to provide privacy-first impression measurement for its growing in-store retail media network. BlueZoo sensors were deployed throughout participating stores to measure foot traffic and audience exposure around individual digital signage locations, giving the advertiser in each department a clear measure of impressions delivered on individual screens.

Using downward-pointing directional antennas in aisle environments, made practical by the stores’ tall shelving, the retailer was able to accurately capture shoppers with an opportunity-to-see displays within specific departments. In larger open areas, they often deployed omnidirectional antennas to cover entire departments across multiple aisles. This deployment flexibility allowed the retailer to tailor measurement to the physical environment of each screen location.

Because the retailer operated large stores with varying infrastructure, scalability and connectivity flexibility were important considerations during deployment planning. Because electrical power was widely available within the shelves, power-over-ethernet was not attractive. Instead, leveraging full-store Wi-Fi connectivity kept connectivity costs low while still enabling reliable, real-time data delivery across more than a thousand digital signage endpoints. In turn, real-time audience measurement made possible an auditing process to reassure advertisers.

With BlueZoo’s real-time audience measurement capabilities, the retailer gained granular visibility into impression delivery across its in-store advertising network. This allowed advertising to be priced more accurately, provided brands with measurable campaign performance data, and helped establish a scalable retail media platform built around privacy-conscious analytics rather than camera-based tracking.