Dive Brief:

• Kroger is bringing digital smart screens to 500 of its stores across the U.S., per a Wednesday announcement.
• The grocer is expanding its partnership with Cooler Screens, which makes digital smart screens, after a three-year pilot. 
• The in-store technology aims to not only improve the shopper experience but also bolster Kroger’s retail media offerings, the announcement noted. 

Dive Insight:

With the technology from Cooler Screens, Kroger is looking to unlock more insights, measurement and activation by tying the smart screens to its retail media arm. 

Cooler Screens’ solution, which works with new or existing digital screens, uses the displays to showcase advertisements and product information, allowing shoppers to interact with digital merchandising.

Cooler Screens, which initially focused on cooler doors, recently expanded the types of surfaces that can support its technology as it looks to harness increasing interest by grocers on retail media networks and in-store digitization. In addition to coolers, retailers can place the equipment on surfaces including walls, end caps and windows, as well as at checkout lanes and in banner aisles.

The announcement did not specify which surfaces Kroger plans to use for the new screens. 

The announcement from Cooler Screens noted that the partnership helps Kroger customers make purchasing decisions based on their own preferences, diets, health needs, budgets and lifestyles. For brands, the screens provide a new avenue for in-store retail media. 

The expansion grows Kroger’s vision for its retail media plays, including its work with its data and analytics unit 84.51°, Cara Pratt, senior vice president at Kroger Precision Marketing, said in the announcement.

Along with Kroger, Cooler Screens also counts Walgreens, Giant Eagle’s GetGo convenience stores, Chevron and Western Union among its partners. 

Cooler Screens claims its advertising platform that enables a multi-retailer nationwide network is projected to reach more than 200 million monthly viewers in early 2024. At the National Retail Federation’s conference in January, Cooler Screens said it has nearly 100 million viewers per month across 10,000 screens nationwide. 

At that conference, representatives for Cooler Screens said the company is working to quadruple the number of its screens in deployment in the next 12 to 18 months to 40,000 total.

Amid the current retail media boom, industry observers have noted that coolers are one area that grocers can turn to for advertising but cautioned that the benefits of in-store advertising are not as easy to measure. 

“From a consumer impact perspective, in-store screens, coolers and otherwise can be really effective,” Jordan Berke, CEO and founder of Tomorrow Retail Consulting, said earlier this year.