The Shelf Is Getting Smarter: What Sales Leaders Need to Know About In-Store Tech

Walk into a store today, and it may look the same as it did a decade ago. Shelves are stocked, displays are out, and customers browse aisles. But beneath the surface, physical retail is undergoing a transformation. The store itself is becoming smarter — an environment capable of adapting in real time to shopper expectations, competitive pressures, and business goals.

Retailers recognize that customers have become accustomed to the personalization, speed, and convenience offered by e-commerce. Meeting those same expectations in store has become a priority. Fortunately, technologies such as AI, digital signage, and electronic shelf labels (ESLs) are enabling brick-and-mortar retailers to act with agility at the shelf.

These tools are frontline sales enablers, creating new ways to personalize the experience, improve efficiency, and gain customer insights at scale.

Real-Time Personalization at the Shelf

In digital commerce, personalization often means AI-driven product recommendations or promotions based on browsing history. Now, the shelf itself is becoming a personalized touchpoint. For good reason: McKinsey reports that 71% of consumers expect personalized interactions in store, and 76% get frustrated when it doesn’t happen.

To meet that expectation, retailers need the ability to identify customers and respond instantly at the shelf. Leading retailers are achieving this with various AI-powered sensors that analyze shopper behavior in real time and loyalty programs that reveal purchase history and preferences.

With these insights, stores can suggest relevant products the moment a shopper walks in. Digital signage adjusts messages by time, location, or audience, and Electronic Shelf Labels (ESLs) let customers tap their phones to access coupons or recommendations. When combined with contextual data such as weather, time, or local events, these tools create smarter and more responsive shopping environments.

Today, ESLs and digital signage do more than display information. They act as interactive bridges between digital and physical retail, helping brands deliver relevance, speed, and value exactly where shoppers make their decisions, at the shelf.

Efficiency and Accuracy Free Teams to Sell

Every sales leader understands the value of freeing people from repetitive, low-value tasks so that they can spend more time with decision-makers. In retail, price changes have traditionally meant hours of staff time spent updating paper tags.

ESLs automate price accuracy. Updates that once took hours can happen in minutes, with consistency across the entire store. As Independent Grocer’s Alliance member Jeff Maurer noted: “We did 1,400 price changes on Monday in less than 10 minutes. Before that, it would have taken four days.”

As repetitive, time-consuming tasks are automated, store associates can now respond faster and more accurately to the convenience that e-commerce shoppers expect from in-store pickup services. With the line between online and offline shopping growing increasingly blurred, Buy Online, Pick Up In-Store (BOPIS) — also known as Click and Collect — continues to rise as a preferred shopping model. According to CapitalOne Shopping Research, in 2024, U.S. BOPIS retail sales totaled $132.8 billion, accounting for 9.93% of e-commerce sales, and are projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.7% through 2030.

Previously, associates had to walk the entire store to locate each item ordered online. Today, ESLs connected to centralized databases digitally map every product’s location and inventory status. Some ESLs even use LED indicators to guide staff directly to the correct shelf, reducing search time and minimizing errors like missing or incorrect items.  The result is a faster, more reliable BOPIS experience that boosts operational efficiency, cuts human error, and strengthens customer trust.

Customer Insights at Scale

For sales leaders, the real promise of in-store technology is the ability to capture and act on customer behavior at scale. Every product picked up, every promotion engaged with, and every shopping trip creates signals that can inform smarter strategies.

In the past, those insights were hard to capture or too slow to be useful. Today, in-store technology turns them into immediate feedback. IoT systems monitor traffic flow and dwell time, helping identify bottlenecks or underperforming zones while ESLs record how shoppers respond to dynamic pricing changes, providing real-time insights into inventory and engagement. Digital signage engagement can be tracked and correlated with sales lift, completing the picture of in-store behavior and performance.

When AI blends these signals into forecasts, retailers gain a clear playbook for what actions drive revenue — from adjusting pricing strategies to repositioning products and re-targeting campaigns.

Walmart provides a glimpse of what this looks like at scale. Across US stores, Walmart processes more than 1.5 million IoT messages per day from connected systems to ensure operations support rather than frustrate the customer experience.

The result is a data-driven feedback loop where stores continuously learn from shoppers. Over time, these insights become predictive and repeatable, enabling retailers to build strategies that get sharper with every interaction.

Future-ready sales strategies will rely on this kind of agility. It ensures that physical stores — long seen as slower to adapt than digital channels — remain relevant, competitive, and aligned with evolving customer expectations.