Yodeck Data: Playlists Dominate Retail Screens, Weather Apps Lead Rankings
2026-10-14 · via Yodeck
Yodeck has published usage data from 5,761 retail organizations on its platform, offering a rare look at what retailers actually put on their screens rather than what vendors say they should. The data, covering September 2025 through September 2026, is the fourth entry in the company's Digital Signage Impact series, which has previously covered manufacturing and healthcare.
The headline finding is not exotic: playlists are the most widely used feature, appearing on 74% of active retail screens. Images follow at 67%, and video trails at 43%. After that, adoption drops off sharply. Working Hours displays appear on 17% of screens, Emergency Alerts on 12%, and YouTube on just 4.4%. For anyone managing a retail estate, this confirms that most operators are running fairly basic, static or lightly animated content loops rather than complex interactive or video-heavy deployments.
On the app side, Date & Time tops the list, with three separate weather apps (Daily Weather, Weather Wall, Current Weather) rounding out the top four. Power BI and QR Code adoption follow, then Instagram and Canva. Yodeck says this spread reflects use across time and weather, dashboards, social media, and content creation, though the dominance of clocks and weather over anything resembling targeted promotional tools is notable and goes unexplained in the release.
Yodeck also compares retail against its earlier healthcare dataset. Playlist and video adoption are close between the two sectors (74% vs 78% for playlists, 43% vs 43% for video), but Working Hours usage is meaningfully higher in healthcare (24%) than retail (17%), which tracks with healthcare facilities needing to communicate variable clinic and department hours.
The more commercially interesting numbers come from a separate source: the Yodeck Insights customer survey. Participating retail customers reported a sales increase of more than 25% on products and offers promoted on screen, a reduction of at least 50% in printed-material costs, and at least 10 hours saved per week on updating in-store promotional content. Yodeck is explicit that these are self-reported outcomes from survey participants, not results from a controlled study, and that the usage data and the outcomes data are separate datasets that should not be read as cause and effect.
For operators benchmarking their own deployments, the practical takeaway is that playlist- and image-driven content remains the retail norm, and that more advanced features like interactive apps or video are still a minority use case even among an active customer base already paying for a CMS.
The announcement in full
Reproduced from Yodeck for reference. Digital Signage Magazine did not write the text below.
A closer look at how screens are being used across the retail industry, based on first-party Yodeck data and customer-reported outcomes.
74% of active retail screens use playlists , the most widely adopted content feature.
Images appear on 67% of active screens , followed by video at 43%.
25%+ increase in sales of promoted products and offers , according to Yodeck Insights.
50%+ reduction in printed-material costs , according to Yodeck Insights.
Digital signage is widely used across retail, but what are retailers actually putting on their screens, and which features do they rely on most?
For the fourth edition of the Digital Signage Impact Series , we analyzed anonymized Yodeck usage data from 5,761 retail organizations between September 18, 2025 and September 18, 2026.
We looked at app and feature adoption across active screens and combined these findings with selected customer-reported outcomes from the Yodeck Insights survey .
What apps are most widely used on retail screens?
Retail app adoption is spread across time, weather, dashboards, QR codes, social media, and content creation tools.
The Date & Time app ranks first in the retail dataset, followed by Daily Weather, Weather Wall, and Current Weather .
This puts three weather apps among the four most popular apps in retail.
Beyond time and weather, Power BI and QR Code are next in the ranking, followed by Instagram and Canva .
Other apps appearing further down the ranking include Custom RSS, Facebook, Birthday Notification, World Clock, Hourly Weather, Google News, ESPN, Analog Clock, Google Slides, WiFi Share, and Weather Radar .
The ranking shows that retailers use apps across several categories, including time and weather, dashboards, social media, and content creation.
Which digital signage features do retailers use most?
Feature adoption provides a broader view of how retail organizations build and manage their screen content.
Playlists are the most widely adopted feature, used on 74% of active retail screens. Images follow at 67%, while video appears on 43%.
The gap between the top three features and the rest is significant. Working Hours is used on 17% of active screens , while Emergency Alerts appear on 12% . YouTube is used on 4.4%.
The data points to a strong emphasis on playlist-based and visual content across retail screens, with playlists, images, and video forming the most widely adopted feature set.
What stands out about retail digital signage usage?
Three patterns stand out from the Yodeck usage data.
First, playlists are by far the most widely adopted feature , appearing on almost three-quarters of active retail screens.
Second, visual media are prominent . Images appear on roughly two-thirds of screens, while video appears on more than four in ten.
Third, time and weather content is prominent among the leading apps . Date & Time ranks first, followed by three weather apps: Daily Weather, Weather Wall, and Current Weather.
Together, these findings provide a picture of retail digital signage built around playlists, visual media, and time and weather information .
Retail digital signage usage at a glance
Across 5,761 retail organizations , the data shows:
74% use playlists, 67% use images, and 43% use video.
But intelligent digital signage is about more than what appears on screen. It’s about whether those screens help businesses communicate more effectively, reduce manual work, and deliver measurable results. The Yodeck Insights survey adds another perspective by examining the business outcomes that retail customers report after deploying Yodeck.
What ROI do retailers report from digital signage?
According to the Yodeck Insights survey , participating retail customers reported measurable changes after deploying Yodeck:
More than a 25% increase in sales of promoted products and offers
At least a 50% reduction in costs for printed materials such as posters
At least 10 hours per week saved on updating in-store promotional content
These findings complement the usage data by adding a customer-reported perspective on the business impact of digital signage in retail.
Importantly, these are separate datasets and should not be interpreted as showing that any individual feature or app caused a particular reported outcome.
How does retail compare with healthcare?
Comparing feature adoption across the Digital Signage Impact Series reveals similarities as well as differences between retail and healthcare.
Playlists are used on 74% of active retail screens, compared with 78% in healthcare, while images reach 67% in retail and 71% in healthcare. Video adoption is almost identical at 43% across both industries.
A larger difference appears in Working Hours, which is used on 17% of active retail screens compared with 24% in healthcare .
While each industry has its own screen environments and communication needs, the data shows that playlists, images, and video are among the most widely adopted content features across both sectors.
This report combines anonymized Yodeck platform usage data with selected findings from the Yodeck Insights survey conducted during 2026.
The platform usage analysis covers retail organizations on the Yodeck platform between September 18, 2025 and September 18, 2026 , including 5,761 organizations .
We analyzed two areas: app adoption , showing the relative popularity of individual Yodeck apps, and feature adoption , showing the percentage of active retail screens using selected platform features such as playlists, images, video, and Working Hours.
The report also includes selected findings from Yodeck Insights . These figures represent outcomes reported by participating retail customers and are separate from the platform usage data.
All platform findings are presented in aggregate. No individual customer data is identified.
Does digital signage increase sales for retailers?
Retail customers participating in Yodeck Insights reported more than a 25% increase in sales of products and offers promoted on screen. They also reported at least a 50% reduction in printed-material costs and at least 10 hours saved per week updating in-store promotional content. These are customer-reported outcomes, not results from a controlled study.
What do retailers display on their digital signage screens?
Visual content is widely adopted across retail screens on Yodeck. Playlists are used on 74% of active retail screens, images on 67%, and video on 43%. Among apps, Date & Time ranks first, followed by Daily Weather, Weather Wall, and Current Weather.
Do retailers use digital signage differently from healthcare providers?
For the features compared in this report, retail and healthcare show similar adoption of playlists, images, and video. Video adoption is 43% in both industries, while playlists reach 74% in retail and 78% in healthcare. Working Hours shows a larger difference, at 17% in retail compared with 24% in healthcare.
Where does this retail digital signage data come from?
The usage figures come from anonymized Yodeck platform data covering 5,761 retail organizations between September 18, 2025 and September 18, 2026. The reported sales, cost, and time-saving outcomes are provided separately by Yodeck Insights.
More from the Digital Signage Impact series
The Digital Signage Impact series uses anonymized Yodeck usage data to uncover how digital signage adoption and content trends vary across industries.
Digital Signage Impact No. 1: What companies put on their screens Digital Signage Impact No. 2: Manufacturing digital signage statistics Digital Signage Impact No. 3: Healthcare digital signage statistics Digital Signage Impact No. 4: Retail digital signage statistics 2026 (current article)