Turning in-store screens into measurable media
Retail media is growing fast. But growth without measurement is a missed opportunity.
If retailers want to command premium advertising budgets in-store, they need to prove what their screens are worth. That’s where BLE sniffing comes in.
BLE sniffing is the practice of passively detecting and capturing Bluetooth Low Energy signals from nearby devices to understand customer movement around digital screens. Crucially, this is done anonymously, without identifying individuals. It allows retailers to measure how many devices are present at the exact moment an advert plays, transforming in-store screens from estimated reach to verified impressions.
Historically, in-store measurement has relied on stitched-together data sources, multipliers and post-campaign reports. That lag has limited trust and stifled retail media’s full potential as a revenue stream. By embedding BLE tracking directly into the media player itself, content playback and footfall data become one perfectly synchronized stream. Every campaign can be correlated in real-time with who was present, when, where, and what was shown.
This shift from estimation to millisecond-level accuracy is exactly why ZetaDisplay’s analytics platform was recognized in the 2026 Digital Signage Awards for High-Impact Application of Emerging Software and Cloud Technologies. The award highlighted how merging media playout and real-time audience data into a single source of truth is reshaping how in-store media is valued, planned and optimized.
Instead of selling “advertising across 50 stores,” retailers can now sell verified impressions at specific times and locations, optimize campaigns mid-flight and even align delivery with sustainability metrics such as power consumption per campaign.
Retail media needs direction as much as visibility. BLE analytics provide the compass, guiding investment decisions with precise, real-time audience data and helping every campaign find its mark.
Jorn Olsen
Director of Analytics and Retail Media
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