Future-state journey mapping · Content/touchpoint strategy · Concept design · Workshop facilitation
Turning In-Store Screens Into a New Revenue Stream
Building a retail media network that helps shoppers instead of interrupting them, for one of the largest U.S. grocers — in four weeks.
Hero image — in-store touchpoint concepts
ROLE
CX & Innovation Strategist (experience lead)
CLIENT
One of the largest U.S. grocery retailers
TIMELINE
4 weeks
TEAM
Me + digital signage SME, junior designer · client media & marketing teams
MY FOCUS
Experience strategy · journey mapping · content strategy
METHODS
Future-state mapping · touchpoint strategy · workshops
THE CHALLENGE
The retailer had a massive advantage — high foot traffic across thousands of stores, rich first-party loyalty data, and existing digital touchpoints — but no shared plan for how it all fit together. No framework for how screens should work, no definition of what content should appear where, and no link between customer experience and advertiser value.
The real risk wasn't fragmentation. It was building an ad experience that drives revenue but degrades the shopping experience. The brief was essentially "make money off our store screens" — and someone had to turn that into a strategy the business could actually build. In four weeks.
MY ROLE
I owned the experience strategy end to end — turning a vague monetization goal ("make money off our store screens") into a buildable retail media framework, the business's first cohesive answer to what shows up where, and why. I also set the direction a small team executed against:
Owned the three future-state journey maps and the content strategy across 10+ in-store digital touchpoints
Briefed and guided a junior designer who translated the strategy into concept screens, with a digital signage SME for technical grounding
Ran working sessions with the client's media and marketing teams to align on touchpoint roles and experience principles
APPROACH
Reframe first
Shifted the question from "where can we put ads?" to "what does the shopper need right here — and how can media support it?" Advertiser value delivered through customer value, not at its expense.
Journeys as the backbone
Built three future-state journey maps defining how digital screens integrate into the physical shopping journey, anchored in customer context.
A role for every touchpoint
Defined what content appears across 10+ touchpoints — smart carts, pharmacy, checkout, aisle and endcap — balancing inspiration, utility, and monetization, every screen tied to a moment and a clear customer need.
Direction, not just deliverables
Guided a junior designer in turning the strategy into concept screens that made the opportunity tangible, and drove alignment sessions on touchpoint roles and experience principles.
SOLUTION
Three patterns shaped the strategy. Context beats volume — more screens don't mean better experiences; relevance to the moment drives attention. Shoppers want utility, not ads — savings, meal ideas, and recommendations earn attention in a way pure advertising doesn't. And in-store is an ecosystem, not a single touchpoint — screens only work when each one has a defined role connected to mobile, loyalty, and store behavior.
That led to the core principle behind everything we delivered: design the system, not just individual screens.
Touchpoint ecosystem / concept screens
IMPACT
In four weeks, the work created structure where none existed: a cohesive experience framework, clear content and touchpoint guidelines, journey maps grounded in real shopper behavior, and concept screens that made the opportunity real. The client adopted the framework and carried the work forward — the foundation for a retail media network that enhances, rather than disrupts, the customer experience.
WHY IT MATTERS
This is what it looks like to hand a team ambiguity and get back structure: a one-line monetization goal became a framework the client could build against, in a month. The critical move was strategic restraint — refusing to start from ad placements, because a revenue stream that erodes customer trust isn't a revenue stream for long.
It's also the project where I worked most like a manager: setting direction, briefing and guiding a junior designer, and letting the strategy get better through other people's craft rather than doing everything myself.
NEXT PROJECT
Walgreens →
© Millie Rosasco