Digital Menu Boards: Revolutionizing Restaurant Experience and Boosting Sales in 2025

If you have visited any of the McDonald’s outlets recently, you might have noticed digital screens in that store. These screens showcase mouthwatering burgers, daily specials, and a countdown to the next Happy Meal. These dynamic, electronic displays have replaced traditional printed menus, as they feature eye-catching visuals, real-time updates, and interactive elements. The graphics feel like an experience, tempting you to order the burger on display. These digital menu boards are game-changers in the foodservice industry. Now, many restaurants and fast food chains are using them. They create a modern and engaging dining experience. In this blog, we take a deep dive into digital menus and learn about them.

Market Overview: The Rise of Digital Menu Boards

The restaurant industry is buzzing with this innovation, and digital menu boards are at the pole position. According to a recent study, the digital signage industry is growing at a 7.7% CAGR, with restaurants leading the charge. Many large food chain giants, such as McDonald’s and Starbucks, are now utilizing AI-powered digital menu boards and using AI to help customers choose a meal themselves.

While giants are taking a huge leap, many small cafés and food trucks are jumping on board with affordable solutions.

Why is there such a growth of digital menu boards? Customers crave fast, engaging, and personalized experiences. Digital boards deliver just that, with 80% of businesses reporting sales boosts after adopting them. From fine dining to fast food, these boards are reshaping how restaurants operate and connect with customers.

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Digital Menu Board Benefits

If you think these boards are just for aesthetics and looks, then you are highly mistaken. Beautifying a place is just one aspect of digital menus; other aspects include:

• Boosts Sales: Eye-catching visuals and strategic placement can be a great measure to get more sales. When it comes to customer philosophy, high-margin items often drive impulse buys. Even the studies show digital boards can increase sales by up to 25%.
• Enhances Engagement: Interactive digital menu boards with touchscreens or QR codes are building a great reputation. Many restaurants enable customers to customize their orders using these touch screens. These reduce wait times and errors. Thai Chili 2 Go’s self-service kiosks are a perfect example of interactive digital menu boards.
• Improves Efficiency: Real-time updates eliminate printing costs and manual changes. Integration with POS systems like Square ensures menus reflect current inventory.
• Personalizes Experiences: AI-powered digital menu boards analyze data to offer tailored recommendations, like suggesting a latte to a morning regular. Starbucks uses this to great effect.
• Eco-Friendly: Going paperless reduces waste, appealing to eco-conscious diners.
• Builds Brand Consistency: Centralized management ensures all locations display the same menu, strengthening your brand.

You Can Also Checkout How to Use Digital Signage In Restaurant

Technology and Features

The tech powering digital menu boards is what makes them so darn cool. Here’s what’s cooking in 2025:

• Screens That Pop: 4K LCD or LED displays bring dishes to life. Commercial-grade screens are built to run all day, and some, like LG’s, have built-in players to save space.
• Smart Software: Platforms like AIScreen, Pickcel, or NoviSign make updates a breeze, and Social Walls makes it simple to use cloud-based dashboards and 750+ templates. You don’t need to be a tech whiz to create a stunning menu.
• AI Smarts: AI-powered digital menu boards suggest items based on data, like offering iced coffee on a hot afternoon. Wendy’s drive-thru boards do this to perfection.
• AR Wow Factor: Augmented reality lets diners scan a QR code to see dishes in 3D. Picture pointing your phone at a menu and watching a virtual pizza spin in front of you!
• Interactive Fun: Touchscreens or app integrations (like DoorDash) make ordering seamless. Some boards even add games to keep diners entertained while they wait.
• Dayparting Magic: Schedule menus to switch automatically—breakfast to lunch to late-night bites—without lifting a finger.

Read More: Interactive Digital Signage

Implementation Tips: How to Get Started

Ready to bring digital menu boards to your restaurant? Here’s how to do it right:

• Set Clear Goals: Decide what you are aiming for. It can be higher sales, faster service, or better branding. Deciding on an aim can guide your design and tech choices.
• Choose the Right Software: Pick a platform that fits your needs. AIScreen is great for beginners, while Navori suits multi-location chains. Test with free trials to find your match.
• Design for Impact: Use high-quality images, legible fonts, and vibrant colors. Highlight specials with animations, but avoid clutter. Group items by category for easy navigation.
• Integrate with POS: Sync with systems like Clover or Square for real-time inventory updates. This prevents showing sold-out items.
• Train Your Team: Ensure staff can manage updates and troubleshoot. Platforms like NoviSign offer free training to boost confidence.
• Test and Tweak: Check legibility from all angles and gather customer feedback to ensure optimal readability. Keep in mind that you need regular tests and tweaks to get the desired results. Always listen to your customers, for example one of the cafes that I know adjusted display of their screen after diners complained about the glare.
• Leverage Analytics: Utilize data from platforms like Navori to track what sells best and refine your menu accordingly.
• Stay Trendy: Don’t overlook trends; they provide a great boost to you. Make use of trends like AR and AI personalization as they keep your boards fresh.

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Challenges and Solutions

If you are getting digital menus for your business, then here some of the challenges you can face. Don’t worry about the challenges, as you can find the solutions to them as well.

Costs

One of the most discussed challenges with a digital menu is the cost. The initial investment in hardware, software, and installation can be daunting, often accounting for a significant portion of the budget. There are ample tools in the market that helps you in digital menu, but their subscription model are way too expensive.

Solution: To overcome these challenges, you can start small with a single screen display, as it can reduce the cost. Other way is to opt for an affordable platform like DotSignage, which offers plans starting at $10 per month. Cloud-based solutions reduce hardware needs, and long-term savings on printing costs make it worthwhile.

Content Management Complexity

One of the reasons the traditional menu faded away was the repetition of the same content for a long time. Digital menus sometimes face the same issue; updating menus regularly can be time-consuming without the right tools.

Solution: Social Walls is a user-friendly menu board content management software that automatically refreshes the content. Moreover, you can use this tool to showcase user-generated content related to your brand, which can work as social proof and a testimonial. It can also give a boost to your social media presence, as customers would like to see themselves on screen and may therefore post content related to your brand.

Design Overwhelm

Digital menus can be fun and engaging, but often, brands using digital menus overdo the animations. Often, these complex animations make it difficult for the audience to follow what is happening.

Solution: Keep it simple with clear fonts, high-quality images, and concise text. The best way to test your board’s legibility is to examine it from different angles and distances. It will help you to ensure that the board is easy to read. You can notice various burger joints nailing this with a clean layout that highlighted their bestsellers without overwhelming me.

Staff Training

Employees may struggle with new tech if not properly trained. It can be challenging for the brands to showcase what they need to and often takes time to get things on track.

Solution: Choose intuitive platforms like Navori, which offers mobile apps for quick updates, and provide hands-on training. Free trials from companies like Intuiface let staff practice before going live.

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Conclusion

Digital menu board as a technology is here to stay! It is certainly helping brands in aesthetics and also assisting in sales. Tools such as Social Walls add more charm to this by providing regular content and keeping the content engaged. If you are thinking about having a food place, then the digital menu board should be on top of your list.