# 43% of digital signage users are restaurants and cafés

> Restaurants and cafés make up 43% of the businesses setting up screens on Signage Space. They use more video than anyone else and go portrait more than twice as often as offices.

Source: https://signagespace.com/blog/who-actually-runs-digital-signage/

By SignageSpace · 2026-10-29

Articles about digital signage usually picture airports, stadiums and corporate lobbies. The businesses that actually set up screens on Signage Space look very different. When a business tells us what it does, 43% are restaurants or cafés. No other group comes close. Their screens also look different: they use more video and more portrait screens than any other kind of business.

## Who sets up digital signage

Business type

Share of businesses

Restaurant

25%

Café

18%

Corporate

8%

Education

6%

Retail

6%

Hotel

3%

The reason is practical. A printed menu board has to be reprinted every time a price or a dish changes. A screen changes in seconds, can show breakfast in the morning and dinner at night, and can promote whatever the kitchen needs to sell today.

![Who uses digital signage on Signage Space: restaurants 25%, cafés 18%, corporate 8%, education 6%, retail 6%, hotels 3%; cafés put video in 20.4% of uploads, twice the share in schools; cafés and restaurants go portrait more than twice as often as offices](https://imagedelivery.net/7qGmGrk0AqikHI3DUynqiQ/5da33b6e-9718-40ec-b756-d2414a2e0500/publichd)

## Food and drink screens use more video

Business type

Video share of uploads

Café

20.4%

Restaurant

18.2%

Retail

16.6%

Corporate

14.0%

Education

9.0%

Cafés and restaurants use the most video: about one upload in five, twice the share in schools. Images are still most of what goes on screen, between 71% and 83% of uploads in every type of business. But motion matters more where people stand in a queue. A short clip of coffee being poured catches the eye of someone waiting in a way a still photo doesn't.

## …and more portrait screens

16.9% of café screens and 14.5% of restaurant screens are set up in portrait, more than twice the rate in offices. A menu is a tall list, and the wall space beside a counter is usually narrow. We look at this in detail in [Portrait or landscape digital signage?](https://signagespace.com/blog/portrait-or-landscape-digital-signage/) article.

## Planning screens for a restaurant or café

### One screen: split it into zones

A single screen doesn't have to show one thing at a time. A layout divides it into zones, and each zone plays its own playlist. These four layouts work well in food and drink:

- **Main with bottom banner:** The menu fills the screen, and a strip along the bottom rotates today's offer, your Wi-Fi password or a QR code to order.
- **Main panel with sidebar:** The menu on one side, and a video of the dish you want to sell in the sidebar.
- **2 equal panels:** Food on one side and drinks on the other, or breakfast and lunch side by side during the changeover.
- **Header, main and footer:** Your logo and the time at the top, the menu in the middle, and allergens or opening hours at the bottom.

### Several screens: a menu wall

Above a counter, two to four screens side by side work as one menu board. A few rules make it work:

1. **Give each screen one category.** For example: hot drinks, cold drinks, food. Customers find what they want in the queue instead of reading everything.
2. **Use the same template on every screen.** Same background, font and price position, so the wall looks like one board rather than three different TVs.
3. **Keep one screen for motion.** Let the end screen play video or rotating promotions while the menu screens stay still and easy to read.
4. **Schedule by time of day.** Change the whole wall from breakfast to lunch automatically, so nobody has to remember at 11:30am.
5. **Choose the orientation for the wall, not for each TV.** Three portrait screens make a tall, poster-like menu. Three landscape screens give you a wide board with room for photos.

### Away from the counter

The next screens usually go in the window, which attracts people walking past, and in the seating area, which can show desserts, a loyalty offer or a QR code for reviews. Each one should have its own short playlist for the people who will see it. Don't copy the counter menu onto every screen.

## The short answer

Restaurants and cafés are the biggest users of digital signage: 43% of the businesses that set up screens on Signage Space. They use more video than any other kind of business and go portrait more than twice as often as offices. If you are planning yours, split a single screen into zones, or build a menu wall where each screen has one category and all of them share one template.

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