Balancing ROI with store experience strategy: Drawing from the Levi’s example

In his session 'Balancing ROI with consumer experience in dynamic in-store displays' presented at the DDX Asia Business Conference 2025, Akash Jha, Director of Global Store Design & Construction at Levi Strauss & Co, shared some hands-on, practical insights on deriving business value from dynamic in-store displays.  

The most crucial question in the context of any brand-led consumer engagement initiative is: How to measure its ROI? In the context of store experience and consumer engagement, measuring ROI can have multiple layers and approaches, depending on the brand objectives. 

In his session, ‘Balancing ROI with consumer experience in dynamic in-store displays' delivered at the just concluded DDX Asia Business Conference 2025 in Mumbai, Akash Jha, Director of Global Store Design & Construction at Levi Strauss & Co, took the audience through some practical, hands-on insights based on the Levi’s experience to get the best from dynamic in-store displays and front-end technologies.

He struck an immediate chord with the audience when he began by saying, “We all want to design great stores, but we don’t have a blank cheque!” and with that dived right into the core of the matter.

Segregated into Investments, Impact and Art and Science, Akash’s presentation touched on aspects that resonated with audience in terms of their practical relevance. He listed down all the critical components of investments in digital displays, including cost incurred on hardware, content creation, content management, operations and maintenance; and went on to highlight how they could be best leveraged for maximum business value. He then addressed the very critical question of measuring the impact of dynamic in-store displays.

Rooted in the Levi’s example, Akash’s insights on measuring impact highlighted some key aspects namely, footfall, brand awareness, brand expression, store navigation, product awareness, consumer engagement, impulse purchase, fitting room experience, ease of checkout, sustainability, etc.

All of the above together make up the overall consumer experience. So for a brand to get the best from their investments in dynamic in-store display, would mean how well they align with the brand’s overall store design, merchandise and consumer experience strategy, as Akash pointed out. This would mean taking multiple aspects into account: Location of digital display, display screen size and resolution, quality of display content, consumer experience (differentiating between transactional vs experiential) and consumer feedback. To sum it all up, the key to balancing ROI with in-store digital displays lies in a seamless blend of digital strategy, in-store experience and product. This was the crux of Akash’s message to the audience.