The recent CES 2025 showcased a wave of next-generation audio innovations — from spatial audio setups to AI-powered earbuds with advanced features. For brands and retailers preparing for the smart audio category, stepping into experience-focused zones is no longer optional: it’s essential.
Here’s how interactive display solutions for smart audio products can help major retailers like Best Buy strengthen their audio experience areas — and why brand partners should be ready.
1. Showcasing Innovation through Interaction
At CES, audio products weren’t just shown — they were demoed. Smart speakers, spatial-audio boxes, wireless earbuds with new sensors — all demanded more than simple shelf space. Brands need displays where consumers can hear, touch, and interact. Interactive displays allow shoppers to test features, compare sound modes, and even engage with digital content about the tech inside.
For a retailer like Best Buy, whose audio department is a key draw, creating an experience zone with interactive display units helps convert walk-by traffic into product trials and sales.
2. Aligning with Retailer Strategy: Experience over Stock
Retailers are shifting from plain stocking to experiential merchandising. For example, Best Buy has been emphasizing in-store experience zones for smart home and audio gear. To support this, brand partners must offer display solutions that fit into these zones: modular, demo-ready, wired for power and sound, and designed for easy replenishment.
Interactive display solutions for smart audio products must therefore consider:
- built-in audio demo capability (speakers, headphones)
- wiring/hidden power supply for continuous play
- visual cues (screens, lighting) that invite “try me” behaviour
- clear signage for features like AI audio, spatial sound, smart assistants
3. Future-Ready Displays: From CES Tech to Retail Shelf
Audio innovation seen at CES 2025 indicates what shoppers will expect next year. From smarter earbuds with bone-conduction tech audioXpress to immersive spatial audio boxes TechRadar — the products are increasingly interactive, feature-rich and experience-oriented. The corresponding display must reflect that: static cardboard shelves won’t cut it.
Brand and retail display teams should consider display systems that integrate:
- touch screens showing feature demos
- QR codes / AR experiences for deeper tech stories
- auto-play sound zones that draw attention in-store
- modular layout to rotate product sets as innovations roll out
4. Partnering with Brands for Retail Success
For brands in the smart audio space, aligning with retailers like Best Buy means collaborating on the display strategy, not just shipping product. Offering interactive display solutions for smart audio products positions the brand as a partner in the retailer’s experience vision, not just a SKU supplier.
At Store Display Group, we specialise in designing and delivering interactive display solutions that support smart audio launches, demo zones, and retail experience areas. We help brands translate CES tech into on-shelf reality.
The future of audio in retail is interactive, experience-driven and aligned with innovation. With CES 2025 seeding the roadmap, retailers like Best Buy and brand partners must embrace interactive display solutions for smart audio products — to not just show innovation, but let consumers hear, feel and buy it.
