What is a Customer Facing Display and Do Retailers Need One?

Chances are you’ve used a customer-facing display (CFD) at some point while out shopping. It’s the display on a point-of-sale (POS) system that shows key information about your purchase: the items in your cart, the total amount to pay, and options to receive your receipt. 

As a business owner, using a customer-facing display as part of your checkout process helps you collect payment and save time. It’s an accessible way to keep your business competitive. 

This guide shares whether you need a customer-facing display in your store and how to set one up. 

What is a customer-facing display?

A customer-facing display, also called a customer display screen or second screen for POS, is a screen visible to shoppers at the checkout counter. It displays important information about their purchase, such as the products they’re buying, how much they cost, and whether they’d like to tip the cashier. 

There are two main types of customer-facing displays:

• Point-of-sale system (POS) with swivel stand. When on a swivel stand, a POS can be positioned for cashiers and customers to view totals and process payments using the same device. This way, you deal with less hardware. A swivel POS is also easier to travel with and can be used in pop-up shops or seasonal businesses. 
• Dedicated device. While the cashier might use their device as the POS system to charge for items, a separate POS device is used as a second screen for shoppers. 

Information shown on a customer-facing display

What customers see during checkout

As customers check out, the display shows them each step of the sale in real time. 

• The cart builds in front of their eyes. Items pop up the moment they’re scanned, complete with specific quantities, styles, and prices.
• Prices update instantly. As the cashier adds or removes items or applies a discount code, the subtotal adjusts. 
• Upfront totals. All sales taxes and fees are clearly shown before they pay, so the final total is never a mystery.
• Payment prompts. The screen guides them through the process, whether they need to tap, chip, swipe, or pick a payment type on the touchscreen.
• Relevant extras appear. The display can ask to join a loyalty program or email marketing list.
• Receipts are confirmed. Customers choose paper or digital receipts and get instant confirmation.

Checkout details 

A customer-facing screen displays all the relevant information about a customer’s transaction. That includes:

• Order details. A list of purchases is part of what appears in a customer-facing display. The cashier’s POS system also displays the same information as they process a transaction.
• Pricing. A full breakdown of each item’s prices, including any discounts or coupons that may be applied. 
• Taxes. How much tax a customer owes on their order. 
• Payment prompts. Guidance that walks customers through choosing a payment method and paying for their order.
• Receipt options. Customers can get a paper or digital receipt via SMS or email. 
• Loyalty information. How many points they’ve earned on this purchase, the rewards they’re eligible to redeem, and how far they’re off the next rewards tier. 
• Tips. Let customers show their gratuity to a helpful retail associate by adding a tip through the customer-facing display. 
• Upsells and cross-sells. Displays can analyze the products in a customer’s cart and recommend complementary or higher-value products to increase basket size.
• Promoted products. Treat your display as a type of digital signage to promote bestselling products, discounts, or exclusive bundles. 

Reasons to use customer-facing displays in retail

The digital nature of a customer-facing display for POS offers a list of benefits for retailers to improve the overall customer experience.

Improve the checkout experience

A customer-facing display makes checkout a seamless process. Cashiers can easily charge for a purchase, and customers can keep track of what’s being added to their total bill. 

For example, if a customer adds two sweaters to their cart, assuming a special sale applies to them when it doesn’t, they can see the prices for each sweater as they’re being processed. Correcting the mistake and only purchasing one sweater can happen then and there. 

Reduce errors and returns 

With a customer-facing display, customers can confirm their order as it’s being processed. Any questions, changes, or errors in prices can be pointed out and discussed in real time, which can lead to lower return rates. 

Collect accurate customer data 

Customer-facing displays make it easier to collect customers’ email addresses and phone numbers as points of contact to drive sales and promotional campaigns. 

Say you’re running a special 25%-off holiday sale in exchange for a customer’s email. A customer-facing display makes it easier for customers to enter their email address to claim the offer, rather than having to provide their personal information to the cashier.

Small operational changes like these can help you collect clean customer data and build a database for future retargeting. 

Support compliance and transparency

Do customers need to sign off on a purchase? Or is there a specification they need to know about before completing a purchase? 

In some places, like California, retailers are required to show customers the prices being charged, including discounts, and the total before payment. That’s one way a customer-facing display can help with compliance.

Shoppers can immediately access any important information through the display. Check your local requirements to maintain compliance with the law. 

Speed up checkout 

A customer-facing display shortens the time it takes to process an order, point out and correct purchase errors, and process contactless payments—the latter of which eliminates the need to pass cards, phones, or paper receipts. 

💡Tip: Use email capture inside Shopify POS to build unified customer profiles. It uses a customer’s payment data to identify and match a Shop Pay account. If a match is found, the customer’s email address and phone number are automatically displayed at checkout—no manual entry is required.

Increase loyalty program participation

A customer-facing display lowers the friction between signups to loyalty programs. You can collect a shopper’s email address and enroll them in your loyalty program to increase customer retention.

Shoppers who’ve already enrolled can also view on the display how many points they’ve earned, how close they are to the next reward tier, and any discounts they’ve redeemed.

Generate extra revenue

Displays are another avenue to connect customers with promotions, in-store offers, bundles, or limited-time deals. You can even feature active promotions on an idle screen to capture interest or suggest relevant upsells during the transaction. They can increase basket size and, ultimately, revenue. 

How to set up a customer-facing display

Properly setting up a customer-facing display involves hardware, software, and testing. Here’s a look at each step in more detail. 

1. Choose a POS that supports a customer display

A POS system is the command center of your entire retail operation. It’s how you’ll ring up customer orders, process payments, retrieve inventory data, and store data on your customers. 

There’s a lot that goes into choosing the best POS system. If a customer-facing display is important to you, consider a POS system that supports the use of an additional screen, such as Shopify POS. This way, both the cashier and the customer can see the same data as it’s being processed through the system. 

Note: Shopify POS supports customer-facing display screens shown to customers via the Shopify POS terminal or a customer-facing tablet, and these screens can be customized in the POS editor in the Shopify admin.

2. Meet the device requirements for Shopify Customer View

If the goal is to use Shopify’s Customer View app as the customer-facing display, follow these device requirements:

• Android device running Android 7.0 (Nougat) or higher
• Seven- to eight-inch tablet
• Access to the Google Play Store

Customer View is Shopify’s companion app that turns an Android device into a dedicated customer display so shoppers can view their cart, tip, and choose receipt options.

3. Pair Shopify POS and the Customer View app

Your POS system can include several pieces of hardware that work together to help you process purchases, such as a receipt printer, scanner, cash drawer, and cashier-facing display to look through each transaction as it happens. 

For Customer View, Shopify pairs the app with Shopify POS over the local network, and both devices must be connected to the same Wi-Fi network.

Once paired, the Customer View app displays checkout information for any order being processed on the paired Shopify POS device, and stays paired until you disconnect it.

4. Test and troubleshoot the connection

Once your hardware is established and you’ve integrated the software with it, test your new setup to ensure it’s working properly. Check that it records and displays transactions correctly and that it can process every type of payment you accept. 

Features to look for in a customer-facing display

Consider these features when deciding which customer-facing display is right for your business.

Customizable screen

Look for a customer-facing display that enables you to customize its dashboard. 

Maybe you want the option to add a voluntary tip before finalizing a transaction. Perhaps you want to accept store gift cards by having customers swipe their cards when prompted. A robust customer-facing display system enables you to do that.

💡Tip: Shopify POS unifies customer, inventory, and order data anywhere you sell. For example, customers can earn loyalty points on online purchases and view their rewards on the customer-facing display in-store, all without the patchy and expensive middleware typically required to offer these personalized omnichannel experiences at scale.

Brand theming

When picking a customer-facing display, look for one with strong brand theming features. The best systems let you customize the screen with your logo, colors, and fonts. 

Make sure the display is flexible enough to show seasonal ads or product photos. This keeps your brand personality front and center while customers pay. It also connects your online store and your physical shop, making the experience feel like one cohesive brand.

Portability

You don’t have to deal with clunky hardware; the best POS and customer-facing display setups are wireless to support this on-the-go checkout process. 

Compatibility and integrations 

Not all customer-facing display hardware and the POS systems they integrate with are created equally. If you’re a retailer that processes many transactions daily, a unified POS system that integrates with other apps is a wise investment.

Shopify is the only platform to natively build POS and ecommerce on the same system, eliminating the need for complex or patchy integrations to get the functionality you need. Process payments, view customer data, and check inventory levels anywhere you sell, from one platform. This approach helps retailers reduce the total cost of ownership by 22% on average. 

If you need out-of-the-box customization, the Shopify App Store is home to hundreds of apps compatible with Shopify POS. That includes:

• Loyalty apps like Marsello and Smile
• Customer feedback tools such as Grapevine and Powr
• Returns management platforms like Narvar

💡Tip: Use Shopify POS UI extensions to bring this functionality into your Smart Grid. For example, with the Marsello app extension, cashiers can see how many loyalty points a customer has accumulated (both in-store and online) and redeem any rewards at checkout. All of this information can be shown on a customer-facing display.

Do you need a customer-facing display at your store?

Adding a customer-facing display to your checkout workflow can pay off long term. Not only are they easy to install, but they’re also easy for both cashiers and customers to interact with. They help you improve basket size, lower return rates, and increase customer engagement.

It’s usually worth the investment if one or more of these are true:

• You process a lot of transactions per day and need faster checkout
• You sell items where pricing, discounts, and variants are misunderstood at checkout 
• You actively collect email addresses and phone numbers, or enroll shoppers in loyalty programs at the register 
• Your team sells from the sales floor, at events, pop-ups, kiosks, or seasonal setups

With Shopify, you don’t need to overhaul your existing tech stack to implement a customer-facing screen at checkout. Use the “Customer view app” to turn any Android tablet into a customer display using the data already unified in your POS system.