Guides / Buying & Budget
Your first LED display: a guide for small businesses in Nepal
6 min read · Updated November 2026
A small business’s first LED display should do one clear job — draw passers-by in, show the menu or offers, or replace printed signs — and be sized and specified for that job alone. For most shops, cafés and showrooms that means either a modest indoor screen or a shopfront screen bright enough for daylight, with simple content control from a phone or laptop. Start small and right rather than large and generic, and make sure someone local will fix it when it fails.
What should your first screen actually do?
Decide on one job before anything else, because the job sets the specification. The common first jobs are attracting attention from the street, showing a menu or price list, promoting offers inside the shop, or replacing posters and flex that are reprinted every season.
Each leads somewhere different. A street-facing screen must be bright and readable from a distance; an indoor menu board must be legible from the counter queue; an in-store promotional screen sits at eye level where customers browse. Trying to make one screen do all three usually leaves it doing none of them well.
Indoor, shopfront or outdoor?
Choose by where the audience is. If the screen is for customers already inside, an indoor screen at normal indoor brightness is enough and costs least. If it is for people on the street, it is effectively an outdoor screen even if it sits behind your shop window.
This is the most common first-timer mistake in Nepal: an indoor screen placed behind glass facing a sunny street. It looks fine in the evening and washed out at midday. A screen facing out through glass needs outdoor-level brightness; one mounted on the façade itself also needs IP65 sealing front and rear for the monsoon. Our indoor versus outdoor guide explains the difference in more detail.
Coffee Break, a restaurant in Pokhara, is one example of the outdoor route: it runs a Lampro LDT P4 outdoor screen of about 11 m².
How big, and how sharp, does it need to be?
Size the screen from the farthest person who needs to read it, and choose the pixel pitch from the nearest. Inside a small shop, people may stand a metre or two away, which calls for a fine pitch; across a street, they may be ten or twenty metres away, where a coarser pitch is perfectly sharp and costs much less per square metre.
For many small businesses, a smaller screen than first imagined does the job. A clear, bright, well-placed screen of modest size beats a large one that is dim, badly placed or showing poor content. Our screen-size guide walks through the arithmetic.
Is LED or LCD better for a small business?
For small indoor screens viewed from close up, an LCD signage display is often the sensible choice: it is sharp at close range and simple to install. LED becomes the better choice when the screen needs to be large, very bright, seamless or outdoors.
A menu board above a café counter, for example, can work well as a set of LCD displays; a shopfront facing a busy road almost always needs LED. Note that warranties differ: our LED displays carry a two-year manufacturer warranty, while our Evolve Signage LCD line carries one year. Our digital menu board guide covers the café case specifically.
Who will run the content?
Plan who will change the content, how often, and from where, before you buy. A small business owner usually wants to change an offer from a phone without visiting a computer in the back room, which points to a simple cloud content system or a player you can update over Wi-Fi.
Content is what customers see, so keep it simple: large text, few words, strong images, and changes often enough that regulars notice something new. Avoid filling a screen with long videos made for television; people walking past give it a few seconds at most. Design at the screen’s native resolution so text stays crisp.
What else should a first-time buyer check?
Check power, mounting, approvals and support. Many small premises have limited electrical capacity and frequent fluctuations, so the screen needs a proper supply, earthing and surge protection, and possibly a small UPS to ride through brief cuts. The wall or façade must carry the weight safely.
For screens on the outside of a building, ask your ward office or municipality whether any approval is needed; requirements vary and change, so check before committing. Finally, buy from a supplier who will be around: spares in Nepal and a technician who can come out matter far more to a single-screen owner than to a large company. Lampro Nepal’s case studies show a range of small-business installations, and we are happy to survey your premises free of charge.
The short version
- Give your first screen one clear job, then specify for that job.
- A screen behind a sunny shop window needs outdoor-level brightness.
- Size from the farthest viewer, choose pitch from the nearest.
- Small close-viewed indoor screens are often better as LCD; large, bright or outdoor screens as LED.
- Plan who updates content, and keep it short and legible.
- Local spares and support matter most to a single-screen owner.
Common questions
What is the best LED screen for a small shop in Nepal?
It depends on the job. For customers inside the shop, a modest indoor screen or LCD signage at eye level works well. For attracting people from the street, you need a screen bright enough for daylight, even if it sits behind the window, and sealed for weather if it is on the façade.
Can I put an indoor LED screen behind my shop window?
You can, but if the window faces a bright street it will look washed out during the day. A screen facing outwards through glass needs outdoor-level brightness, so specify it as an outdoor-brightness display even though it is indoors.
How do I change the content on a small business LED screen?
Most small business screens use a media player or cloud content system that lets you update images and videos from a phone or laptop. Ask the supplier to set this up and show you how before handover.
Do I need permission to put an LED sign outside my shop in Nepal?
Requirements vary by municipality and can change, so check with your ward office or municipality before committing to an external screen. Indoor screens generally do not raise the same questions.
Is an LED screen too much for a small café?
Not if it is the right size for the job. A small, well-placed screen showing a few clear offers can be enough. For a menu above the counter, LCD signage is often more suitable than LED.
Where to go next
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