Page 20 - NECO News

Industry Trends
Digital Price Tags:
No More Paper Labels by Hand BY LOÏC OUMIER, COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER, SES-IMAGOTAG
INTRODUCTION TO THE TECHNOLOGY
Paper labels are currently being replaced with digital price tags to better manage frequent price changes and offer stores an omnichannel solution. As retailers are facing a new challenge with the digital transformation of physical commerce, digital price tags appear to be the weapon of choice to build ultra- efficient and ultra-connected stores.
Designed to replace paper labels and save staff time to focus more on customers, digital price tags are becoming smarter and smarter. They provide store managers with precision, optimized costs and inventories, while reducing stock-outs and creating a fully connected omnichannel environment.
Digital tags are not just about pricing automation, even though it still is a key feature for that technology.
DISPLAYING THE RIGHT PRICE AT THE RIGHT TIME THROUGH DYNAMIC PRICING
Digital price tags help retailers to optimize margins, reduce stock-outs, and offer many marketing-at-the-shelf possibilities. They are a strategic weapon for retailers looking to be more competitive and change prices on demand. Dynamic and agile pricing gives stores the ability to set up time sensitive, local in-day deals. With digital tags, retailers can also improve operations, leading to higher turnover, improved margins and lower costs.
Price perception is also a key aspect for retailers and their customers. Displaying the right price at the right time is a basic requirement for any store, yet sometimes hard to achieve. Digital price tags offer retailers the versatility, productivity and accuracy needed to deal with changes. This is where paper labels generate a lack of responsiveness and synchronization, along with higher implementation costs and mistakes between the prices shown on the shelf and those at the till.
For the consumer, electronic labeling therefore not only means accurate prices, but also competitive prices as it stream- lines price competition.
OPTIMIZE YOUR MARGINS THROUGH PRECISE PRICE MANAGEMENT
The recent spike in price changes over the last years has led to a growing number of pricing errors, which in turn has had numerous consequences: falling profits (pricing errors, delays in displaying price rises or delays in returning to pre-promo- tion prices), financial penalties/fines, gestures of goodwill to appease complaining customers, etc.
The use of digital price tags dramatically reduces those losses in profits by around 90 percent.
For a store, the labeling process is first and foremost highly time-consuming. Changing all the prices in a store can take a team several days, whereas just a few minutes are enough with electronic shelf labeling.
Paper lacks the responsiveness and synchronization needed in today’s fast paced retail world – it has higher implementation costs and leaves room for mistakes between the prices shown at the shelf and those at checkout.
With digital tags, stores can improve their operations, leading to higher turnover, improved margins and lower costs.
ELIMINATE ERRORS IN STORE
Errors such as price differences between what’s at the shelf and what’s at checkout or products with no price, require an employee to spend time checking and managing the complaint. They can also lead to a lower margin on products when a discount is given at checkout, or a wrong price is taken into account. Certain government consumer protection agencies can also apply fines to price differences.
There are a number of actions that require changes to a label: a store, product or competitor’s change in pricing strategy, a name change, a typo, a temporary sale etc. With paper labels, all of these alterations require lengthy manual interventions and new labels.
20 NECO News DECEMBER 2016