If you’ve been to a grocery industry show recently—UNFI’s Spring & Summer Show, National Grocers Association, Natural Products Expo West–you’ve no doubt heard the growing buzz about electronic shelf labels on the tradeshow floor.
While electronic tags are by no means a new technology – they’ve actually been around for decades — retailers across the country are now weighing the initial investment against the rising cost of labor, and considering whether it’s time to introduce them in their grocery stores. Anyone who has ever worked in a grocery store knows what an arduous, lengthy process it is to hang price tags every week, and yes, eliminating this soul-crushing task from your associates’ to-do list will win you kudos–not to mention, save you hours and hours in labor costs.
Jeff Maurer, Owner of Maurer’s Market, an independent grocery retailer in Wisconsin, recently installed electronic shelf labels, and he’s adamant that it was the right decision for his store. “We’re estimating about 50 hours a week minimum in labor savings,” says Maurer. “I cannot say enough good things about it. I tell everybody that I just wish I would have done it sooner.”
Although the labor savings is a compelling reason to switch to electronic shelf labels, the benefits to retailers don’t end with cutting costs. By implementing electronic shelf labels, you’ll lay the groundwork for an expansion of future possibilities as well as a more efficient, interconnected store. Here are some of the most exciting capabilities of this technology out there on the market today:
Responsive Pricing: You know first-hand how quickly the market can fluctuate: Inflation can send your costs skyrocketing and before you’ve been able to make an adjustment to your price tags on the shelf, you’re selling products at a loss. With electronic shelf label technology, prices can be seamlessly and instantly updated on the shelf, in your point-of-sale, and even online. “It used to be four, five, six days before we could implement a price change on the shelf,” says Maurer. “Now we can do it in a matter of minutes.” In addition, you can adjust your prices as often as you like: run a short promotion to sell off an excess of deli sandwiches, steer shoppers toward popsicles on a hot summer day, or adjust the price of umbrellas when an unexpected rain storm rolls in. The possibilities are endless.
Product Location: Whether it’s a customer searching your shelves for a product, or an associate or 3rd-party laborer picking orders for an online transaction, efficiency is key. Electronic labels can work in conjunction with geolocation and can actually light up to indicate product placement on the shelf. This light-up feature has another handy application for merchandisers, who can use it to visualize the performance of products on a shelf. Want to see which products performed best in a category this week? Just light them up to get a clear picture of your sales data.
Pricing Accuracy: When the price on your shelf doesn’t match the price that rings up in the checkout lane, you not only lose money on the sale, you could also lose the confidence of your shopper. With electronic shelf tags, pricing files are shared across all of your channels, so there’s never a disparity between what shoppers see when they compare your in-store prices against your online marketplace. That consistency can go a long way toward building trust and loyalty with your shoppers. It will also keep you fully compliant with your state’s retail pricing laws and regulations. “We had our surprise inspection by the Wisconsin Department of Weights and Measures yesterday,” offers Maurer. “This is the first time in my 40+ year career that we scored 100%!”
Real-Time Inventory Management: Out-of-stocks lead to lost sales, no question about it. Whether you need up-to-the-minute reporting on your inventory levels or need to ensure planogram compliance, electronic tags can interface with computer vision to do the monitoring for you. With one quick scan of an aisle, cameras can detect and notify you when items are missing or out of place.
In-Aisle Marketing: You might consider integrating some shelf-level marketing with your electronic shelf labels. High-definition interactive displays enhance the shopping experience with creative and dynamic content that’s meant to attract the eye of the shopper. It’s perfect for special promotions and featured products and enables brands and retailers to connect with shoppers where they make most of their purchase decisions: in the aisle. Plus, electronic tags let you easily add product attributes — think keto, vegan, local — plus anything else your shopper might want to know before buying: nutritional data or traceability details with QR codes that lead them to an online information page.
The two biggest drawbacks to electronic tags in the past have been their high cost and their short battery lives. While the price has dropped somewhat over the past few years. when measured against the high cost (and shortage) of labor these days, the investment can be recouped over a relatively short period of time—17-24 months, depending on average salaries in your area. And the tags now boast at least five years of battery life, a drastic improvement over past versions of the technology. Even beyond these improvements, however, implementing electronic shelf labels in your grocery store opens up a world of exciting digital possibilities.
UNFI Professional Services has partnered with Retail Data Systems (RDS), our preferred technology vendor, to bring you the SES-imagotag electronic shelf label solution. The great thing about working with a partner like RDS is their expertise in point-of-sale and back-end systems. They have the qualifications and know-how to install AND integrate your electronic tag system, and can walk you through a comprehensive (and headache-free) set-up process. If something isn’t working exactly right, RDS is ready to troubleshoot and fix the problem—often remotely and in a matter of minutes. “The decision to go with RDS came down to my loyalty and 20-year relationship with them,” says Maurer. “It’s one phone call when there’s any kind of an issue.”
With such a big investment in your store, it’s important to have trusted partners who are there to support you from start to finish. Along with our highly-trained Retail Technology Consultants, UNFI and RDS are here to make electronic shelf labels easy for you. Want to learn more? Reach out to UNFI Professional Services to continue the conversation.