Labels serve a number of important functions in grocery, including:
- Providing customers with important information: Labels help customers make informed purchasing decisions by providing information about the product, price, ingredients, attributes, etc.
- Streamlining operations: Labels help grocers keep track of inventory, ordering information, and streamline supply chain and store operation by providing important product information and their locations.
- Improving customer satisfaction: Labels can help improve customer satisfaction and drive repeat business by providing customers with information they need to make an informed purchasing decision.
How can technology optimize the labeling process?
Electronic shelf labels (ESLs) provide innovative technology with intelligent software, allowing grocers to update prices quickly and ensure that the shelf and POS are consistently priced. Technology features such as NFC can provide additional customer information (recipes, nutritional facts, etc.) and provide grocers with real-time data about their products, shelves and stores.
VusionGroup not only provides electronic shelf labels, but also has solutions to automate real-time shelf monitoring and tracking movement of products on the shelf. This can help grocers identify which products are in high demand and need to be restocked more frequently, as well as which products may be experiencing slower sales and may need to be moved or discounted to increase demand. Planogram compliance and monitoring of fresh products is also available with Captana through VusionGroup.
Why ESLs?
Automated price changes – Leveraging a central management platform, ESLs enable grocers to update pricing at the store or chain level in a matter of seconds for error-free and hassle-free pricing management.
Smooth operations – Using additional ESL pages, grocer can display inventory and any other operational data for store associates.
Accelerate pick-up order – Improve the buy online, pick-up in store experience for your customers with blinking LED pick-to-light capabilities.
Enhance product restocking – Guide associates to the right location with LED blinking on-demand.
Engage with shoppers – ESLs allow sharing of information beyond pricing by connecting with customers at the shelf to help them discover new products, find relevant information, see promotional offers or get digital coupons.
Easy infraless integrations – By leveraging existing networks infrastructure, this allows for fast implementation times, facilitates system maintenance, and lowers grocers’ carbon footprint across stores.
Why Now?
Working in the retail industry is all about adapting to change. In the past few years, the industry has been affected by tremendous challenges from pandemic to inflation, and deflation around the corner. There are other hurdles too, including the labor shortage, shrinking margins, and increased labor costs. These are just a handful of reasons why now is the time to introduce automated pricing to keep up with the change:
1. The Unpredictable Price Landscape
Grocers are getting hit in multiple directions, with price changes occurring faster and more frequently. For grocers, this means more hours spent changing price labels in the store. Not only is the time spent significant, but it can also lead to more mistakes and misalignment among multiple stores. With automated pricing, grocers can say goodbye to this issues and tackle price fluctuations head on.
2. The Labor Struggle
Finding and keeping store associates has become a daunting task thanks to the labor shortage. Some estimate there are 5.5 million more job openings than workers to occupy them. For a grocer grappling with staffing dilemmas, keeping up with the swift price changes has to be a monumental challenge. Automated pricing addresses this issue with rapid responses to price changes without the need for manual intervention.
3. Balancing Revenue
In the face of pricing instability, there is a huge risk to revenue and profitability. Grocers are contending with not only rising costs of merchandise but also manufacturing, labor, fuel and more. Costs of goods goes up while consumer willingness to spend goes down. Revenue is at risk. Within this context, imagine a pricing tag error leading to a negative margin sale. This can spell disaster for reaching revenue and margin targets. Quickly adjusting the prices can make or break a store’s profitability. The urgent need for a solution that mitigates these risks has never been clearer.
Automated pricing is the natural solution to the current issues faced by grocers, giving them the ability to navigate staffing shortages, unpredictable prices, and the revenue problem. Modern solutions like electronic shelf labels and retail intelligence remove the need for manual label updates, allowing grocers to automate their pricing strategy. With AI-powered solutions like Memory, grocers can handle both current and future cost state, leveraging the Messaging Platform and Price Insights feature to assess forecasted pricing.
By relinquishing the burden of manual price changes, grocers not only safeguard their revenue but also position themselves for long-term success.
About VusionGroupVusionGroup (ex- SES-imagotag) is the global leader in the digitalization solutions for commerce, serving over 350 large grocer groups around the world in Europe, Asia and North America. The Group develops technologies that create a positive impact on society by enabling sustainable and human-centered commerce.
By leveraging our IoT & Data technologies, we empower grocers to re-imagine their physical stores into efficient, intelligent, connected, and data-driven assets. We unlock higher economic performance, facilitate seamless collaboration across the value chain, enhance the shopping experience, create better jobs, cultivate healthier communities, and significantly reduce waste and carbon emissions.
VusionGroup consist of six families of solutions, harnessing the full potential of IoT, Cloud, Data, and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, at the service of the modernization of commerce: SESimagotag (ESL & Digital Shelf Systems), VusionCloud, Captana (computer vision and artificial intelligence platform), Memory (data analytics), Engage (retail media and in-store advertising), and PDidigital (logistics and industrial solutions).
VusionGroup supports the United Nations’ Global Compact initiative and has received in 2023 the Platinum Sustainability Rating from EcoVadis, the world’s reference of business sustainability ratings.
VusionGroup is listed in compartment A of Euronext™ Paris and member of the SBF120 Index. Ticker: SESL – ISIN code: FR0010282822 – Reuters: SESL.PA – Bloomberg: SES
Learn more on vusion.com
