After an exciting 2017, we couldn’t wait to get 2018 started. As is the case every January, there’s no better way to kick off the new year than with NRF Retail’s Big Show. At this year’s conference, we saw plenty of amazing technology and had an incredible time meeting new people and showing off our latest and greatest ESL developments.

Here’s a recap of Displaydata highlights, including our announcements, partnerships and some of the coverage (including a live broadcast) we received from the show floor.

Announcements:

Personalized Augmented Reality Partnership with Aisle411

At our booth, we treated visitors to an exciting demonstration of our partnership with location services platform Aisle411. The augmented reality (AR) demo created an engaging and valuable customer experience, allowing users to search for a product by general term, specific brand name, product or UPC. Once a user found the desired product on the app, they could tap on the item to begin navigation via a top-down view of the store and a navigation arrow shows the user’s precise location and orientation to the product. When navigation began, the user could search in AR mode to find all the items in their shopping list by following the navigation to that item. Once the customer arrived in front of a product, the Displaydata ESL delivered real-time promotional or product information.

Additional features of the AR demo mobile app included shopper-specific promotions, mapped locations of items, in-app product details and the ability to add searched products to a shopping list.

New 12.5” ESL Display Engages Shoppers with Promo Details, Product Information, Ratings and Reviews, and More

We also featured our new Chroma 12.5” ESL. This bigger ESL allows retailers to include larger font sizes to better highlight promotional details, product comparisons, ratings and reviews, product information, and internal information such as product codes or replenishment details. The new label is designed to more easily compare a family of products – such as two televisions of the same brand – that have different technical specifications. Retailers may also use the ESL to display promotional offers from brands and suppliers, such as cash-back offers, via a brand’s website.

Updated Dynamic Central Software

During NRF we also announced a new version of our enterprise software, Dynamic Central, which can now support 200,000 ESLs per communicator. This allows our communicators to accommodate the large number of ESLs necessary for supermarkets and large format stores. The centrally managed software platform also includes Flash and Collect and Scan to Position features, further enhancing operational efficiencies required by leading retailers:

• Flash and Collect – Improves product placement accuracy and reduces the cost and time involved with stock replenishment or return of stock. Flash and Collect gives retail associates the ability to quickly identify the location of a product by following the visual flash indication on the ESL associated with that product.

• Scan to Position – Connects the shelf position with the product and the ESL assigned to it, storing the information in Dynamic Central for accessibility via a hand-held terminal. The Scan to Position functionality allows store associates to complete tasks such as inventory replenishment and online order pickup more efficiently, and helps to improve planogram compliance.

Displaydata NRF Coverage:

Want to see what others had to say about our NRF displays and news? Check out some of our NRF coverage:

• NRF 2018: Retail Technology to Banish the Boredom, Essential Retail

• Best of NRF 2018: Top 10 Takeaways, RIS News

• To Survive, be Culturally Relevant, Commercially Aligned, Tech-Enabled, Progressive Grocer

We were especially excited to be included in a live CNN International broadcast right from our booth!

We had a tremendous time showing off our industry-leading ESLs and showcasing what the “future of retail” looks like right now. If you didn’t get a chance to meet us at NRF, please contact us today to learn how our ESLs can give your shelves an edge in 2018