In the last few years, a major priority for retailers has been focused on integrating their omnichannel services by allowing customers to try, buy, and return items in the mix of ways that are most convenient to them. Much of this work, of course, has been driven by technology. As we enter into a new year, many of our customers are again turning to technology to enhance their store experience.

In particular, there’s a focus on deploying price and promotion strategies in-store with the same frictionless agility that they do online, and, replicating in the physical world many of the experiences that shoppers enjoy online. As we look to the future, our always connected Electronic Shelf Labels (ESLs) can play a lead role in achieving these goals by allowing:

• any shelf-edge label to be centrally created, and changed, anywhere, in seconds

• unlimited price and promotions changes

• retailers to connect to customers’ smartphones in-store using BLE

• associates more time to focus on customers and empowering them with greater knowledge

Below are five ways our customers are currently using their ESLs to provide shoppers with more engaging, intriguing and innovative ways to enjoy their stores:

Building Trust

Accurate pricing is the foundation stone for trust with consumers. But it’s not always easy to ensure that prices at the check-out align with the shelf. ESLs bypass this issue, providing the means to make unlimited label changes, anywhere, in seconds. This builds confidence with shoppers that they’re getting the best price, availability and service – always.

Achieving Price Agility

Major online retailers change up to 2.5 million prices a day. Such price agility isn’t easily matched in-store, where labels have to be manually changed. However, with ESLs, retailers can more easily and quickly react to market conditions by launching offers in seconds to match or beat the competition. As well, ESLs give retailers the ability to apply price changes and promotions according to a specific region or store, and to make unlimited, graduated price changes over time to maintain healthier margins for longer.

Freeing Associates to Do What They Do Best

Manually changing paper labels is time consuming and, let’s face it, a job that no store associate wants to do. With ESLs, however, rarely would employees even have to touch the label. By taking paper labels out of the equation, our customers have found that store associates are more energized and have more time to serve shoppers. Our ESLs have been proved to improve store operations as they can be used to display planogram details to ensure compliance with merchandising requirements.

Protecting the Environment

More than ever before, many consumers are gravitating towards retailers that follow more ethical and environmentally-friendly practices. ESLs can help retailers react to this interest by providing more information about their policies and the origin and source of products, and, contributing to carbon reductions. Similarly, ESLs give retailers the ability to better inform customers about product information – such as source of the food, sugar content, organic status and more. As well, by their very nature, ESLs require far fewer resources to be made and cut distribution costs by removing the need to print and ship labels to stores.

Connecting in New Ways

For the majority of today’s shopper, the smartphone is our trusted shopping companion while in the store. Our customers have been able to take advantage of this attention-grabbing channel to unite their online and offline experiences. Using our ESLs with integrated Bluetooth technology, retailers can draw on location insights to enhance the in-store experience for their customers. This includes sending personalized offers to shoppers’ phones at the exact moment when they’re considering a purchase, helping consumers find specific products via augmented reality navigation, or displaying product reviews in real-time on the ESL.

Are you looking to jumpstart your organization’s in-store experience with fully graphical three-color Electronic Shelf Labels in 2018? Contact us today to learn more!