The retail sector has always been familiar with having product labels printed on paper for each item in a physical store. However, as technological advancements are taking over almost every industry, the retail industry is also facing new adaptions of technology, like incorporating an electronic price tag. Before we jump into the main features of digital price tags or ESLs, let’s have a look at the evolution of this technology over the years.
A brief history of electronic price tags
What was started in the early 90s by using a liquid crystal display has now transformed into a system that employs electronic ink or electronic paper that gives the effect of actual ink. The ESLs were initially limited to showing the price of the products and used infrared technology to transfer the data.
ESLs today use radio communication in addition to infrared technology that saves the overall time taken. Moreover, with the help of electronic price tags, more information related to the products can be shown, which helps the customers make a better purchasing decision. ESLs can also be integrated with other devices used in the retail sector like foot traffic counters, digital signs, camera surveillance, and more to provide retailers with a better insight into customer behaviour and business performance.
Now that we have seen what an electronic price tag used to be and how it works at present, let’s take a look at the main features of this technology.
- Precise pricing information across multiple channels
The rise of the internet has changed the way people used to shop, browse, and look for a product, which has also influenced the way people used to interact with product pricing in a physical store. Nowadays, people tend to compare in-store prices with online data displays, which can in turn make your customers lose faith in your business if the prices don’t match. An electronic price tag can be useful in certain cases by reflecting the online price changes in-store and thus changing the interaction completely.
Moreover, digital price tags also provide additional information about the product that includes nutritional facts, stocks remaining, and size, to mention a few.
ESLs also help in aligning promotional prices and fixing pricing errors if any, in order to keep the prices of a product aligned both online and in-store. With the omni-channel feature, ESLs tend to change the way traditional retail used to work.
- More sales with shelf edge influence
One of the most interesting sales influencers is shelf edge, as most of the purchases are made at this point. This is why it is absolutely crucial to keep the pricing information precise across several channels. There is always a chance of making errors in manual price labelling, as well as it taking a huge amount of time and effort. This also implies missing out on putting the latest prices and aligning the in-store prices with the online data display.
With digital price tags, you can overcome these obstacles in the way easily and increase the number of sales at the shelf edge. Your store can instantly react to the competitive price changes, promote rapid promotional price adjustments, monitor the performance of the promotions as well as help in protecting margins on time-sensitive stock.
- Easier price updates
Since electronic price tags are connected to a local network and work instantly when a price fluctuation takes place, they offer more accurate data and save employees time. With ESLs, your employees don’t need to work hours making small changes to the prices every single day, saving a significant amount of time and effort. This also helps in limiting the errors that usually take place when manually changing the price labels.
Digital price tags enable making required changes in the product information from the back-end as well as the option to fix errors quickly. This way, your employees can help and focus on your customers more, thus increasing the customer experience altogether.
- A greener approach in retail
Dynamic pricing can be quite profitable for retailers since this can help them move a product quickly, reducing inventory loss in the process. With the help of electronic price tags, you can easily adjust the promotional prices instantly, making it possible to eliminate slow stock.
- Limit showrooming
Showrooming is the new phenomenon where customers tend to visit a brick-and-mortar store to browse the items and their prices but end up making a purchase online. ESLs can be the best solution in this case, allowing you to make changes instantly and align the prices with the online data display.
Conclusion
An electronic price tag not only provides an omni-channel experience to connect stores and online but also helps in showing accurate product data, making instant changes across several channels, reducing employee time, and increasing sales.