Strategic Planning

Six best practices you can follow when tagging merchandise in your store.

Price tags help customers to pick the products that they like and the storekeepers to keep track of their inventory. They will know what product is working well for them and what is not working well for them. Using the tags can help you to have complete control over your inventory and the profits of your store.

Have you seen those pair of stands at the front of a store where you have to walk in between them in order to go inside. Sometimes, they beep to either stop a shopper or have them run as fast as lightning.

There are 6 ways that electronic shelf labels can help retailers manage inventory levels in the store. By Eileen Keehan

 Maintaining inventory levels is the lifeblood of the retail industry: Too much inventory leads to overstocks and too little inventory leads to out-of-stocks. According to the IHL Group, overstocks and out-of-stocks, or inventory distortion as the analyst firm refers to it, cost retailers close to $1.1 trillion a year globally.

Multi-channel retail is making your products available for purchase using more than one outlet: common multi-channel would include online platforms such as your website, Amazon, Facebook, eBay, Etsy, and offline channels such as a brick-and-mortar store, pop-up stores at Farmers Markets, sporting or music venues and other physical outlets.

Do you want your store to become part of the "New Brick and Mortar Retail Age"  or would you prefer to be left behind? If you would prefer to prosper, and not be left behind in this New Brick and Mortar Retail Age, Electronic Shelf Labels are for you.

The modern consumer demands more and is ever keen on initiatives by a retailer to enhance their shopping experience. An advanced solution to ensure shoppers always get the price right is to invest in the industry revolutionizing electronic shelf labels.

As most retailers can attest, perceived inconsistencies between the online and offline worlds can lead to customer dissatisfaction and ultimately lost sales. Consumers believe it’s not possible to receive the same promotion or rebate in-store as online. They also believe that prices are always lower online and inventory is more accurately portrayed online than in a physical store. These perceptions are among the reasons that consumers are increasingly bypassing the physical store in favor of shopping online. Brick and mortar stores must find a way to create seamless channel experiences in order to maintain customers’ desire for consistent in-store experiences and real-time product information.

Yes, that $2.75 coffee cup is $2.75.  Not too sure about you but it irks me when I see a price that says $1.79 plus tax, and when I get to the register it is $1.99 plus tax. Most of the time businesses will let it pass as I may be remembering wrong or it is just not worth mentioning. If this happens often enough, I may consider shopping somewhere else, sure your customer feels the same way.

Today more than ever the customer must be first, shopping should be an experience, pricing must be up to date and information abundant. Successful stores are doing what they can to create a customer-centric experience, deliver personalization and invest in any way to attract and keep shoppers. The question begs “How do I create an experience?” “How do I match an online store’s ability to update pricing quickly?” "How do I give customers the information needed to make an informed decision?”

I find it rather amazing that stores, large and small, who have spent thousands, tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands on a store's decor and POS system still use paper tags and signs to price their products. They are essentially doing the same thing for in-store signage that was done 100 or even 200 years ago. If you are among the vast majority of retailers in the US that still use only paper tags and signs you have a good reason because until recently that was your only choice. The 21st Century and the information age finally comes to the store shelf.