The month of May brings a big change for retailers in Germany. With the new law on basic price indication, traders will in future be obliged to indicate the basic price in addition to the item price. This aims to enable a more transparent and accurate product comparison for consumers. At first glance, it seems that mainly food retailers are affected by the law, but pharmacies will also have to indicate the basic price in the future. The basis for this is § 5 PAngV, which includes not only food but also medicines and cosmetics.
It is important that the unit of measure for the basic price is always 1 kilogram, 1 liter, 1 square meter or 1 meter of the goods. Under the new law, the exception where the basic price could be indicated for 100 g or 100 ml as long as the content did not exceed 250 ml or 250 g is no longer valid. The indication of the basic price may only be omitted if it is identical to the total price.
Pharmacies are faced with an enormous amount of work as a result of this new law, as all price labels must be replaced in all branches. This is not only time-consuming, but also produces a lot of paper waste.
Electronic price tags as a solution for pharmacies
For pharmacies, the new law is a good opportunity to switch to digital price labelling, because with electronic shelf labels, the labelling of items is centralised and optimised. In future, price tags will no longer have to be exchanged manually in order to adjust prices, weight or even the basic price. Instead, they are all managed from a computer, even across several branches, which saves an enormous amount of time. Thanks to the connection to existing merchandise management systems, the error rate is also reduced, as product information is taken directly from the system.
Products in the pharmacy often require additional information. Thanks to the NFC technology of the Electronic Shelf Labels, customers can quickly and easily call up details, ingredients or exact product pages with their own smartphone if no staff are available to advise them at the moment or if customers prefer to do their own research. Customers can also be directed to specific pages or promotions via QR codes. If the pharmacy has its own online-shop, this can of course also be linked.
The big advantage of electronic labelling, however, is not only the optimised price labelling and time savings, but also the sustainability of the solution. The electronic labels have battery runtimes of up to 10 years and reduce paper consumption enormously. Readability for customers is nevertheless still given, as electronic price labels are based on e-ink technology, which is also used in e-readers. This means that the information is still easily legible even in poor lighting conditions or from poor viewing angles.
The advantages of ESL for pharmacies at a glance:
- Improved price management through central administration
- More time for individual customer advice
- Digital shopping experience for customers thanks to NFC technology or QR codes
- Sustainable signage solution with less paper waste
- Visual enhancement of the sales floor
- Fast implementation of new laws on basic price indication or product labelling
- Future-oriented solution
- Basis for digital processes such as mobile payment at the shelf (Scan&Go)
Electronic price labels are already finding their way into the food and retail sectors. Large brands such as Lidl, Rossmann and Saturn already use digital labels and are constantly expanding their applications. Other areas of retail, including pharmacies, can also benefit from this digital transformation in many ways in the long term. Thanks to central control, future changes in legislation concerning the display of article and price information are no longer a problem.
Please contact us for a personal consultation on the implementation of an ESL solution in your pharmacy and find out about the current, discounted purchasing conditions.
