Automated digital pricing with electronic shelf labels

Price competition and frequent price changes are gradually causing a rethinking in stationary retail and leading to constant coordination with electronic commerce. Price change in real time offers several significant advantages in order to react reliably to pricing changes at any moment with little effort or to control purchasing behavior in a targeted manner with dynamic price optimization.

Event-controlled and thus time-controlled prices are not a trend of the future, but already part of the present. With numerous identical offers and the oftentimes strong price fluctuations, automatic price optimization is the solution for staying up-to-date, saving time and optimizing resources in retail. This is what electronic price tags from e-shelf labels are for. Regardless of whether it concerns large corporations, car dealerships, supermarkets, fashion houses or the small shop down the road - price labeling is time-consuming and costs resources that are needed elsewhere. While employees need several days to manually change all prices of an electronics retail chain, for example, this process of pricing with Electronic Shelf Labels (ESL) only takes a few minutes.

The high competitive pressure, which is further intensified by eCommerce, leads to a dynamic increase in price changes in retail. Marking out an outdated price can lead to a loss of trust that a retailer simply cannot afford in today's market economy. Electronic price tags give retailers flexibility, productivity and precision to face these challenges. In shops with conventional price tags, each individual price tag has to be replaced manually by the staff (approx. 3 minutes of time per price tag), which quickly turns into several hours of work. This affects responsiveness, increases implementation costs and the frequency of errors between price tags and the prices stored in the cash register system or in e-commerce. Electronic price tags simplify all processes at the push of a button across all store locations.

Connectivity or digital networking are the result of eCommerce and the ever-increasing use of smartphones and laptops. Major changes in current working methods in retail are the consequence. The use of digital technologies such as electronic price tags can be realized profitably for both customers and retailers. The modern, digital price labeling provides informative and useful data for the customer in appropriate up-to-dateness. Retailers, on the other hand, can adapt their business smarter to the needs of their customers through ESL solutions and at the same time offer more service and customer contact. This makes the process of price labeling and advertising in the shop more modern, more efficient and more economical and opens up more room for customer service, for example through intelligent and interactive advisory systems.

Digital networking ensures that customers have higher requirements, are better informed and spend less time in stores. Therefore, businesses have to adapt to these new developments, constantly questioning and reinventing themselves and using digital technologies such as digital communication channels, interactive terminals and mobile payment at the shelf to network, guide, inform and support their customers. The connectivity of our solutions offers the right answer to all of these challenges.

The electronic labels developed for longevity and stability offer an ideal infrastructure and thus the perfect basis for electronically linking products, buyers and retailers. As soon as the electronic shelf label connects to a smartphone using NFC technology, the customer has access to a large amount of information on the composition, origin and manufacture of the respective product without having to forego their anonymity. In addition, mobile payment systems offer the option of carrying out the payment process directly at the shelf without long waiting times at the checkout. Furthermore, the customer can use his shopping list and the location of the individual products to optimize his route through the store. With one click on the smartphone, new products can be found faster and more easily and the shopping cart can be managed at the same time, while receiving loyalty benefits and saving time. Various services such as context-based marketing, integration of social media or loyalty systems make the range of high-quality e-paper displays even more attractive. Thanks to digital networking, this increases the possibilities of communicating directly with customers.

Whether in retail or in manufacturing - stock shortages, surpluses and misplaced goods must be avoided, because they cause unnecessary costs, delayed production and customer dissatisfaction. Faulty health care inventories are even more serious and, in the case of medication, can potentially cost lives.

Linked with your own merchandise management or ERP system, Electronic Shelf Labeling ensures transparency and optimal planning of your inventory and warehouse management. An electronic shelf label based on e-ink technology shows which items are stored where at a glance, what quantity of items is still available, and provides an overview of the current order status. The electronic labels receive the real-time information directly from the ERP system via an interface. Thanks to shelf monitoring and intelligent chute systems, reorders can be automated or be initiated at the push of a button, which ensures short communication paths between the point of consumption and purchasing. In addition, optimized stock forecasts save storage space and, as a result, also storage costs.

Electronic shelf labels and other e-paper-based labeling solutions also support warehouse management, as well as C-parts or medication management. Thanks to smart technologies, the labels are connected to the employee's PDA, tablet or handheld and thus help locate the parts they are looking for. Pick-by-light and put-by-light processes are sustainably optimized. In the healthcare sector, stocks can also be reserved for the treatment of patients, laboratory samples can be labeled and marked during the examination, and results can be stored and displayed centrally.

A changed meeting culture with spontaneous get-togethers and modern events offering the option of same-day online bookings require efficient organisation and flexible management. Final planning of events days or weeks in advance is no longer possible due to increased demands on the part of employees and customers. Therefore, it is all the more important to create appropriate transparency and to clearly mark the premises as well as the allocation of responsibilities and permits.

The solutions from e-shelf-labels offer companies adequate technology and special systems that, thanks to the connection to calendar and employee data, always provide up-to-date information on workplaces and conference rooms. Thanks to the durable and energy-saving displays based on e-ink, the administrative effort involved in room management is extremely low, as weekly or daily plans no longer have to be printed out and attached to the respective rooms manually. Intelligent sensors also ensure a high degree of automation and digitization. This enables you to make the most of unused meeting rooms or workplaces, which is essential for modern workplace models such as desk sharing and co-working.

In addition to marking rooms, special e-ink signs on lanyards are also used as a ticket solution in event management. This offers flexibility in labeling and facilitates access controls for events and VIP areas with the help of QR codes or NFC.

Electronic labels not only replace classic price tags for price labeling, but also paper labels in other areas, which can be simplified through digital labeling processes. Electronic displays are available in many sizes, acting as digital solutions for labeling in warehouses and logistics, as digital labeling of boxes in manufacturing or in the form of large-format signage for room management. The use of electronic shelf labels makes it possible to avoid or at least highly reduce paper waste normally created through frequent information displays and changes on paper labels. Additionally, their use helps to accelerate the distribution of data flows.

Furthermore, the digitization of your labels and labeling processes ensures a lower susceptibility to errors and a higher rate of adjustment of prices through electronic shelf labels. In addition, the electronic signage creates better inventory management and the ability to adapt to current events such as weather, news or stock market changes. With the data collected through electronic price tags and intelligent sensors, order quantities can be adjusted at any time and thus optimized in order to avoid surpluses. With the more precise adaptation to circumstances, electronic shelf labels can also have a positive influence on the development of waste in the long term.