UK store installs Electronic Shelf Labeling units

Nisa Local in Shrewsbury has become the first UK convenience store to use Electronic Shelf Labeling (ESL). The 2,000 ESL units were installed by Herbert Retail.

ESL enables store owners to make automatic pricing and timed promotional updates when required at any time of the day or night. The technology cuts out the cost of printing labels and offers savings in staff time when distributing and applying updated labels. They also provide business metrics and facilitate efficient re-stocking.

Using technology similar to e-readers, ESL dynamically displays price and product information at the point of purchase.

Rav Garcha, store owner and independent retailer board member at the Association of Convenience Stores, said: ‘A significant amount of UK customers make unplanned in-store purchases. Commonly their decisions are based on price, so the most important thing for stores, is to ensure that pricing is easy to see and compelling, encouraging repeat purchase and customer retention at local stores such as mine. ESL technology facilitates this dynamically, allowing time-of-day promotions, and also facilitates added-value point of purchase information, such as cost per unit, recipe ideas, QR codes, suggestions for accompanying products, such as wine to compliment your meal choice, and much more. As you can imagine this exciting technology adds real business advantage to both me and Nisa, and offers the customer the best possible local deal.’

Raj Sangha, Herbert Retail’s business development manager, added: ‘Electronic Shelf Labeling offers enormous potential to increase store revenue and profitability. Far more durable than paper, the labels that Herbert installed at Nisa operate on batteries that utilize technology for long-life. All labels work together on the same system allowing Nisa to mix and match sizes, shapes and styles according to different needs in different areas of the store, as and when required.’