EASYTAGG ESL in Hardware Retail
Electronic Shelf Labels (ESLs) are significantly reforming hardware retail in several ways, making operations more efficient and enhancing the customer shopping experience. Here's a breakdown of how ESLs are impacting the hardware retail sector
ESL benefits the Hardware Retailer
Results and Benefits
Dynamic Pricing Flexibility: ESLs allow hardware stores to quickly adjust prices in response to market changes, promotions, or stock levels. This agility in pricing is crucial in a sector where prices of goods like building materials can fluctuate frequently.
Improved Inventory Management: ESLs can be integrated with inventory management systems. This integration ensures that the shelf labels are always updated with the current stock levels, reducing the chances of stockouts or overstocking, which is particularly important in hardware retail where inventory variety is vast.
Enhanced Customer Experience: ESLs can display more than just prices; they can provide additional product information, QR codes for detailed product specifications, and even DIY tips. This feature is particularly useful in a hardware store where customers often need guidance on product specifications and usage.
Labor Efficiency: Updating traditional price tags is time-consuming, especially in large hardware stores with extensive inventories. ESLs reduce the labor required for price updates, allowing staff to focus on customer service and other operational areas.
Error Reduction: Manual price labeling is prone to human error. ESLs ensure that the price displayed on the shelf matches the price at the checkout, which is crucial for customer trust and satisfaction in hardware retail.
Promotional Opportunities: Hardware stores often run promotions on various products. ESLs make it easier to manage and display these promotions, helping to boost sales and move inventory effectively.
Sustainability: By reducing the need for paper labels, ESLs contribute to environmental sustainability, which is an increasingly important consideration for both businesses and consumers.
Market Responsiveness: ESLs can be linked to external data sources to adjust prices in real-time based on market trends, competitor pricing, or supply chain factors. This responsiveness is key in the hardware sector where certain products may have seasonal demand or be subject to rapid market changes.
Customer Engagement and Personalization: Some advanced ESL systems can interact with customer smartphones or store apps, providing a personalized shopping experience, such as pointing out deals on frequently purchased products.
Data Analytics: ESLs can collect valuable data on how customers interact with products, which can be used for analytics to optimize store layout, product placement, and inventory.
With the implementation ofEASYTAGG Electronic Shelf Labels (ESLs), the task of updating prices, previously a colossal challenge requiring 30-40 hours of labor for approximately 800 weekly price changes, has been transformed. The use of ESLs has enabled us to fully harness our pricing software without the burden of additional labor. This has not only streamlined our operations but also unlocked new revenue opportunities that were previously unattainable due to the constraints of manual price updating.
High Cost of Labour…
In light of rising labor costs and inflation, hardware stores have critically assessed the return on investment (ROI) before transitioning to digital solutions. Managers have emphasized the cost-effectiveness of this move through an analogy:
“Imagine if someone offered to work in your store for the next ten years, handling all your price changes, sale tags, and ensuring total pricing accuracy. That’s essentially a full-time job, right? Around 30-40 hours a week. Now, suppose you only had to pay this person for four years, and they worked for free thereafter. Wouldn’t that be an incredible deal? That’s what we’re looking at with our system. It’s like having a dedicated employee for a decade, but with a payback period of just four years. And during this time, this ’employee’ won’t ever demand a raise, take sick leave or vacations, or cause any HR issues.”
*The return on investment is calculated by adding the total annual costs associated with updating pricing manually and subtracting the total investment for the EASYTAGG ESL solution. The total annual costs include the cost of the paper label and labour costs associated with updating paper labels on the shelf.