In the highly competitive grocery and liquor industry, it is difficult to find a competitive advantage. Renaissance Supa IGA, in the busy suburb of St Kilda, stands out in the crowd, by focussing on improving their business through good management and great technology.
The management at Renaissance was seeking a solution that would benefit customers and increase business efficiency. This lead to the Renaissance management team exploring the possibility of implementing an electronic shelf labeling (ESL) solution.
With shelf pricing being a critical aspect of the grocery and liquor business, the challenge of maintaining shelf price labels in a store carrying over 15,000 line items is a costly and time-consuming exercise. With the added complexity of managing 1000 weekly promotions and 450 weekly price changes, the operational challenge becomes daunting.
The management at Renaissance Supa IGA St Kilda were seeking a more effective and efficient shelf labeling solution that would not only assist in the management of shelf pricing but also provide a modern look for one of inner Melbourne’s most stylish and busiest supermarkets.
Renaissance implemented an ESL solution that covered all aspects of their business including grocery and liquor departments. 90% of the store uses Normal size Pricer labels with the remainder using Small labels. Small labels are designed for challenging areas such as Health and Beauty and Spices. Phase 2 of the implementation will see the Fruit and Vegetable and Delicatessen departments installed using Pricer DotMatrix™ labels.
Both Normal and Small size shelf labels were utilised depending on the merchandising requirements of the department.
Display options on the labels include showing the price, the promotional price with the was price also shown, a flashing red bar to highlight promotions, and optionally, stock on hand, average weekly sales, planogram information and even scrolling messages.
With the Australian unit pricing legislation coming into effect, Renaissance needed to consider its compliance options. Pricer’s automatic shelf edge maintenance means there’s no extra operational effort to maintain unit pricing. When Renaissance implements unit pricing, the Pricer labels will automatically show the extra information.
The Pricer infrastructure is remarkably efficient and simple to install. The solution utilizes Infra Red (IR) technology to communicate with the shelf labels. The ceiling-mounted bi-directional IR transceivers provide high-speed data transfer to and from the labels, meaning labels are updated quickly (over 150 times faster than competitors’ solutions) with confirmation of each and every price change logged in the system. This automated auditing process eliminates significant labor costs in the store. The entire store is catered for with only 25 transceivers, ensuring installation and maintenance are both low cost and simple.
“The proven history of Pricer ESL’s worldwide, easy integration with our Point of Sale solution, easy implementation and system maintenance gave us the confidence that we were choosing the solution that would be right for our business” Simon Boileau Store Manager
In a large busy store, such as Renaissance Supa IGA St Kilda, the benefits of installing Pricer ESL’s has been dramatic.
Beyond the drastic cost reduction in price labeling and management, the store look and feel has been enhanced with the clear displays and revitalized shelf edges.
Customers are finding it easier to read product prices throughout the store regardless of whether the label is located in a fridge or on a shelf. For example, beer prices for singles/6 pack/slabs are now easily understood.
