How to create a powerful omnichannel experience with electronic shelf labels?
Adapting to the new normal in retailing means knowing how to anticipate new consumer expectations. For this to happen, retailers need to be able to converge e-commerce and traditional commerce to facilitate the shopping journey for customers.
After all, customers want to be able to switch from one channel to another freely. This implies deep changes for retailers, whether in their sales and marketing strategies or in their internal organization, and the emergence of new concepts such as the digital transformation of their store with automatic checkouts, connected shelves or electronic shelf labels.
Thanks to our PRICER electronic shelf labels, we enable merchants a 360-degree management strategy to optimize their sales operations with a real-time system, which guarantees less friction in shopping journey, a better customer experience and more efficient staff.
Friction reduction in the purchasing process
One of the crucial steps in omnichannel distribution is to reduce all constraints that hinder the purchase journey and conversions, such as time-consuming forms to fill out on e-commerce sites or a too long delivery time. At the store, these frictions can be a lack of staff or inexperienced labor, poor stock management leading to frequent product shortages or even a bad price displayed on the shelves. So, to decrease these constraints, many retailers are digitizing their sales area.
When they equip their stores with our PRICER electronic labels, in addition to automating prices to avoid pricing errors, they gain productivity and reduce their labor costs.
In fact, one of the first services provided by the digitization of the retail space is the optimization of inventory replenishment. Our PRICER electronic labels linked to our “Put-to-light” application will alert staff to out-of-stock products in the shelves. The clerk scans the barcode of the product to be returned to the shelf, the system displays the position of the product that is out of stock on the store map, then instantly activates the flash of the electronic label in less than a second.
As a result, the shelves are filled faster, the risk of error is reduced, and the tracking of items sold is instant. The remaining quantities can therefore be displayed on the website and on electronic labels. When customers shop online, they can see the remaining quantities in real time, allowing them to quickly decide whether to buy online or in-store.
On top of that, staff recruitment is easier and more affordable since our automated pricing systems do not require training or specific knowledge for an employee to use. Not only does this make the buying journey smoother, but it also helps increase sales.
Physical retail transformation into a place of experiences
Beyond streamlining and simplifying the buying process, stores must offer more than purchases and move from the sale of products to the sale of experiences, with ever more associated services. In fact, despite all the ease that online sales can bring, consumers will always seek the need to touch, try, see the product… and have an emotional experience to keep them coming back.
So many retailers, like our client BMR group, are reorganizing their sales area to make it a place of experience.
The group offers its customers in its urban store, BMR La Shop, the possibility of finding their products easily thanks to a virtual search assistance. Thanks to our Pricer Geolocation service connected to our electronic labels, customers who walk into LA SHOP can search for products by name on an interactive touch screen. The products position is then displayed on the screen for quick and easy retrieval. Customers also have the option of running the service on their phones so they can search for products while browsing the store, almost like an indoor GPS system.
Consequently, this creates support without waiting for the customer. Which will push him to come back and stay loyal to BMR. In addition, these digital tools will make it possible to take the in-store visit out of a purely transactional aspect and prolong interaction with customers while retrieving their personal data to build a personalized customer relationship.
If this experience is useful for customers, it is useful for staff too! By combining electronic labels with the Geolocation application, BMR also simplifies its Click and Collect services. Now employees know where to choose products in the store, even if they are moving around the store, saving valuable time and, allows BMR to process more orders per day.
Conclusion: Nothing opposes online shopping and physical shopping. The challenges of today’s retail industry have shown that by investing in omnichannel distribution, retailers can bring in-store shopping back to life, create value, emotion, and a powerful experience for customers at the heart of all strategies.
