Scotmid and Southern Co-op are to roll out electronic shelf labelling (ESL) across 23 stores.
Both societies trialled the technology at one store each in December. Scotmid and Southern Co-op are now deploying the ESLs to a further 10 and 11 stores respectively, with further installations being planned.
Cambridge-based technology integrator Herbert Retail will be driving the rollout over the coming months.
The ESLs, which are manufactured by Samsung-invested company Solum, replace traditional paper-based shelf-edge labels.
It allows for fast and accurate updates for critical retail information such as pricing and promotions.
According to the co-ops, initial trials have already seen “increased store efficiency, improved pricing and product information compliance, reduced paper wastage and an enhanced store team morale”.
“We are always looking at innovation to pick out the solutions that land real benefit for our customers and colleagues,” said Scotmid programme manager for innovation and change Allan Robertson.
“Solum’s electronic shelf-edge labels look great, transform our stores and present our price and product information more clearly to our customers. Our store teams are really loving this – removing the burden of price and promotion tasks and compliance isn’t just a productivity boost, it’s been a morale boost too.”
Southern Co-op business information and solutions manager Paul Sargeant said: “The new ESLs sit beside our strong and continued commitment to sustainability as well as a drive to offer our customers a seamless in-store experience.
“It was great to work co-operatively with Scotmid and Herbert to create an offering of mutual benefit for all. The Solum ESLs from Herbert really enhance the look and feel of the store whilst giving us the ability to highlight extended information to our customers, such as allergens and country of origin information.”
Herbert Retail sales and marketing director Mark Channen said: “Our ESLs essentially give retailers fully compliant digital real estate for the lines that they sell.
“The label content can be changed based on a multitude of criteria, to facilitate retail productivity such as better waste management on date-sensitive items, or perhaps run timely offers based on seasonal trends or excess stock reduction, and of course there is the elimination of constant paper label waste produced by stores.”
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