New Research from Displaydata and Planet Retail RNG Estimates That Global Retailers Spent $104 Billion on Manually Changing Price Labels in 2017

New research launched today by Displaydata and Planet Retail RNG reveals that inaccurate, inconsistent pricing – and a lack of digital technology in-store – is costing retailers in lost sales and consumer trust, as price-conscious shoppers seek out the best deal and better experiences online.

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The research report, Analogue to Automated: Retail in the Connected Age – which surveyed 5000 consumers and 1000 retailers – sought to understand what consumers want from physical stores, and how retailers are responding. The findings clearly show that retailers are failing to keep up with shifting consumer attitudes towards price and promotion and are unable to engage with shoppers digitally, in real-time, when they are on the shop floor.

Consumers welcome agile pricing

The positive news for retailers struggling with rising rents, squeezed margins and online competition, is that shoppers are decidedly tolerant of ‘agile’ or ‘dynamic’ pricing if it saves them money and reduces waste. In fact, contrary to recent speculation, the research found:

• Nearly two thirds (65%) of consumers would welcome price changes throughout the day if a product is approaching its sell-by date. However, a quarter of retailers are not convinced of customer acceptance if they were to change prices more frequently, highlighting a barrier to agile pricing that doesn’t exist in consumers’ minds.
• With price and promotion labelling still managed manually, 65% of retailers are unable to make the amount of changes they want to. The process is expensive, too: 67% of retailers spend up to 4.99% of average monthly store turnover making price and promo changes. That’s equivalent to approximately $104 billion in sales – based on 2017 retail sales – across the 10 markets surveyed.¹ This emphasises how compromised physical stores are when it comes to agile pricing compared to online stores that can update millions of prices throughout the day.
• The majority of retailers (84%) agree that the ability to price with speed and agility can help improve margins and store efficiencies; 78% of retailers want the ability to make more changes to offer customers better prices and deals.

Shoppers’ desire for digital technologies

The research also strongly points to increased consumer desire for a more digital and connected shopping experience that meets their expectations around pricing, promotions and availability, and matches the information shoppers can get online, such as competitors’ prices, stock levels and more:

• Over two thirds of shoppers want technologies that enhance their experiences in stores. 33% want promotions sent direct to their mobile devices; 31% want Electronic Shelf Labels (ESLs) to show accurate, real-time prices, promotions, and detailed product information; and 27% want to be identified as a loyal customer.
• The desire for digital services correlates with the poor experiences that almost half of shoppers (42%) claim to have had in store due to a lack of Wi-Fi, a lack of information at the shelf edge, and differences in product availability in store and online.

“Our research shows that despite the huge changes retail has undergone in recent years, a fair and accurate price, consistent across channels, remains the key purchasing factor for the vast majority of shoppers,” said Andrew Dark, CEO, Displaydata. “However, to effectively harness the power of price, thrive against online competitors and retain shoppers’ trust, retailers must create a digitally connected environment to meet the high customer expectations that are being shaped by online experiences.”

“Consumers today are digitally empowered with access to real time information on products, and they are more price sensitive than ever,” said Sarah Herrlein, senior retail analyst, Planet Retail. “Our research shows they expect a more consistent, automated experience, but their trust and faith in the store is lessening due to basic technological inefficiencies. With retailers spending billions on things like manual price changes, the case for deploying digital technologies that optimise efficiencies, deliver the customer a better experience AND better value in-store, has never been greater.”

To download a copy of the full report, go to: www.displaydata.com

Methodology

Displaydata commissioned PlanetRetail RNG to survey 1,000 retailers and 4,811 consumers, across 10 countries. Every respondent had a senior management level of job designation or higher and worked for a retail organisation that operated stores and online or stores only, generating more than USD100 million in annual revenue. Every consumer, aged 18-65, had completed a purchase within a store within the week prior to taking the survey. The countries included in the survey were: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, the UK and the US**.

**n=100 retailer and n=350 consumer respondents per market, except for the UK and the US, where n=1,000 consumers per market.

About Displaydata

Displaydata is the leader in the design and supply of fully graphic electronic shelf labels (ESLs). We were first to market with three-color ESLs and continue to lead this category, having shipped millions of labels. We work in close partnership with many of the world’s largest retail brands and have operations in the US, Europe, LATAM, and Asia. We help retailers optimise revenues and margins by improving the customer experience at the shelf edge, where most purchasing decisions are made.

Displaydata’s ESLs, with the option of integrated Bluetooth Low Energy beacons and NFC, enable retailers to control and drive instore pricing and promotions with speed, agility, and consistency. Fully graphic and available in three colours, the ESLs can display product, price, promotion, stock levels, social reviews, currency details, and much more. Displaydata’s ESLs are part of an architecture designed in partnership with retailers to be enterprise ready. The trusted platform is simple to install and needs the least amount of instore hardware of any vendor. The wireless network is secure, and the robust software enables the centralised management of any number of ESLs, across any number of stores. For more information, please visit: www.displaydata.com

About Planet Retail RNG

Planet Retail RNG is a global intelligence and advisory business exclusively focused on retail. We track over 2,000 leading retailers and have built a proprietary and globally comparable macro-economic model, with over 4.5 million data points. Through applying our STEIP methodology, we identify winning strategies that give our clients competitive advantage in understanding where to play and how to win. 18 of the top 20 global retailers and hundreds of global brands work with us to identify and drive the future of retail and consumer purchase. For more information, visit www.planetretailnetgroup.com

¹ Over two thirds of retailers surveyed, confirmed that they spent between 1-4.99% of annual turnover on manually changing labels. PlanetRetail RNG calculated the median percentage of sales in each country to work out the comparative cost in sales of these manual changes, based on its database of total banner sales.

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Contact information

Displaydata
Paul Milner, +44 (0)1344 292 114
Marketing Director
paul.milner@displaydata.com
or
The WordWorks (for Displaydata)
Donna Amato, +44 (0)7950 411747
donna@thewordworks.co.uk
or
Ketner Group (for Displaydata)
Catherine Seeds, 512-794-8876
Catherine@ketnergroup.com