Grocers Should Reject Outdated Manual Pricing Systems
It has been exciting to see how the grocery industry has evolved over the past few years by making the necessary changes to keep pace with the evolving demands of shoppers. These changes have made the entire shopping experience more fun, engaging and, most importantly, more convenient. While so much of the grocery landscape has improved, there’s one key area where grocers are stuck in the past, however, and it’s costing them millions: outdated manual pricing systems.
In Displaydata’s most recent research report, “From Analogue to Automated: Retail in the Connected Age,” carried out with Planet Retail RNG, we found that 67 percent of global retailers spend up to 4.99 percent of average monthly store turnover making price and promo changes – equivalent to approximately $104 billion in sales across the 10 markets surveyed. We also found that 85 percent of U.S. grocers agree that providing store staff and customers with accurate and up-to-date availability, location, pricing and other product information is important for a good shopping experience.
Bridging the Gap
But there’s a large gap between what grocers want when it comes to in-store pricing, and what they’re actually able to do. Half of the grocery respondents in our report said that they completely agree that ensuring prices and promotions are accurate and up-to-date would help them increase consumer trust and loyalty; however, 45 percent indicated that they’d like to implement more price changes to offer customers better prices and deals in store. What’s more, 40 percent of grocers said that they make manual labeling changes more than once a week, but they’d like to be able to update pricing more often, to “save the sale” in store.
The numbers are very telling of the pain points that grocers face when it comes to keeping their stores’ pricing and promotions updated. Manual pricing and promotions are no longer functional in today’s omnipresent grocery store. To effectively harness the power of price, thrive against online competitors and retain shoppers’ trust, grocers must create a digitally connected environment to meet high customer expectations that are shaped by online experiences.
With long-term customer loyalty at stake, it’s time for grocers to part with the costly and time-consuming process of manual pricing and promotions by completing the digital transformation of their stores.
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