By Peter Howard.
With competition continuing to grow in the supermarket sector, stores and manufacturers are finding new ways to attract, service, and retain today’s increasingly well-informed customers.
In this article on point of sale (POS) and point of purchase (POP) developments, Retail World looks at three emerging technologies designed to woo the customer to the store, the shelf and the product.
Keep your money
With more than 87 per cent of all supermarket and retail transactions in Australia now cashless, and coin-locks becoming obsolete, Australian company TDMN (Trolley Data Management Network) has launched an innovative solution that not only removes the hassle for consumers, but also provides retailers with an appealing, cost-effective answer to the ongoing trolley troubles.
The system, known as sMart Lock, is the world’s first first coinless shopping trolley lock and GPS tracking system. It allows consumers who have downloaded the supermarket’s app to unlock trolleys by scanning a QR code with their smart phone while also allow retailers to GPS track any trolley left abandoned.
Get dressed in public
When it comes to point of display solutions, the shelf is at the heart of the shopper’s journey. If the shopper doesn’t see your product in a favourable light and put it in their basket, all the previous work done by advertising and marketing initiatives has been wasted.
There’s no question POP display shelves are a vital part of those shopper decisions, and Australian company UFO Display Solutions is working closely with its many retailers and FMCG clients to ensure shoppers notice their products.
UFO Display Solutions has come up with a concept where on floor display (OFD) units are no longer made of cardboard, which get thrown away after each campaign, contributing to the million kilos of cardboard going to waste in Australia each year. Instead, its OFDs are made from 100 per cent post-consumable, locally recycled plastic, with each shelf capable of holding 35kg.
Keep customers in the picture
Having successfully attracted a shopper to your display, it’s important to ensure they do more than just look, but also take action, selecting the product for their basket.
According to GS1 Australia CEO Maria Palazzolo, this can be a challenge for brand marketers seeking to find the right balance between presenting information on product packaging and providing more detailed information, including product images and customer facing information so it stands out among thousands of website pages and advertising catalogues.
To make the process easier, GS1 Australia is offering a Smart Media service for the National Product Catalogue and website content. The service offers suppliers and manufacturers a one-stop-shop service to create, manage and share professional product photography and accurate consumer product data with trading partners in one central location.
Read the POS & POP feature in full in the August issue of Retail World.