By Peter Howard.
As competition in the supermarket sector continues to grow, stores and manufacturers are finding new ways to attract, serve, and retain today's increasingly informed customers.
In this article about developments at the point of sale (POS) and point of purchase (POP), Retail World looks at three new technologies that should inspire customers for the store, the shelf and the product.
Keep your money
With more than 87 percent of all supermarket and retail transactions in Australia now being cashless and coin locks obsolete, the Australian company TDMN (Trolley Data Management Network) has brought an innovative solution to the market that not only takes the hassle out of consumers, but also provides merchants with an attractive and cost-effective answer to the ongoing trolley problems.
Known as the sMart Lock, the system is the world's first coin-less shopping cart lock and GPS tracking system. It allows consumers who have downloaded the supermarket app to unlock trolleys by scanning a QR code with their smartphone, while retailers also enable GPS tracking of all abandoned trolleys.
Get dressed in public
When it comes to point-of-display solutions, the shelf is the focus of the buyer's journey. If the buyer does not see your product in a positive light and puts it in their shopping cart, all previous work of advertising and marketing initiatives is for nothing.
There is no doubt that POP display shelving is an important part of these buyer decisions, and Australian company UFO Display Solutions works closely with its many retailers and FMCG customers to ensure buyers are aware of their products.
UFO Display Solutions has developed a concept in which on-floor displays (OFD) are no longer made of cardboard that is thrown away after each campaign, which contributes to the fact that millions of kilos of cardboard are thrown away in Australia every year. Instead, its OFDs are made from 100 percent reusable, locally recycled plastic, and each shelf can hold 35 kg.
Keep the customers in the picture
After you've successfully lured a buyer to your display, it's important to make sure that they're not just looking, but also taking action by selecting the product for their shopping cart.
According to Maria Palazzolo, CEO of GS1 Australia, this can be a challenge for brand marketers who want to strike the right balance between presenting information on product packaging and providing more detailed information, including product images and customer-facing information, to differentiate themselves from thousands of website Stand out pages and promotional catalogs.
To simplify the process, GS1 Australia offers a smart media service for the national product catalog 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 in one central location with trading partners.
Read the POS & POP feature in the August issue of Retail World.
