Musgrave to install electronic shelf labels in Northern Ireland stores

Its aim is to improve efficiency and the customer experience, enabling the group to centralise pricing and promotions, and to update them in real-time.

Michael Devlin, head of IT at Musgrave, said: “By automating the pricing process, crucial time is freed up to work on value-adding activities, such as merchandising, replenishing stock and assisting shoppers, along with improving staff satisfaction as more time is spent on the shop floor rather than in the back office for price and promotional changeovers.

“As the prices are updated instantly, ensuring the price displayed on the shelf is always the same as at the till-point, we can further increase customer satisfaction and confidence.”

The ESLs should also help Musgrave reduce the paper consumption associated with traditional labels.

Trevor Magill, managing director, said: “Sustainability is a key driver for us in all decisions we make. Through the roll-out of ESLs and the removal of traditional paper labels, we will see a definitive improvement in our paper consumption.”

Marketing and research by Pricer through its UK consumer insight report indicates that 65% of customers are more likely to buy a product in-store when they can quickly and clearly access information about that product digitally.

Nearly half of those surveyed said they would like more digital signs at the shelf-edge to help them decide what to buy.