Case study : Appulse - Compact solution for pricing management

Appulse, a global IT company, having worked with US and European retailers along with the company’s partner Pricer (Sweden) in Electronic Shelf Labeling (ESL) systems for price optimisation, promotional pricing and automatic price updates, made first initiative in India with an ESL pilot store for Wipro in Bangalore. In larger stores where there are more than 10,000 SKUs, changing prices in real time is a challenge and keeping the same price at the checkout and the display is a key to building customer trust. This is truly a compact technology for pricing management, price display and price optimisation. Along with the more obvious benefits of pricing management, ESL go a long way in helping retailers manage inventory and best utilise the expensive shelf space.

While the early adopters of Electronic Shelf Labels were primarily large retail chains like Carrefour, Metro, Casino, Ito Yokado, etc, it is fast catching up with small and medium retailers across the world including India due to the edge it offers to sales promotions along with the cost savings.

CASE STUDY

Praktiker, based in Kirkel, Germany, is the fourth largest DIY (Do It Yourself) retailer in Europe. It opened its first store in 1978 and maintains today 427 stores under two brands (Praktiker and Max Bahr) in nine European countries.

Challenge

Praktiker’s decision to use ESL was influenced by a strong need for flexible pricing and improved competitor responsiveness.

Solution provided

Praktiker evaluated different ESL vendors and then gave Pricer a go ahead for doing a pilot installation at its Budapest, Hungary store. Following a successful ESL pilot in Praktiker Budapest with both segment and pixel based ESLs, Praktiker placed two consecutive orders to immediately deploy the Pricer ESL solution in other stores.

Benefits

Some benefits which a tier I retailer like Praktiker gets from Pricer ESL Solution includes:

• Savings in staff cost and from doing away with multiple paper labels
• Increase in customer trust due to 100 per cent accuracy of price on the shelf edge and the price on Point of Sale terminal
• Increase in sales due to “week of the day”, “inventory level triggered” or other promotions resulting from expiry date or best before date triggers.

A year after the deployment in Praktiker stores in Hungary, Praktiker, Germany also decided to equip its three stores with Pricer ESL solutions.

“Our policy is to support our customers with IT solutions that give direct benefits to them, and with ESL we can make sure that the prices are always correct.”

Sandor Onody, Finance Director, Praktiker.

“We believe that the revolution in retail technology in India will be on two fronts. On one side, the consumer will take the centre stage with introduction of intelligent loyalty cards, convergence of mobile devices and Internet, customised offers, etc. On the other hand, retailers will continue to focus on cost optimisation through implementation of ERP, Supply Chain Management, Inventory Management and Business-Intelligence tools.”

Nitin Kumar, CEO, Appulse Technologies.