New Challenges for Retailers

Now is the time to look forward. Retailers are facing the huge challenge of product overstock situations combined with a need to focus on cashflow.
The need to generate cash flow is forcing increased competition for consumer spending in a now more cautious and price-sensitive world.

Read our white paper on:
"How To Implement A Flexible Pricing Strategy To Maximize Sales"

 

The Strategic Approach to Solving the Problem

The benefits of OMNICHANNEL retailing, in terms of having a consistent customer experience across all consumer touchpoints, are well accepted. In order to stimulate their cash flow, Retailers now need to make their offerings even more attractive to win over customers who are likely to be more price sensitive and less loyal than ever but who still want to buy ‘value’ and not ‘cheap’. This will be relevant across all retail sectors from convenience to apparel and beyond.

Retailers need to focus on optimising the customer experience and making it as easy as possible for the consumer to buy when in-store. That means having the correct goods available for sale, displayed in an appealing manner with all prices and product offers clearly displayed and easy to understand and read in order to maximise selling and upselling opportunities.

 

Turning Strategy into Action

Retailers need to take all of the attributes of the omnichannel approach to retailing and apply them as effectively as possible to the total stores’ estate. While this short video showing a clothing example, the principles of Omnichannel marketing are still clear and can be applied to many retail sectors including convenience stores: Omnichannel Video

By focusing on the in-store pricing and price mark-down strategy and implementing flexible technology that allows store staff, with corporate direction, to react to consumer behaviour, the ‘Customer Experience’ can simply and quickly be adapted to maximise their spend using such tools as “WAS/NOW” pricing and “Special Offer” labelling.

 

How Can Technology Help?

If any retailer is using handwritten ‘mark-down’ and ‘Special Offer’ tickets, there is clearly scope to improve the in-store customer experience and the retailer’s image in the eye of the consumer. Likewise, with the use of price guns in-store.

Technology solutions, which give the retailer a low-cost but effective pricing toolset which is expandable as the retailer grows, range from just a few hundred dollars per unit as a capital purchase.

 

Legal Cannabis Dispensaries & Learning from Traditional Retail

The explosion in the number of legal cannabis dispensaries opening up in the US can clearly be attributed to the number of states that are making medical or medical & recreational products legal for sale to the public. There are now over 35 states where it is now legal to sell cannabis-based products under strict controls passed at state and even county levels. The reach and scope of these rules varies from state to state but as legislation is passing through government at a federal level making the law more open to allowing funding of the whole industry, questions are being asked about “what retail dispensaries can learn from traditional bricks and mortar retail”.

Watch our podcast where we talk about our products that we develop and manufacture and how we can leverage our experience in General Retail into Cannabis Retail through partners.
We can supply the technology and they can supply the market-specific knowledge to take these flexible solutions and deliver industry-specific entry level labeling solutions for standalone stores through to multi-store, integrated labeling solutions able to meet the industry requirements as it expands and develops.

Read our "How to implement a flexible pricing & labelling strategy to maximise sales in cannabis dispensaries" white paper.

The COVID pandemic in 2020 certainly accelerated and encouraged both B&M retailers and dispensaries to start implementing additional touchpoints with their customers. Online ordering and delivery services have already been implemented where state and county legislation allow for it, but what does that mean in the longer term for those owning and managing dispensaries in their traditional retail-based format?

Already analysts of traditional retail are suggesting that dispensary owners need to start thinking about and utilizing the principals of Omnichannel retail…… giving the customer the same quality of experience no matter where they interact to buy their products.

At CloudBox and Electrone (Formerly 4Court Solutions), we have long believed that our solutions offer the flexibility and functionality that a whole range of market sectors require. They have been proven and installed in a cost-effective package that provides a complete solution tailored to each individual customer needs.

During 2020/21 we have carried out a number of market research activities across a number of industry sectors and published a number of white papers for customers, partners and retailers to take advantage of Post-COVID. Below is a link to what we developed around having a labeling strategy in-store no matter the industry you are in.

Since the launch of the first PrintPads back in 2009 they have been widely sold into a wide range of industry sectors and specifically in General Retail throughout Europe and the US. The introduction of the full SQL database functionality allowed even more specific industry sectors to be addressed as their requirements to print labels with an ever-expanding range of information.

Convenience stores, Fast Food Franchises, Deli’s can now not only print the level of details they require on product labels, but they can now easily gather statistics from their PrintPad/Box telling them what has been labelled and ultimately sold. This is all done without any changes to their EPOS system. Alternatively, if they have an EPOS system that can allow connectivity then PrintPads/Boxes can utilize their existing product SKU database.

FOOD LABELLING

With new legislation for Food Labelling being implemented throughout the world, the Electrone & CloudBox PrintPad and PrintBox range is equipped with an SQL database on-board that is powerful and flexible enough to handle the complex requirements of Food labelling. In addition, Electrone/CloudBox have developed a number of Food-Specific labelling templates for the Food Preparation Environment as well as for “End User” product sales for items like sandwiches and other perishable items. These are available as part of the standard package of label templates/designs and included in the base cost of the software on either the PrintPad or PrintBox.

If you or your customers require a High-Quality Product Display Labelling Solution, then Electrone & CloudBox have partnered with the developers of the SYMEYO solution to ensure that our PrintPads and PrintBox will work with their printer to deliver a wide range of display labels which can be printed right at the point of Service.

This solution allows for a range of “White On Black” or various multi-coloured labels to be printed which comply with the Full Range of Regulatory Requirements.