Finding Convenience in Pandemic's Inconvenience

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Finding Convenience in Pandemic's Inconvenience

• During the pandemic, convenience stores became
  busier than ever, putting an additional burden on
  the employees.

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Finding Convenience in Pandemic's Inconvenience

• Free time is now a rare and precious commodity. 
•  
• As of September, nearly half of business owners
  had not taken a single day off in the previous
  year. It is a significant increase above last
  year's figure.

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• New customers were drawn to convenience shops as
  a result of the pandemic, which increased foot
  traffic to such establishments. However, unwanted
  consequences such as worker absences, supply
  disruptions, and an array of new safety standards
  also came up. Despite the relaxation of COVID
  regulations, retailers still face problems,
  including a scarcity of workers.
•  Due to the increased workload, some business
  owners are beginning to worry about their
  well-being as well as those of their workers.
   However, they can implement various measures to
  alleviate the situation, like taking advantage
  of Electronic Shelf Labels or ESLs. SOLUM ESLs
  are currently deployed to Scotmid Co-op and
  Southern Co-op to over 40 stores and have just
  crossed the impressive 150,000 label marker.
  Further installations are being planned across
  the estate, replacing traditional paper-based
  shelf edge pricing and promotion labels in favor
  of digital display technology.

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Using ESL can free up the workload for stores
that may be understaffed during the pandemic.
With the ESL's advanced features, convenience
stores can perform price updates, check
inventory, and serve customers in an automated
manner.  
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"The solution can remove workload and worry by
reducing labor costs, giving total price
flexibility, and making shelf labels more
informative," says Mark Duckworth, Country
Manager for UK, Ireland, Australia at SOLUM.
"By having ESLs, the process now takes seconds
rather than hours, leaving retailers more time to
focus on other areas or even time for themselves."
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SOLUM is the leading ESL supplier worldwide. To
date, it has provided 100 million ESL tags
globally, including convenience stores from
opposite ends of the UK. Recently, SOLUM supplied
its latest ESL lineup to stores run by Scotmid
Co-op and Southern Co-opthanks to the efforts of
partner Herbert Retail.   "We are always looking
at innovation to pick out the solutions that land
real benefit for our customers and colleagues.
SOLUM Electronic Shelf Edge Labels look great,
transform our stores and present our price and
product information more clearly to our
customers. Our store teams are really loving
thisremoving the burden of price and promotion
tasks and compliance isn't just a productivity
boost it's been a morale boost too!" says Allan
Robertson, Programme Manager for Innovation and
Change at Scotmid.
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Moreover, this project won Sustainability
Champion at the Scotting Grocer Awards 2021 for
providing benefits not only to retailers and
customers but also to the environment.    Filteri
ng price changes down to stores takes time. ESLs
allow these changes to be made in an instant. We
do believe were seeing increased turnover
through this because promotional prices are run
quicker. The labels are also clearer and easier
to read. We didnt just copy our paper design
into an electronic shelf label, we have improved
the way they look, adds Robertson. Before, a
lot of the data and information that was on our
paper labels was actually for the store team, not
the customer. With electronic labels, we can move
all that information onto a separate page.
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Southern Coops Mark Barnett says Pricing and
promotion changes are made centrally. Once ESLs
are installed there is very little for the store
to do with them, Barnett adds. It is ultimately
about simplifying our store operation.   For
more information on SOLUMs ESL solutions, you
may contact us today or email us
at marketing_at_solu-m.com.