The Nature and Importance of Modern Retail Equipment
Since humans first began trading goods, they have had to find ways to determine the relative value of their sale items. When measuring grain and flour, amongst others, the simplest solution would have been to employ a weighing machine or a fixed-size container. At that time, scales were simple balancing devices consisting of two plates suspended from the opposite ends of a pivoting beam. The goods were placed on one plate, and weighing stones were added to the other until the beam remained horizontal. Today, scales are still an essential piece of retail equipment, although modern devices are far more sophisticated.
An Increased Demand for Advanced Weighing Equipment
In most cases, those early traders specialised in a single commodity, such as wine, spices or vegetables, serving their customers from outdoor stalls. Today, we live in an age of supermarkets and hypermarkets that supply thousands of different items and deal with an equally large number of customers in a single day. There is no time for checkout clerks to weigh things. Instead, some must be pre-weighed and packaged by warehouse staff while producers handle the remainder. One of the most significant advances in retail equipment has been the development of a scale that can weigh an item, calculate its value and print a price label.
Despite the predominance of pre-weighed and pre-packaged products and canned goods on supermarket shelves, certain items, such as fruit and vegetables, are still sold individually. Some customers may want to purchase just a few potatoes rather than a two- or five-kilogram pack. To assist them, many stores now include a self-service PC-based scale. Customers can select as much or as little as they can afford, bag it, and use this retail equipment to print a label bearing the relevant price. The customer is happy, and there’s less delay at the checkout.
Modern Labelling Technology
Labels have also undergone a metamorphosis. They are no longer the simple hand-written adhesive paper squares of yesteryear, subject to fading and sometimes illegible. They required an assistant to read and enter the price of each item into a manual cash register, a time-consuming and error-prone process. In addition to the clearly-printed price, today’s more robust, non-fade labels also include a barcode. An electronic scanner, now a standard item of retail equipment in all large stores, reads each code instantaneously to generate a continuously updated total on a digital display.
While the barcoding system represents a significant advance, it is just one way in which the use of labels has expanded. Even under normal circumstances, prices are prone to variation. Stock surpluses often lead to special offers, while shortages may necessitate price increases. Due to the current supply chain disruptions following the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, price hikes could soon become a daily feature. Manually relabelling shelves could be a nightmare for a store with thousands of SKUs. Fortunately, retail equipment now includes electronic shelf labelling (ESL) systems.
Rather than assigning a staff member to physically track down the affected items, print new labels and replace the old ones, these systems can automate the entire process. The ESL device consists of a plastic frame with a digital display screen. All information on that display can be updated remotely by a radio signal generated from a conveniently located computer. In addition to saving time, an “active” labelling system offers other advantages over conventional, printed labels. For example, this item of retail equipment can be an invaluable aid during sales and special promotions. A store manager can activate an LED on all the relevant tags to set it flashing, thus attracting the attention of bargain-hunting shoppers.
Retail Equipment for a Cashless Society
Following the pandemic restrictions, many experts now predict that we will become a cashless society. More stores now have self-checkouts, and some ATMs are no longer operating. Paying for goods is another area where electronic shelf labelling can change how customers shop. Facilitating this change could be another good reason to include an ESL system when upgrading your retail equipment. A digital label can generate a short-range RF signal for near-field communication (NFC) or display a QR code that customers can scan to a smartphone application. The app will then sum the individual purchase prices and initiate the appropriate payment. Customers complete their shopping more quickly, and checkout operators can handle more customers, so the active labels provide a win-win situation for all concerned.
Teraoka is the sole supplier of internationally-renowned DIGI weighing systems to Southern Africa. We invite you to browse our extensive range of advanced retail equipment.