K-Supermarket Ivalo

The title of the northernmost K-Supermarket in Finland is held by K-Supermarket Ivalo, which has utilized EWQ’s Electronic Shelf Labels in the shop environment for a year now.

The shopkeeper Kari Lohiniva looks back at his decision to choose EWQ as a partner for a year ago: ”I called my colleagues beforehand and got strong recommendations for EWQ. I also visited shops in Southern Finland to look at the installations and I couldn’t blame them.” Now after a year of cooperation Lohiniva praises the ease of dealing and working with EWQ. ”The cooperation with Teemu (Takanen) is working great and he always answers his phone!”

Electronic Shelf Labels (ESL) save time and make sure the prices are always correct

Over the first year there has been time to gain a lot of user experience as well as results about saved resources. The biggest and most important saving is worktime. ”The personnel has been extremely pleased for not having to tear down the paper labels from the shelves. There’s no more manual work and the personnel can concentrate on keeping the order on the shelves and changing seasonal products” Lohiniva reports.

The next best thing according to Lohiniva is reliability. ”When we first started using ESL’s about a year ago we waited by the shelves for the label info to update.” After some time the personnel noted that ESL’s were working as they should, and now they trust that the prices are always updated and correct.

Successful campaigns raise the shop profits

With electronic shelf labels the sales of campaign products has increased considerably, the attention value has gone up by 30-40% since last year. The store’s revenue has also increased due to successful campaigns. Lohiniva says that the ESL’s enables to show every single bundle offer in the shelves, which wasn’t possible before when using paper labels, because there just weren’t enough resources. ”This encourages the industry to use bundle offers. Companies and our own representatives can trust that when a price is agreed on, it will also be found on the shelves.”

With electronic shelf labels the sales of campaign products has increased considerably, the attention value has gone up by 30-40% since last year.

The store’s revenue has also increased due to successful campaigns.

EWQ listens and implements

Lohiniva blazes the active development EWQ does. In a years’ time there has been a lot of new versatile features, that add value to the solution from both clients and personnel’s perspective. ”A few months ago we talked about an improvement on how the products name is spelled on the labels when using several rows and the change was made automatically already some time ago. EWQ listens and implements!” Lohiniva says. Other important features have been the possibility to modify single products with the hand terminal and labeling special products such as gluten and lactose free products straight to the ESL screen. Lohiniva tells that especially the fruit and vegetable department actively modify the labels as the scale numbers, origin countries and the quality class change all the time. We have just started special labeling the products. The most important ones for our clients are gluten free and lactose free labeling” he continues.

The newest feature is a red dot on the bottom corner of the shelf label which tells staff pre-agreed information. K-Supermarket Ivalo, as other Kesko stores uses the red dot to inform them of outgoing products. ”An outgoing product can for example be a seasonal products that will be removed from the selection as the season changes. The red dot tells the personnel that this product won’t be ordered anymore.” Lohiniva narrates.

Electronic shelf labels helps in the pricing against wastage

ESL’s have also helped reducing wastage. Products that are closing in on their last usage date are no longer marked with stickers saying -30%, instead the prices are changed in the system straight on to the labels. Next morning the prices return to normal. The circulation of products keeps getting better and the amount of wastage smaller, without spending the personnel’s time as the paper labels are history.

Customers are pleased with the clarity of the store

K-Supermarket Ivalo has gotten good feedback from their clients that the store is clear and explicit. According to Lohiniva, ESL’s have been a factor in the cleanliness of the store. ”The clientele sees the offers straight from the ESL’s without extra tags. The shelf areas don’t look like Christmas trees anymore, 50 offers and price tags weren’t very clear.” Lohiniva tells us. Now you can’t find more than ten paper price tags in the store and two printers has already been put into retirement.

Finally, we asked if Lohiniva would recommend EWQ to others. ”Absolutely! I have seen similar versions in Norway but clarity of EWQ’s ESL solution is an advantage.” Lohiniva tells that it took a month or two for the customers to realize that previously used paper labels were changed to electronic shelves labels. This was a positive factor that highlights the clarity and functionality of the solution. ”We are soon receiving results from our customer satisfaction survey, let’s get back in touch then!” Lohiniva promises.

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