Retailer Migros moving to electronic shelf labels

from Retail Customer Experience - March 9th, 2010

Migros, Switzlerland’s leading retailer, has selected ZBD’s e-paper solution as part of a major pilot project that will see the company move away from price-marked products in favor of shelf-edge labeling, according to a news release. As Switzerland’s largest supermarket retailer, Migros sells almost a quarter of the country’s food through an estate of more than 700 stores and ZBD’s e-paper displays have been implemented within 6 stores initially to test customer reaction.

The retailer operates a co-operative business model and employs almost 80,000 people within its network of supermarkets and special stores. In March 2009, Migros publicly announced its decision to move away from price-marked goods to shelf-edge labeling, giving the project a two-year timeframe.

Migros is the only major retailer in Europe to still print pricing directly onto individual products. Factors that influenced Migros' decision to move toward shelf-edge labeling included ensuring compliance between price at the shelf-edge and point of sale, in addition to savings achieved as a result of eliminating the need to destroy product packaging when pricing changes.

Migros expects to make its final decision on e-shelf label adoption in May 2010, with wide-scale deployment of the chosen solution expected from mid-2010 onwards. Migros plans to introduce a paper-shelf-labeling system in parallel with the e-system, and will assess the costs and benefits of ESL technology compared to paper.

“It is time for us to change our current system in favor of shelf edge labeling, and this project is key to the future success of our business," said Aurelius Wespi, Migros’ project leader. "We chose ZBD’s solution, amongst others, because of its zero infrastructure requirements and its visually appealing displays.”