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It's interesting to know that products on Amazon might not be the lowest price, or always close. I thought there was more manual price research and setting, lik
by thinkloop 10y ago
It's interesting to know that products on Amazon might not be the lowest price, or always close. I thought there was more manual price research and setting, like Walmart.
- Animats 10y agoWalmart can't change their prices as fast; humans have to re-label things. For now. Brick and mortar retailers can use radio-controlled e-ink shelf price tags for minute by minute price changes.[1] This hasn't really caught on yet, but the technology is ready. [1] http://www.eink.com/esl_tags.html http://www.eink.com/esl_tags.html
- ftlio 10y agoMy mother used to be a scan coordinator at a grocery store. We have been talking about this eventually happening for over a decade. Although based on her experience, the infrastructure for even letting her know what pricing should be requires a major IT overhaul as well.
- trome 10y agoThe cost and wiring to power eink displays is too much, due to the USD being fairly stable, prices don't change daily/hourly, which would help eink signage for shelving make sense. You essentially either need a power drop to each section of shelving, or you have to replace batteries on every sign through your store every X months or years.
- copperx 10y agoKohl's stores in the US already do this, although they're not grocers.
- NordSteve 10y agoGrocery stores have order of magnitude more SKUs than Kohls, and operate on smaller margins.
- gerbal 10y agoThere are lot of wireless E-ink displays for sale that advertise 5-year battery life with a simple button cell. For like $10/label.
- easychris 10y agoWe have a grocery store in Krefeld, Germany, which uses e-ink price tags exclusively[1]. But I never noticed a real-time change when I was shopping there. [1] http://www.lebensmittelzeitung.net/storechecks/Neues-Real-Konzept-in-Krefeld-1015 http://www.lebensmittelzeitung.net/storechecks/Neues-Real-Ko... (e.g. pics 9, 20-24).
- wikibob 10y agoActually eInk price displays, known as Electronic Shelf Labels (ESL's) [0] are extensive deployed in many retailers. You can see the labels available from Pricer, one of the big players in the space: http://www.pricer.com/en/Solutions/ http://www.pricer.com/en/Solutions/ France retailer Carrefour uses ESLs in all their stores, for every SKU. They use ESL's from Pricer who says Carrefour uses 12 million labels, deployed in 2004, and they are updated via in ceiling infrared transmitters. [1] ESL's are also common in Germany. And in the USA some Whole Foods use them. This random blog claims "The ESL market is estimated to grow from 186.5 million dollars to 399.6 million dollars by 2020" [2] Ses-imagotag showcases some interesting applications of their tags including manufacturing [3] and office use. Finally a list of companies in the space [4] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_shelf_label https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_shelf_label [1] http://www.pricer.com/en/PressRoom/Case-Studies/Electronic-Shelf-Labels-for-Food-Retail/Cora1/ http://www.pricer.com/en/PressRoom/Case-Studies/Electronic-S... [2] http://www.retailintelligencelab.com/blog/2016/11/24/the-rise-of-electronic-shelf-labels http://www.retailintelligencelab.com/blog/2016/11/24/the-ris... [3] http://www.ses-imagotag.com/en/benefits/ http://www.ses-imagotag.com/en/benefits/ [4] https://iot-daily.com/2015/03/19/best-electronic-shelf-label-companies/ https://iot-daily.com/2015/03/19/best-electronic-shelf-label...
- wikibob 10y agoThis is pretty awesome. The system is smarter than I thought when I saw it in-store. Since the tags are networked with infrared, they can flash on command. For example when store employees are trying to find a particular product for stocking, or retrieving it for a delivery order (example safeway.com delivery). http://www.pricer.com/en/Solutions/Store-Manage-Solutions/ http://www.pricer.com/en/Solutions/Store-Manage-Solutions/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrtO8qVmezM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrtO8qVmezM
- wfunction 10y ago> Brick and mortar retailers can use radio-controlled e-ink shelf price tags for minute by minute price changes. How does that even work? You pick up the product and the price changes by the time you go pay for it? Who would like that?
- valuearb 10y agoThey also send you an additional bill if the pride increase before you get home.
- thinkloop 10y agoThen they compare after-market prices and if you're trending higher than forecasted: additional bills.
- im3w1l 10y agoThat's what you'd think. But with Best Price Just For You!™ technology, you don't actually get the price on the shelf. You get the lowest listed price in the last hour. If the price is raised you Keep Your Locked In Price™. If the price is lowered you get the new better price!
- bendbro 10y agoYou mock, but I'm sure hundreds of hours have been spending crafting that corporate grocer speak!
- ptero 10y agoIIRC one of the US grocers (stop and shop or Kroger?) actually tried that as an ad for their store card: "you do not even know how much you will pay for many products, but it will be a lower price". Needless to say this didn't run for a long time.
- ars 10y agoI suspect it's really day by day, not minute by minute. They probably only update overnight. How would they even have data to justify minute by minute?
- massysett 10y agoI saw e-ink shelf tags deployed throughout the store at a Whole Foods Market in Sugar Land, Texas.
- hugodahl 10y agoI've also seen similar (LCD based shelf tags) at Whole Foods in Plano, TX, for the better part of the last decade.
- willcodeforfoo 10y agoIn Ohio at least, Kohl's has had e-ink shelf tags for the past few years.
- Spooky23 10y agoWalmart doesn't need to. They squeeze the manufacturers or wholesalers for the best wholesale price.
- thinkloop 10y agoMinute-by-minute seems unnecessarily precise. I doubt the efficiency gains would outweigh the infrastructure cost and maintenance of a real-time system. The psychological influence of .99 pricing is probably more effective.
- michalskop 10y agoCarrefour in France was using it already some 10 years ago. More current photo: https://theworklife.com/graham-miln/files/2013/12/2013-09-eink-tags-01.jpg https://theworklife.com/graham-miln/files/2013/12/2013-09-ei...
- ars 10y agoI've actually started switching grocery buying to walmart - because they do have the best price, and they have free shipping. With Amazon it's annoying - I have to keep items in the cart for a while to see how the price ends up. That's worth it for expensive electronics, but not groceries.
- ikeboy 10y agoI've seen items vary wildly at walmart as well- once saw a $3 item go to $18 for a day.
- deelowe 10y agoWatch out. Walmart gets different SKUs for the products they carry. I've seen snacks that were a couple of ounces smaller, for example. Also, their meat and produce is much lower quality than other places.