Sustainability in retail

e.g. point of sale systems

Sustainability in retail

Introduction

Retailers across the world deliver billions of signs a year to their stores in order to inform their customers of the price and other information about their products plus what promotions are on offer. The media of signage today includes shelf edge labels, promotional signs of various sizes and digital signage including electronic signage displays and in-store TV displays. Episys’ Retail Enterprise Suite™ is an integrated signage system that helps many retailers create and deliver these different types of signage as efficiently and quickly as possible. The system can also be optimized to reduce the carbon footprint a retailer uses for signage.

Less paper

Typically with a large price change or a percentage reduction across a department, many retailers printed a label for everything that changed. With an integrated signage system that interfaces with the retailer’s inventory system such as Retail Enterprise Suite™, retailers only get the labels that need to actually be put out. If a store does not stock the item with the price change or has no stock, it does not receive signage for that item. Therefore there is no wastage of paper or time wasted by the store associates having to sort out which of the signs sent to them is relevant to their store.

In addition, Retail Enterprise Suite™ optimises the use of multiple label sheets to ensure that the minimum number of sheets are used to print the required batches of labels for each store again reducing the amount of paper required.

Less Power

Power can be reduced in every store of a retailer by embedding the signage printing function in a printer operated by a touch screen rather than having to use a separate computer to drive the printer. Episys has worked with one of its strategic partners, Lexmark, to implement the Retail Enterprise Suite™ store printing software in their multi function printers (MFPs). Click here for more information. Lexmark has also been working with retailers to reduce the quantity of toner they use, implementing a recycling programme to ensure every toner cartridge is reused and reducing the energy its printers use on standby.

Digital Signage

The issue of a high carbon footprint through using paper signage, powering printers, using toner cartridges and printing too many signs can be reduced with digital signage. One form of digital signage is electronic shelf edge label display units which replace traditional paper shelf edge labels. A major benefit to the retailer is the elimination of labor costs putting up and taking down signs which has to be weighed against the cost of digital signs versus paper signs. Episys offers a variety of digital signage media driven by Retail Enterprise Suite™. Click here for more information.

eLearning

Episys has worked with its customers including one of the largest retailers in the world to develop eLearning courses for employees. These have the benefits of replacing the need for training courses so that employees in each store can learn on site how to operate the signage system at their own pace and at a time that suits them. They can also go back to the course to refresh themselves on a particular feature and when attrition occurs, the new employee can be trained up straight away without having to wait for a training course.

Besides these benefits is the very significant additional benefit that nobody needs to travel. Less negligible carbon is expended on planes, cars, taxis and training rooms and fewer trees are expended on training manuals compared to electronic learning courses.

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