March 22, 2024 • 28 mins
Today's episode features an enlightening conversation between our host RetailWire BrainTrust Panelist Brian Cluster, industry marketing director at Stibo Systems, and Folkwin Haye, Key Account Sales Director for Hanshow America - a trailblazer in innovative in-store tech solutions.
In this discussion, Folkwin and Brian delve into the transformative world of electronic shelf labels (ESLs) and their game-changing impact on the retail industry, particularly in the DIY retail sector.
Listen as Folkwin reveals how ESLs are revolutionizing retail operations, from vastly simplifying pricing strategies to creating superior customer experiences. Learn how these digital tools play an integral role in the retail industry's journey towards comprehensive digital transformation.
In this episode, Folkwin shares insights on Hanshow’s innovative solutions, such as ESLs equipped with LED lights and geolocation capabilities. These features are transforming retail experiences and operations by enabling efficient product location and real-time access to accurate product information.
Folkwin also gives a sneak peek into Hanshow America's participation in the upcoming National Hardware Show in Las Vegas. Attendees can expect an opportunity to experience firsthand the durability and unique features of their ESLs, tailored to meet the specific needs of DIY retail.
Whether you're a retailer seeking to gain a competitive edge through advanced technology or you're simply intrigued by the intersection of retail and tech, this episode promises fresh insights and forward-thinking discussions.
Don't forget to hit the subscribe button for more insights from retail industry leaders. Join our daily newsletter at RetailWire for the freshest news and a community of retail enthusiasts.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Okay, welcome to Retail Wire Podcast, your go-to
source for all things retail.
Our podcast is theone-stop-shop for the latest
trend.
I'm your host for today, brianCluster, and I'm an industry
marketing director at SteboSystems for this retail and CPG
industries.
My role is to support ourcustomer success and master data
(00:34):
management and getting the mostout of their data.
With more than a couple decadesof experience working on
strategy, delivering analyticsand helping with digital
transformations, and especiallytalking about data, I'm super
excited about the topic today,and today I'm joined with
Folkwin Hei, and he is the keyaccount sales director for
(00:55):
Henshaw America.
Background and management,consulting, it and project
management.
He specializes in digitaltransformation, it strategy and
process optimization, and youworked for the company for 10
years in markets around theworld.
That's very exciting.
I think the audience is reallygoing to get a lot out of it
today.
Can you tell me a little bitabout your role in Henshaw as a
(01:19):
company?
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Sure, brian.
Thank you for the niceintroduction.
So my name is Folkwin Hei.
I've been with the company forover 10 years, as you just said,
helping this company to becomea real global player when it
comes to in-store technologysolutions, digital solutions.
I've been doing this all overthe world, starting in China
(01:44):
over 10 years ago, moving toEurope where for ESL it was a
more mature market.
They've been using this type ofsolution for over 10 years
already.
For us, it was the firstimportant market to get a piece
of.
It's been going very well.
We got now offices all overEurope and I think we are
(02:06):
probably the largest ESLsupplier in that market at the
moment.
And for us, looking at themarket globally, we feel that
the next most important marketfor electronic shelf labels and
digital solutions will be herein the United States.
Here it's not a very commonsolution yet.
(02:29):
It's not widespread.
You don't see it in every store.
There's a few stores that aretesting, there's a few that have
rolled out, but it's stillearly times, I think.
And I think if you have lookedat what happened here in the
past years with the laborshortages, with the volatility
when it comes to raw materialprices and also logistical
(02:50):
prices.
The need to be able to pricefaster and more accurately and
not using labor to do it, hasbecome more needed, so to say,
in this market, and we see thatbecause a lot of retailers have
approached us in the last yearto see how we can help them to
(03:13):
digitize their pricingoperations.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Yeah, thanks for that background.
I think in my experience I'veseen electronic shelf labels at
some specialty store, somehigh-end grocery retail and a
few other spots some of theelectronic stores here and there
, and I know it's going to begrowing in DIY retail as well.
(03:39):
But for those in the audiencethat are not really aware of
where electronic shelf labelshave grown or have changed over
the years, can you tell a littlebit about how?
Just getting back to the basics, how does electronic shelf
labels create better shoppingexperiences for shoppers out
there?
I think that would be a reallygood way to start.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Sure, let's start with the basics.
So electronic shelf labels arelittle e-paper screens that
replace the price tag in thestore.
So now retailers they use alittle piece of paper to display
the prices, which is a manualprocess that have to print a
piece of paper and an actualperson has to go to the store,
(04:22):
find the product and replacethis little piece of paper.
And if you look at the pricechanges that a store has every
week, it does take some time.
So the basic functionality isto remove the labor that it
takes to replace price tags, toremove some of the costs that
you have for printing anddistributing the price tags, but
(04:45):
it also improves the accuracyof the pricing in your store.
When you're dependent on amanual process people changing
price tags it will go wrong.
Sometimes they will forget tochange the price tag, a price
tag can fall on the floor andthen to know if your store let's
(05:06):
say, a good DIY store mighthave like 50,000 SKUs, for
example, so to go through yourstore and to verify whether all
your prices are correct.
It's a task.
It's not easy to do and what wefound from studies actually is
that on average, I think, about7% of the prices in any given
(05:27):
store that uses paper price tagsis incorrect.
So besides being able to morequickly change the price, you
also increase your priceaccuracy in the store.
So these are the basicfunctionalities of ESL and they
have been the benefits for manyyears already.
(05:49):
However, esl's, they haveevolved over time.
You know, in the old days therewere little LCD screens, black
and white, and if you changedthe product name you still had
to stick a sticker on the bottombecause it would only display
the price.
Now they're fully graphice-paper screens.
They can display multiplecolors.
Our latest generation ofelectronic shelf labels can
(06:11):
display six different colors.
They are fully graphic so youcan show images, barcodes, qr
codes, anything on the ESLactually.
But they have morefunctionality so they have
increased their battery life.
Our latest labels they willlast you for 10 to 15 years,
(06:32):
which is a very long time.
And also the electronic shelflabels to have a little LED
light in the corner and this LEDlight helps to improve a lot of
operational things in the storeand I'll give you an example.
It's in store picking.
You know an employee needs topick a certain product for an
(06:55):
online order and some storesthey choose to do that from the
actual store instead of awarehouse to increase sales per
square feet of their store andto help them locate products
faster, we can make this lightflesh so they can find it
immediately.
You know, normally withsupermarkets I use the use case
(07:17):
of an aisle with wine and pickerneeds to choose to find the
right bowl of wine, which cantake some time.
But I can imagine that for aDIY store you have walls of
screws, for example, or otherproducts that look quite similar
.
So you know where you can findthis product in the store.
But to actually locate theexact item that you're looking
(07:38):
for correctly, if the price tagwill start flashing, it will
help you to locate that muchfaster.
So, besides helping storesdigitize pricing, the ESL also
helped them to increase theoperational efficiency of a lot
of processes that they have inthe store and, together with the
(07:59):
retailers, we will look at theprocesses and see how this
technology has, or the digitaldisplay and the LED light and
the geolocation functionalitythat our labels have to see how
it can make their work moreefficient.
So electronic shelf labels helpwith digitizing the pricing, it
(08:19):
helps with making work easierfor employees in the store and
it helps giving consumers abetter customer experience in
the store To have more accurateinformation to display.
They can retrieve additionalinformation by scanning a
QR-Cade on the ESL, for example,and with the light we could
(08:43):
also help consumers findproducts in the store and I
think especially for DIY.
You know it's not my dailysupermarket where I go every day
and I know where to findeverything.
I mean a DIY store for mepersonally, I only visit a
couple times a year when I havea project going on, so I don't
know where everything is.
And finding products, I think,is a big added benefit of ESL
(09:07):
specifically for DIY stores.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Yeah no, no, it's great and you know, when I
started my career, I was at Acehardware, which is a DIY
retailer.
I remember actually putting upthe price tags.
You're putting your back to thecustomer, so a lot of customers
don't want to interrupt peoplebecause they're trying to get
their work done.
But at the same time, then thecustomers are, you know, taking
(09:31):
longer to find what they need ormaybe have some questions.
But a key thing to think aboutis you know, how does it, how
does the in-store retailprofessional interact with this
technology?
Because I think this technologyis gonna be interesting.
It helps the store, in my mind.
It helps the store catch upwith the digital world, because
(09:55):
now you have more data right atshelf.
It's kind of what you're usedto online or in app.
But how does, how does theretail professional interact
with this data and how does ithelp customers?
Can a little bit, can talk alittle bit about more about this
, maybe even in a DIY study.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Yeah, sure, I mean.
Maybe I can use an actualexample of a retailer who
recently installed in Europe.
So in France you have thelargest DIY retailer called Le
Roi Merlin, or an English,leeroy Merlin, and we've
recently done a fullinstallation with them, using a
(10:41):
lot of the capabilities that ourlabels have.
And it's been awarded as well.
Actually, recently, during theEurosis 2024, which is the the
largest retail show in Europe,le Roi Merlin and Hanshaw were
awarded an award for bestin-store solution and pops a pie
of retail 2024.
(11:01):
And we wanted, because you knowthey really got a lot out of the
, the technology that we have tooffer for them, for example,
and and they managed to reallyincrease their in-store
efficiency and customersatisfaction scores by using
this technology.
And we help them customers withease finding product, being
(11:26):
able to access real-time pricing, but also help them to receive
personalized promotions directlyon their smartphones, which has
and empowered the consumers tomake more informed purchasing
decisions.
How it works in in real life, Ican I can give you some
examples.
So, store associate, usuallythey have a PDA or a handheld
(11:49):
device to do things in the store.
They need to reorder things andand other things in the store,
interacting with the SKUs and weinstall an app on that, the
Hanshaw app, so to say, on onthe PDA, which helps them to
interact with our system.
So let's say, I need to restocka product on the shelf yeah.
(12:11):
I don't know exactly where Ineed to put it.
I can scan the barcode on theproduct that I that I need to
restock, and the correspondinglight of the of the of the ESL
will start to flat and I knowexactly where to put it, saving
me some time.
Also and that's kind of uniqueour labels have a geolocation
(12:33):
capability means that this ESLknows where it is in the store
and and our system is able tolocate it wherever it is, and it
helps employees to to to findcertain things.
Other scenarios for storeemployees are in store picking,
so instead of restocking it,they need to take products,
(12:56):
mainly because they have onlineorder.
You know, in America we've alsointegrated for supermarkets
with Instacart, for example, sothat these pickers can locate
the products faster in the store.
We have done some studies andwe found that we saved nearly
50% of the time if you use alittle flashlight to help people
(13:17):
locate products.
So these are some benefits thatwe help with them.
And another thing, especiallyfor DIYs if consumers have
better access to moreinformation and to locate
products, it gives them a muchbetter customer experience of
well and it frees up a littlebit of time for the employees.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
Yeah, that's some great examples and I've had some
experience.
Even you know, I love the wineexample because it's just a wall
of confusion of wine.
It's like a thousand red winesand all these labels and it's
really hard to find.
So being able to find that onefor that customer, it's
extraordinary.
And I've had the same issue inthe vitamin category.
(14:06):
I know it's not DIY, butthere's multiple sizes of the
same brand and you're trying tofind the right slot for it.
So that's really helpful and Ireally like some of the examples
.
You hear that.
I've really heard that light.
That's like a unique new usecase I think I've never really
(14:27):
heard of.
So I think that's going to besomething that retailers should
think about.
Can we go into a little bit moredetail?
Now we're getting in.
You know we're the on thegetters point.
Now I'd like to get into somemore details about some of the
innovation you guys are doing,because it seems like you're at
the cutting edge, so you'recatering to specific retailers.
(14:49):
So what kind of additionaldetail do you have on how ESLs
aid in the daily operations ofretail?
Say, maybe even some moreexamples of DIY, because DIY is
kind of a tougher environment.
You have more skews, it can bemore confusing.
(15:09):
So if you have some additionalideas and some innovation plans,
that would be reallyinteresting to hear.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
Sure, sure.
So let me think specificallyfor DIY stores.
There are actually quite someuse cases and I think for DIY
store, one thing you need tothink about is that A lot of
products that you sell are seenas by consumers kind of as a
(15:41):
commodity, right?
So if I buy a power tool, Idon't care where I buy the power
tool, I just want to have thecheapest one, right.
And since they are costly tools, I'm gonna as a consumer, I'm
probably gonna look it up on theinternet to see where I can get
the best price, you know.
(16:02):
So for a store like that, youhave to realize how important
your pricing strategy is and howyou want to enable yourself to
be competitive with pricing.
So what we've seen from ourexperience with a lot of DIY
stores one big reason for themto buy, you sell is to stay
(16:22):
competitive in the market withthe specific product categories
and to be able to change theprice whenever you want.
If you look at onlinecompetition it's digital.
There's a lot of algorithms andtools and other things that are
used to change the price basedon what's happening online to
stay competitive.
They're all kind of reacting oneach other and on a lot of
(16:44):
factors and it goes really quick.
You know it's quite common foran online store to change their
price daily or even have daypart pricing, and in the offline
world, without ESL, it's justnot possible.
You know you cannot change yourprice every day, or a couple
times a day, and ask youremployees to do that.
So you need to think as aretailer on a strategic level on
(17:08):
how important pricing is foryour overall strategy and how
digitization is going to enableyou to be more competitive and
to use a lot of additionalstrategies that are just not
possible right now.
I'll give you an example, forhere you have Black Friday, you
(17:28):
know.
So on Black Friday you havesome specific offers and
everybody lines up in themorning and they're like
fighting to get the deal right,and it's because all the deals
are activated when the storeopens.
Now what you could do is havespecial promotions, start at
specific times of the day andyou can all pre-program it in
(17:52):
the ESL and have some executedat an instance, for example.
So you really have to thinkabout what other possibilities
is this digitization going togive me, and I think also the
positioning functionality, sobeing able to find things.
(18:13):
It's a huge added benefit forthe store associates, but also
for the consumers.
So this positioning is reallybecoming more and more important
, I think, for a better customerexperience.
Other things that I can thinkof for the employees is just
(18:38):
they'll be able to get a lotmore direct information about
their products and everything,because each ESL is a digital
window from the skew to theemployee and the consumer, and
they'll also be able to receiveback feedback.
So it's possible to interactwith an ESL and know who is
(18:58):
interacted with what ESL at whatmoment.
It's possible to download acoupon from the ESL to your
phone and use the coupon.
And because it's a digital way,the store starts to see what
customers have downloaded whatcoupons and which ones they have
used and which ones they havenot used.
(19:19):
And this is all data.
I guess that interests you aswell, that you don't know when
you send out paper folders toconsumers.
You don't know who looked atwhich folder, you don't know who
cut out which coupon and thendidn't use it, and all this data
becomes available when youstart to digitize it.
So we will also work withcouponing companies to digitize
(19:41):
this whole process.
I think in the United Statesit's Catalina that does that for
example, and we work togetherwith them.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
I'm really interested about this because I put on my
Stebo hat for a second Stebosystems hat.
We work with a lot of customersto bring in data from suppliers
all their product data, all thehazardous materials, the
brochures, all the data, thewarnings or ingredients or
(20:10):
nutritional information, andthen it goes out to the apps, to
the website, even the socialmedia, and then it goes to the
shelf and typically with thepaper shelf you're only getting
2% of the data that people havebeen working on for six months
to get that product ready to besold.
(20:32):
I think what I'm kind of hearingis electronic shelf labels now
can.
Obviously they're going todisplay more than price.
They have the ability to do theQR code, so now you don't have
that artificial barrier of thedigitalization at the shelf.
You're giving them equalfooting to when they're at home,
almost to get a lot of data to.
(20:52):
If they're in the DIY, they're,they're probably trying to
understand what's hazardousabout this product or whatever.
So you're just opening up moreinformation.
I think what a lot of consumerswant are into researching more
about the product, so this is agood way of opening up that,
those ideas for consumers.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
No, and we have a reference.
I mean another possibility.
I remember was a customer inFrance you can put customer
reviews on your label and havethem linked automatically to
your reviews that you haveonline.
So like one, two, three store,five star reviews, you can put
that on the ESL.
There was another retailer thatactually put competitor pricing
(21:33):
on the ESL, showing their ownprice and like three or four
competitors and their pricing Ithink that might be something
that's that's allowed in theUnited States as well and they
put it on the ESL and they justgot it from the internet and
because it's digital, it'salways up to date.
Yeah, and about ESL I forespecially for DIY stores and
(21:56):
retailers.
I just want to explain a littlebit about the few features that
would be important to look forfor a good solution when it
comes to electronic shelf labels, because there are many
suppliers in the market rightnow.
And first thing you need tolook at is battery life.
So you install millions oflabels if you have a change
(22:18):
store and you don't want tochange the battery, it's a lot
of work.
It's a manual job to need to goand change the battery.
If you do that, it's a lot ofwork, so you need to have long
battery life, just the firstthing to look out.
These days, a good solutionshould last you for at least 10
years on battery, which is along time for any device to work
(22:39):
right, especially if they runon batteries.
So the second thing you need tolook out for is the durability,
because retail environments arerough environments.
There are trolleys in DIYstores, I imagine.
There are forklift trucksdriving around.
Consumers are not the mostfriendly to stuff.
(23:00):
Anything that can break willbreak, and so you need to keep
the breakage at the lowestpercentage possible.
And so for our labels, thelatest one we've developed.
They have a unibody design.
There's resin in it.
You can drive it far over itliterally, and it won't break.
It's really important factorthat's often under looked when
(23:22):
you look at the labels.
Our labels are also 100%waterproof, for example.
Their airtight also has to dowith the longevity of the
battery, for example.
And then you need to look atthe functionality and also how
the company that's going tosupply you the labels is going
(23:42):
to help you get the most out ofit, because, as I mentioned,
it's going to do a lot more thanchanging the price.
Every store has their ownprocesses.
They all do it a little bitdifferent, and this
functionality needs to beintegrated with the processes.
So, yeah, their efficiency getsbetter.
You know, and those are a fewthings I think you really need
(24:06):
to look out for when you chooseone of those, when any sales
apply.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
Yeah, thanks for your clarity.
That really helps people, Ithink, really pinpoint and plan
how they're going to go afterESLs for their retail.
So I've really enjoyed theconversation so far and I've
learned a lot about electronicshelves, labels.
I thought I knew a lot, butwhen you provide all that detail
and you know how it reallyhelps the IY, I think it's
(24:34):
really interesting and I couldsee how it benefits both the
retail, the customer and eventhe in-store associate, because
that makes their life a loteasier.
So let's look ahead for you andyour company Henshaw.
What's next for you guys in theUS that people would look out
for you in the market?
Speaker 2 (24:55):
Yeah, well, I think what's next is actually the
national hardware shelves that'sgoing to take place in Vegas
later this month.
We will have a booth there.
I will be there myselfpersonally, so I would like to
invite anybody who's listeningto this to come by our booths
and have a look at what we haveto offer.
(25:15):
We have tailored the boothspecifically for the DIY stores
to display the robustness of theESL.
We've also developed a specificaccessory for electronic shelf
labels, which will offeradditional protection from
forklift trucks.
We've managed to createsomething that can actually help
labels to survive impact fromforklift trucks and just some
(25:38):
other solutions that wespecifically developed for DIY,
and I would like to invite youall to come have a look and see
what we have to offer.
And on top of that, I want touse this time to make clear that
we don't only do electronicshelf labels.
We are a digital store provider.
We do a lot of solutions thathelp to digitize your in-store
(26:01):
operations, and you can thinkabout the first step we do
usually is ESL, the digitizerpricing, because you will get a
lot of benefit out of it.
The second step is to digitizeyour marketing with in-store
screens Still marketing.
To date, they use a lot ofposters and by digitizing that,
you will get a lot of addedbenefits as well.
And then we have an additionalstep with AI and AI cameras.
(26:24):
So by placing AI cameras in thestore, you have a lot of
additional benefits, for example, keeping your planogram up to
date, knowing out of stocks, andit really helps you to close
that last gap.
That's done now by people, butnot too efficiently.
(26:46):
At the moment there are a lotof stores that struggle with
keeping their planograms up todate and gap checking to make
sure there's product on theshelves at all times.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
Great.
Thank you so much.
I've learned a lot.
I'm sure the audience havelearned a lot.
Thanks for being on the showtoday.
Do you have any last remarksthat you'd like to wrap up
before we close out this episode?
Speaker 2 (27:09):
Well, I mean, please have a look at our website,
handshowcom.
Come visit us during the NHSshow and do not hesitate to
reach out to us.
You can always write us anemail at infohanshowcom and
we'll make sure to reply as soonas possible.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
Thank you, folkwin.
It's been a pleasure.
Thanks for taking the timeeveryone to listen to today's
news.
Listen to today's episode ofthe Retail Wire Podcast.
If you found this discussionavailable, don't forget to hit
the subscribe button on yourfavorite podcast platform and
for latest news, engagingdiscussion in a vibrant
community of retail enthusiasts,be sure to join our daily
(27:48):
newsletter at retailwirecom.
See you next time.
Thank you so much.
Okay, welcome to Retail Wire Podcast, your go-to
source for all things retail.
Our podcast is theone-stop-shop for the latest
trend.
I'm your host for today, brianCluster, and I'm an industry
marketing director at SteboSystems for this retail and CPG
industries.
My role is to support ourcustomer success and master data
(00:34):
management and getting the mostout of their data.
With more than a couple decadesof experience working on
strategy, delivering analyticsand helping with digital
transformations, and especiallytalking about data, I'm super
excited about the topic today,and today I'm joined with
Folkwin Hei, and he is the keyaccount sales director for
(00:55):
Henshaw America.
Background and management,consulting, it and project
management.
He specializes in digitaltransformation, it strategy and
process optimization, and youworked for the company for 10
years in markets around theworld.
That's very exciting.
I think the audience is reallygoing to get a lot out of it
today.
Can you tell me a little bitabout your role in Henshaw as a
(01:19):
company?
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Sure, brian.
Thank you for the niceintroduction.
So my name is Folkwin Hei.
I've been with the company forover 10 years, as you just said,
helping this company to becomea real global player when it
comes to in-store technologysolutions, digital solutions.
I've been doing this all overthe world, starting in China
(01:44):
over 10 years ago, moving toEurope where for ESL it was a
more mature market.
They've been using this type ofsolution for over 10 years
already.
For us, it was the firstimportant market to get a piece
of.
It's been going very well.
We got now offices all overEurope and I think we are
(02:06):
probably the largest ESLsupplier in that market at the
moment.
And for us, looking at themarket globally, we feel that
the next most important marketfor electronic shelf labels and
digital solutions will be herein the United States.
Here it's not a very commonsolution yet.
(02:29):
It's not widespread.
You don't see it in every store.
There's a few stores that aretesting, there's a few that have
rolled out, but it's stillearly times, I think.
And I think if you have lookedat what happened here in the
past years with the laborshortages, with the volatility
when it comes to raw materialprices and also logistical
(02:50):
prices.
The need to be able to pricefaster and more accurately and
not using labor to do it, hasbecome more needed, so to say,
in this market, and we see thatbecause a lot of retailers have
approached us in the last yearto see how we can help them to
(03:13):
digitize their pricingoperations.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Yeah, thanks for that background.
I think in my experience I'veseen electronic shelf labels at
some specialty store, somehigh-end grocery retail and a
few other spots some of theelectronic stores here and there
, and I know it's going to begrowing in DIY retail as well.
(03:39):
But for those in the audiencethat are not really aware of
where electronic shelf labelshave grown or have changed over
the years, can you tell a littlebit about how?
Just getting back to the basics, how does electronic shelf
labels create better shoppingexperiences for shoppers out
there?
I think that would be a reallygood way to start.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Sure, let's start with the basics.
So electronic shelf labels arelittle e-paper screens that
replace the price tag in thestore.
So now retailers they use alittle piece of paper to display
the prices, which is a manualprocess that have to print a
piece of paper and an actualperson has to go to the store,
(04:22):
find the product and replacethis little piece of paper.
And if you look at the pricechanges that a store has every
week, it does take some time.
So the basic functionality isto remove the labor that it
takes to replace price tags, toremove some of the costs that
you have for printing anddistributing the price tags, but
(04:45):
it also improves the accuracyof the pricing in your store.
When you're dependent on amanual process people changing
price tags it will go wrong.
Sometimes they will forget tochange the price tag, a price
tag can fall on the floor andthen to know if your store let's
(05:06):
say, a good DIY store mighthave like 50,000 SKUs, for
example, so to go through yourstore and to verify whether all
your prices are correct.
It's a task.
It's not easy to do and what wefound from studies actually is
that on average, I think, about7% of the prices in any given
(05:27):
store that uses paper price tagsis incorrect.
So besides being able to morequickly change the price, you
also increase your priceaccuracy in the store.
So these are the basicfunctionalities of ESL and they
have been the benefits for manyyears already.
(05:49):
However, esl's, they haveevolved over time.
You know, in the old days therewere little LCD screens, black
and white, and if you changedthe product name you still had
to stick a sticker on the bottombecause it would only display
the price.
Now they're fully graphice-paper screens.
They can display multiplecolors.
Our latest generation ofelectronic shelf labels can
(06:11):
display six different colors.
They are fully graphic so youcan show images, barcodes, qr
codes, anything on the ESLactually.
But they have morefunctionality so they have
increased their battery life.
Our latest labels they willlast you for 10 to 15 years,
(06:32):
which is a very long time.
And also the electronic shelflabels to have a little LED
light in the corner and this LEDlight helps to improve a lot of
operational things in the storeand I'll give you an example.
It's in store picking.
You know an employee needs topick a certain product for an
(06:55):
online order and some storesthey choose to do that from the
actual store instead of awarehouse to increase sales per
square feet of their store andto help them locate products
faster, we can make this lightflesh so they can find it
immediately.
You know, normally withsupermarkets I use the use case
(07:17):
of an aisle with wine and pickerneeds to choose to find the
right bowl of wine, which cantake some time.
But I can imagine that for aDIY store you have walls of
screws, for example, or otherproducts that look quite similar
.
So you know where you can findthis product in the store.
But to actually locate theexact item that you're looking
(07:38):
for correctly, if the price tagwill start flashing, it will
help you to locate that muchfaster.
So, besides helping storesdigitize pricing, the ESL also
helped them to increase theoperational efficiency of a lot
of processes that they have inthe store and, together with the
(07:59):
retailers, we will look at theprocesses and see how this
technology has, or the digitaldisplay and the LED light and
the geolocation functionalitythat our labels have to see how
it can make their work moreefficient.
So electronic shelf labels helpwith digitizing the pricing, it
(08:19):
helps with making work easierfor employees in the store and
it helps giving consumers abetter customer experience in
the store To have more accurateinformation to display.
They can retrieve additionalinformation by scanning a
QR-Cade on the ESL, for example,and with the light we could
(08:43):
also help consumers findproducts in the store and I
think especially for DIY.
You know it's not my dailysupermarket where I go every day
and I know where to findeverything.
I mean a DIY store for mepersonally, I only visit a
couple times a year when I havea project going on, so I don't
know where everything is.
And finding products, I think,is a big added benefit of ESL
(09:07):
specifically for DIY stores.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Yeah no, no, it's great and you know, when I
started my career, I was at Acehardware, which is a DIY
retailer.
I remember actually putting upthe price tags.
You're putting your back to thecustomer, so a lot of customers
don't want to interrupt peoplebecause they're trying to get
their work done.
But at the same time, then thecustomers are, you know, taking
(09:31):
longer to find what they need ormaybe have some questions.
But a key thing to think aboutis you know, how does it, how
does the in-store retailprofessional interact with this
technology?
Because I think this technologyis gonna be interesting.
It helps the store, in my mind.
It helps the store catch upwith the digital world, because
(09:55):
now you have more data right atshelf.
It's kind of what you're usedto online or in app.
But how does, how does theretail professional interact
with this data and how does ithelp customers?
Can a little bit, can talk alittle bit about more about this
, maybe even in a DIY study.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Yeah, sure, I mean.
Maybe I can use an actualexample of a retailer who
recently installed in Europe.
So in France you have thelargest DIY retailer called Le
Roi Merlin, or an English,leeroy Merlin, and we've
recently done a fullinstallation with them, using a
(10:41):
lot of the capabilities that ourlabels have.
And it's been awarded as well.
Actually, recently, during theEurosis 2024, which is the the
largest retail show in Europe,le Roi Merlin and Hanshaw were
awarded an award for bestin-store solution and pops a pie
of retail 2024.
(11:01):
And we wanted, because you knowthey really got a lot out of the
, the technology that we have tooffer for them, for example,
and and they managed to reallyincrease their in-store
efficiency and customersatisfaction scores by using
this technology.
And we help them customers withease finding product, being
(11:26):
able to access real-time pricing, but also help them to receive
personalized promotions directlyon their smartphones, which has
and empowered the consumers tomake more informed purchasing
decisions.
How it works in in real life, Ican I can give you some
examples.
So, store associate, usuallythey have a PDA or a handheld
(11:49):
device to do things in the store.
They need to reorder things andand other things in the store,
interacting with the SKUs and weinstall an app on that, the
Hanshaw app, so to say, on onthe PDA, which helps them to
interact with our system.
So let's say, I need to restocka product on the shelf yeah.
(12:11):
I don't know exactly where Ineed to put it.
I can scan the barcode on theproduct that I that I need to
restock, and the correspondinglight of the of the of the ESL
will start to flat and I knowexactly where to put it, saving
me some time.
Also and that's kind of uniqueour labels have a geolocation
(12:33):
capability means that this ESLknows where it is in the store
and and our system is able tolocate it wherever it is, and it
helps employees to to to findcertain things.
Other scenarios for storeemployees are in store picking,
so instead of restocking it,they need to take products,
(12:56):
mainly because they have onlineorder.
You know, in America we've alsointegrated for supermarkets
with Instacart, for example, sothat these pickers can locate
the products faster in the store.
We have done some studies andwe found that we saved nearly
50% of the time if you use alittle flashlight to help people
(13:17):
locate products.
So these are some benefits thatwe help with them.
And another thing, especiallyfor DIYs if consumers have
better access to moreinformation and to locate
products, it gives them a muchbetter customer experience of
well and it frees up a littlebit of time for the employees.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
Yeah, that's some great examples and I've had some
experience.
Even you know, I love the wineexample because it's just a wall
of confusion of wine.
It's like a thousand red winesand all these labels and it's
really hard to find.
So being able to find that onefor that customer, it's
extraordinary.
And I've had the same issue inthe vitamin category.
(14:06):
I know it's not DIY, butthere's multiple sizes of the
same brand and you're trying tofind the right slot for it.
So that's really helpful and Ireally like some of the examples
.
You hear that.
I've really heard that light.
That's like a unique new usecase I think I've never really
(14:27):
heard of.
So I think that's going to besomething that retailers should
think about.
Can we go into a little bit moredetail?
Now we're getting in.
You know we're the on thegetters point.
Now I'd like to get into somemore details about some of the
innovation you guys are doing,because it seems like you're at
the cutting edge, so you'recatering to specific retailers.
(14:49):
So what kind of additionaldetail do you have on how ESLs
aid in the daily operations ofretail?
Say, maybe even some moreexamples of DIY, because DIY is
kind of a tougher environment.
You have more skews, it can bemore confusing.
(15:09):
So if you have some additionalideas and some innovation plans,
that would be reallyinteresting to hear.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
Sure, sure.
So let me think specificallyfor DIY stores.
There are actually quite someuse cases and I think for DIY
store, one thing you need tothink about is that A lot of
products that you sell are seenas by consumers kind of as a
(15:41):
commodity, right?
So if I buy a power tool, Idon't care where I buy the power
tool, I just want to have thecheapest one, right.
And since they are costly tools, I'm gonna as a consumer, I'm
probably gonna look it up on theinternet to see where I can get
the best price, you know.
(16:02):
So for a store like that, youhave to realize how important
your pricing strategy is and howyou want to enable yourself to
be competitive with pricing.
So what we've seen from ourexperience with a lot of DIY
stores one big reason for themto buy, you sell is to stay
(16:22):
competitive in the market withthe specific product categories
and to be able to change theprice whenever you want.
If you look at onlinecompetition it's digital.
There's a lot of algorithms andtools and other things that are
used to change the price basedon what's happening online to
stay competitive.
They're all kind of reacting oneach other and on a lot of
(16:44):
factors and it goes really quick.
You know it's quite common foran online store to change their
price daily or even have daypart pricing, and in the offline
world, without ESL, it's justnot possible.
You know you cannot change yourprice every day, or a couple
times a day, and ask youremployees to do that.
So you need to think as aretailer on a strategic level on
(17:08):
how important pricing is foryour overall strategy and how
digitization is going to enableyou to be more competitive and
to use a lot of additionalstrategies that are just not
possible right now.
I'll give you an example, forhere you have Black Friday, you
(17:28):
know.
So on Black Friday you havesome specific offers and
everybody lines up in themorning and they're like
fighting to get the deal right,and it's because all the deals
are activated when the storeopens.
Now what you could do is havespecial promotions, start at
specific times of the day andyou can all pre-program it in
(17:52):
the ESL and have some executedat an instance, for example.
So you really have to thinkabout what other possibilities
is this digitization going togive me, and I think also the
positioning functionality, sobeing able to find things.
(18:13):
It's a huge added benefit forthe store associates, but also
for the consumers.
So this positioning is reallybecoming more and more important
, I think, for a better customerexperience.
Other things that I can thinkof for the employees is just
(18:38):
they'll be able to get a lotmore direct information about
their products and everything,because each ESL is a digital
window from the skew to theemployee and the consumer, and
they'll also be able to receiveback feedback.
So it's possible to interactwith an ESL and know who is
(18:58):
interacted with what ESL at whatmoment.
It's possible to download acoupon from the ESL to your
phone and use the coupon.
And because it's a digital way,the store starts to see what
customers have downloaded whatcoupons and which ones they have
used and which ones they havenot used.
(19:19):
And this is all data.
I guess that interests you aswell, that you don't know when
you send out paper folders toconsumers.
You don't know who looked atwhich folder, you don't know who
cut out which coupon and thendidn't use it, and all this data
becomes available when youstart to digitize it.
So we will also work withcouponing companies to digitize
(19:41):
this whole process.
I think in the United Statesit's Catalina that does that for
example, and we work togetherwith them.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
I'm really interested about this because I put on my
Stebo hat for a second Stebosystems hat.
We work with a lot of customersto bring in data from suppliers
all their product data, all thehazardous materials, the
brochures, all the data, thewarnings or ingredients or
(20:10):
nutritional information, andthen it goes out to the apps, to
the website, even the socialmedia, and then it goes to the
shelf and typically with thepaper shelf you're only getting
2% of the data that people havebeen working on for six months
to get that product ready to besold.
(20:32):
I think what I'm kind of hearingis electronic shelf labels now
can.
Obviously they're going todisplay more than price.
They have the ability to do theQR code, so now you don't have
that artificial barrier of thedigitalization at the shelf.
You're giving them equalfooting to when they're at home,
almost to get a lot of data to.
(20:52):
If they're in the DIY, they're,they're probably trying to
understand what's hazardousabout this product or whatever.
So you're just opening up moreinformation.
I think what a lot of consumerswant are into researching more
about the product, so this is agood way of opening up that,
those ideas for consumers.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
No, and we have a reference.
I mean another possibility.
I remember was a customer inFrance you can put customer
reviews on your label and havethem linked automatically to
your reviews that you haveonline.
So like one, two, three store,five star reviews, you can put
that on the ESL.
There was another retailer thatactually put competitor pricing
(21:33):
on the ESL, showing their ownprice and like three or four
competitors and their pricing Ithink that might be something
that's that's allowed in theUnited States as well and they
put it on the ESL and they justgot it from the internet and
because it's digital, it'salways up to date.
Yeah, and about ESL I forespecially for DIY stores and
(21:56):
retailers.
I just want to explain a littlebit about the few features that
would be important to look forfor a good solution when it
comes to electronic shelf labels, because there are many
suppliers in the market rightnow.
And first thing you need tolook at is battery life.
So you install millions oflabels if you have a change
(22:18):
store and you don't want tochange the battery, it's a lot
of work.
It's a manual job to need to goand change the battery.
If you do that, it's a lot ofwork, so you need to have long
battery life, just the firstthing to look out.
These days, a good solutionshould last you for at least 10
years on battery, which is along time for any device to work
(22:39):
right, especially if they runon batteries.
So the second thing you need tolook out for is the durability,
because retail environments arerough environments.
There are trolleys in DIYstores, I imagine.
There are forklift trucksdriving around.
Consumers are not the mostfriendly to stuff.
(23:00):
Anything that can break willbreak, and so you need to keep
the breakage at the lowestpercentage possible.
And so for our labels, thelatest one we've developed.
They have a unibody design.
There's resin in it.
You can drive it far over itliterally, and it won't break.
It's really important factorthat's often under looked when
(23:22):
you look at the labels.
Our labels are also 100%waterproof, for example.
Their airtight also has to dowith the longevity of the
battery, for example.
And then you need to look atthe functionality and also how
the company that's going tosupply you the labels is going
(23:42):
to help you get the most out ofit, because, as I mentioned,
it's going to do a lot more thanchanging the price.
Every store has their ownprocesses.
They all do it a little bitdifferent, and this
functionality needs to beintegrated with the processes.
So, yeah, their efficiency getsbetter.
You know, and those are a fewthings I think you really need
(24:06):
to look out for when you chooseone of those, when any sales
apply.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
Yeah, thanks for your clarity.
That really helps people, Ithink, really pinpoint and plan
how they're going to go afterESLs for their retail.
So I've really enjoyed theconversation so far and I've
learned a lot about electronicshelves, labels.
I thought I knew a lot, butwhen you provide all that detail
and you know how it reallyhelps the IY, I think it's
(24:34):
really interesting and I couldsee how it benefits both the
retail, the customer and eventhe in-store associate, because
that makes their life a loteasier.
So let's look ahead for you andyour company Henshaw.
What's next for you guys in theUS that people would look out
for you in the market?
Speaker 2 (24:55):
Yeah, well, I think what's next is actually the
national hardware shelves that'sgoing to take place in Vegas
later this month.
We will have a booth there.
I will be there myselfpersonally, so I would like to
invite anybody who's listeningto this to come by our booths
and have a look at what we haveto offer.
(25:15):
We have tailored the boothspecifically for the DIY stores
to display the robustness of theESL.
We've also developed a specificaccessory for electronic shelf
labels, which will offeradditional protection from
forklift trucks.
We've managed to createsomething that can actually help
labels to survive impact fromforklift trucks and just some
(25:38):
other solutions that wespecifically developed for DIY,
and I would like to invite youall to come have a look and see
what we have to offer.
And on top of that, I want touse this time to make clear that
we don't only do electronicshelf labels.
We are a digital store provider.
We do a lot of solutions thathelp to digitize your in-store
(26:01):
operations, and you can thinkabout the first step we do
usually is ESL, the digitizerpricing, because you will get a
lot of benefit out of it.
The second step is to digitizeyour marketing with in-store
screens Still marketing.
To date, they use a lot ofposters and by digitizing that,
you will get a lot of addedbenefits as well.
And then we have an additionalstep with AI and AI cameras.
(26:24):
So by placing AI cameras in thestore, you have a lot of
additional benefits, for example, keeping your planogram up to
date, knowing out of stocks, andit really helps you to close
that last gap.
That's done now by people, butnot too efficiently.
(26:46):
At the moment there are a lotof stores that struggle with
keeping their planograms up todate and gap checking to make
sure there's product on theshelves at all times.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
Great.
Thank you so much.
I've learned a lot.
I'm sure the audience havelearned a lot.
Thanks for being on the showtoday.
Do you have any last remarksthat you'd like to wrap up
before we close out this episode?
Speaker 2 (27:09):
Well, I mean, please have a look at our website,
handshowcom.
Come visit us during the NHSshow and do not hesitate to
reach out to us.
You can always write us anemail at infohanshowcom and
we'll make sure to reply as soonas possible.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
Thank you, folkwin.
It's been a pleasure.
Thanks for taking the timeeveryone to listen to today's
news.
Listen to today's episode ofthe Retail Wire Podcast.
If you found this discussionavailable, don't forget to hit
the subscribe button on yourfavorite podcast platform and
for latest news, engagingdiscussion in a vibrant
community of retail enthusiasts,be sure to join our daily
(27:48):
newsletter at retailwirecom.
See you next time.
Thank you so much.
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