The Australian retailer Coles have opened a Retail Evolution Lab which showcases what digital could look like in a supermarket. There is an innovative display of health food showing a combination of a display screen, a touch tablet and digital E labels on the shelf edge – all connected to a Content Management System. The aim is to provide customers with additional information to help them choose the right product, and then navigate them straight to the shelf where it is displayed.
Instead of printed price tickets on the ends of an aisle, digital screens display special offers that catch the eye of the customer. Facial recognition software tracks the shoppers who are looking at the screen and reports on the age and gender of those looking at it.
This is a taste of what supermarkets may look like when they install “digital ecosystems” on their fixtures to inform customers, navigate them to products and offer them solutions.
The technology on display, from NuonView, consists of a uniquely shaped, narrow pelmet screen above the fixture, a touch tablet attached to the shelf, and the first prototypes of a new digital eLabel or shelf ticket.
The NuonView eLabels can handle normal price barcode content, promotional graphics and even full motion video for on-self branding and promotion.