Sainsbury’s Centralizes Promotional Signage System
U.K. food retailer Sainsbury’s plans to deploy new signage management software to create a unified signage system that integrates promotional advertising and shelf-edge labeling, enabling the retailer to react more quickly to market conditions.
The retailer is using the Retail Enterprise Suite from global information technology services company Episys, based in Chicago, to centrally generate all labeling and signs to ensure that they are consistent for all of Sainsbury’s’ core grocery, home and lifestyle items.
“Our focus is on serving our customers, and by implementing simple processes in store, we can give colleagues more time to do this,” said Gary Balmer, head of trading and supply chain systems at Sainsbury’s. “The project with Episys will see our promotional advertising and shelf-edge labeling solutions consolidated into one, thus communicating our offering clearly and accurately from one single source. This approach will give Sainsbury’s significant benefits, including greater consistency of pricing and promotional messages, which is of paramount importance, particularly as we develop key growth areas such as nonfoods and online.”
Sainsbury’s expects the improved efficiency will enable staff to spend less time on administrative activities, and more time serving customers. In addition, there will be significant time savings -- currently, promotional changes take up to three days to implement, but Retail Enterprise Suite allows changes in less than a day.
The Retail Enterprise Suite will also enable Sainsbury’s to integrate new technology such as electronic shelf-edge labels, kiosk-based guided selling tools, and other multimedia formats, all driven from a central solution, thus ensuring consistency of message across all communication media.
The adoption of the Retail Enterprise Suite is part of a larger Sainsbury’s program called “The Simple Programme,” which designed to make stores simpler to manage. Old legacy systems will be transformed into a system that has a service-oriented architecture (SOA).
Sainsbury's, a subsidiary of London-based J Sainsbury plc, consists of 509 supermarkets and 276 convenience stores.
The retailer is using the Retail Enterprise Suite from global information technology services company Episys, based in Chicago, to centrally generate all labeling and signs to ensure that they are consistent for all of Sainsbury’s’ core grocery, home and lifestyle items.
“Our focus is on serving our customers, and by implementing simple processes in store, we can give colleagues more time to do this,” said Gary Balmer, head of trading and supply chain systems at Sainsbury’s. “The project with Episys will see our promotional advertising and shelf-edge labeling solutions consolidated into one, thus communicating our offering clearly and accurately from one single source. This approach will give Sainsbury’s significant benefits, including greater consistency of pricing and promotional messages, which is of paramount importance, particularly as we develop key growth areas such as nonfoods and online.”
Sainsbury’s expects the improved efficiency will enable staff to spend less time on administrative activities, and more time serving customers. In addition, there will be significant time savings -- currently, promotional changes take up to three days to implement, but Retail Enterprise Suite allows changes in less than a day.
The Retail Enterprise Suite will also enable Sainsbury’s to integrate new technology such as electronic shelf-edge labels, kiosk-based guided selling tools, and other multimedia formats, all driven from a central solution, thus ensuring consistency of message across all communication media.
The adoption of the Retail Enterprise Suite is part of a larger Sainsbury’s program called “The Simple Programme,” which designed to make stores simpler to manage. Old legacy systems will be transformed into a system that has a service-oriented architecture (SOA).
Sainsbury's, a subsidiary of London-based J Sainsbury plc, consists of 509 supermarkets and 276 convenience stores.