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As Covid-19 is still having great impacts on global markets, retail is adapting to these challenging times and so are countries such as Germany with its short-term value-added tax rate cut on retail. Michael Gerling, GM of the EHI-Institute, made a great contribution with his critical analysis of June 18, by estimating that in-store retail demand for new price labels will surge due to this change.
Internal surveys conducted by SES-imagotag showed that the correct change of a paper price label in store takes about one minute. In an average German supermarket with a product range of around 10,500 items, this process takes up to 175 hours.
Gerling views retailers that already invested in digital price labels, to have a clear advantage in this situation. The benefit is obvious: in a single click, VAT can be automatically changed and displayed on electronic labels. Integration with the point of sale system is also automatic. This results in significant material and time savings for merchants.
Thanks to fully graphic electronic shelf labels and a cloud-based platform developed by SES-imagotag, physical retailers can completely digitize their stores.
As technology evolved, digital labels also became a true media, right at the shelf, able to display rich content and information for shoppers: hygiene rules, admission restrictions, delivery dates, offers, discounts – all of these contents can be individually presented and very easily adapted.
Since the launch of the new VUSION Product Line in 2018, SES-imagotag has massively expanded the development of in-store applications and digital services for retailers and shoppers. More and more, technology is seen as an essential factor to the transformation of commerce. Many retailers ignored for a long time the disruptive power of digitization. Now there’s a situation, where the Covid-19 Pandemic abruptly demonstrated the local and global effects of a disruption. Yet, German retailers who invested in digital will now benefit from this technology to adapt themselves to the value-added tax rate cut.
