Digital tools for pricing compliance
Electronic labels are helping one hardware store owner save time and money, and stay on the right side of the law.
David Berry owns Thrifty Link in Gunnedah and last year installed nearly 6,000 ILID labels throughout his store.
Mr Berry is pleased with the benefits of the move from paper to digital.
“The software is fantastic, I totally recommend it. Your products stay up to speed to price, so old pricing is not an issue.”
Taking label changing out of their day allows staff to add more value.
“I had 1 full-time staff member for merchandising and labelling. Now it’s fully merchandising. He now spends time on credit procedures, and making sure credits are up to date.”
In the past paper labels with new prices would be sent from the warehouse at regular intervals.
“The warehouse makes changes every month, and a complete change once a year. That means every price in your store is going to change. So all of a sudden you’re faced with a prospect of 5 or 6 hours in changing labels, just for a small store like us.”
Keeping up with regulatory requirements around pricing was another concern for Mr Berry.
“It’s not just the labour cost, if you didn’t update your prices you are contravening fair trading, if your shelf label is different to your computer prices at the point of sale.”
“Last year the Department of Fair Trading visited a couple of stores, and they got a slap on the wrist for contravening fair trading laws. It was enough to worry me to instigate a system.”
Sustained price inaccuracies can result in a $10,000 on the spot fine for retailers.
That helped persuade Mr Berry into making the $70,000 investment to fit-out his store with electronic labels.
“It will take 3 or so years to recover the investment. But also when you do something like this you revisit your whole store, and all of a sudden it goes from a higgledy-piggledy mess, to a neat looking store. It’s much better for your store, it’s better looking all the time.”
David Berry was interviewed by Virginia Harrison
