Russian retailer X5 Group is moving towards automating customer service at the stage of making a purchase decision. Two million electronic price tags from a Chinese vendor, which X5 Group does not name, have appeared in 100 stores of its Perekrestok supermarket chain throughout Russia.
Electronic price tags are small displays with three colored electronic inks and a large font that can be distinguished even by customers with visual impairments. White and black colors indicate regular price tags, and red was chosen for promotions.
The prices of goods on them change automatically online via connection to the internal network. The software of electronic devices is integrated into the existing architectural IT solution of the store, and the update takes only a few seconds. The devices require almost no human intervention in their operation, consume little energy and can last up to five years without replacing the battery.
Currently, an average of about 12 hours of working time per day is spent on working with paper price tags in a supermarket, plus 4 hours on their verification and compliance with promotions and discounts of the chain. In addition, additional funds have to be constantly spent on their printing.
The company assures that freeing Perekrestok employees from working with price tags will help improve the quality of service.
By reducing the labor intensity of the process of changing price tags manually by even 10%, we get 5% of the staff's net time saved, which can be used to greater effect. We invest this time in improving the customer experience – working in the hall, laying out goods, communicating with customers. The introduction of technology on the scale of 100 supermarkets, the largest implementation on the market, will help Perekrestok achieve ambitious financial goals this year.
A survey of our customers showed that poorly designed price tags are the main factor that affects their loyalty. If the price tag is designed incorrectly, the buyer will certainly be dissatisfied with the store. A quarter of people will not take the product from the shelf at all if there is no price tag there, or will pass by the product if it does not indicate a promotional price. Electronic price tags help us avoid such situations.
The company also decided to reduce routine work for staff in distribution centers. Up to 20% of the work on transportation, sorting, selection of goods for order fulfillment and their movement to the shipping area is planned to be transferred to robots.
The first laboratory-testing ground of this project was opened in mid-March on the basis of the X5 distribution center in Podolsk. Now they are testing two types of robots there: AMR (autonomous mobile robots) and FMR (autonomous forklifts). They move without human intervention and can perform various tasks depending on the program.