Walmart announced its plan to replace the price stickers with digitized labels, allowing employees to change prices faster and depending on the situation.
The retail giant is expecting to accomplish the transition to digitized shelf labels (DSLs) in 2,300 stores by 2026.
(Photo : Walmart)
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Walmart Introduces Digital Shelf Labels
In a press release, Walmart shared that it will expand the DSLs to its other stores over the following months until 2026. The project was first tested at Store 266 in Grapevine, Texas.
"Digital shelf labels, developed by Vusion Group, allow us to update prices at the shelf using a mobile app, reducing the need to walk around the store to change paper tags by hand and giving us more time to support customers in the store," said Daniela Boscan, Food & Consumable team lead in Hurst, Texas.
According to the retail giant, each stores are composed of over 120,000 products that undergo pricing updates from rollbacks to markups. The new technology is expected to boost efficiency from the employees and improve the shopping experience for customers.
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Aside from faster price changes, DSLs can provide other useful information about the product. For instance, customers can scan the barcode using their mobile device and see additional details about their merchandise.
While some analysts questioned the possible price surge upon transitioning to DSLs, some retail experts argued that big companies prioritize long-term customer relationships. According to them, frustrating customers due to inconsistent prices would only hurt sales.
Regardless, Walmart revealed that the initial testing saw several benefits. For instance, it increased productivity and reduced walking time for employees. It also simplified the restocking process and made order picking faster.
The retail giant is also working on increased sustainability by reducing its operational waste using DSLs.
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