In late October — as food retailers continued to deal not only with the pandemic-fueled rise of e-commerce, but also the ongoing trend of consumers seeking more transparency regarding groceries — Fresh Thyme was getting smarter about shelves.
The Downers Grove, Ill.-based food retailer has started deploying ELI codes to shelf tags this month. ELI codes, when scanned by a smartphone, will display important product information, including content from supplier-provided product data and images, to enhance the overall shopping experience. They’re based on QR code technology and can be read natively by most modern smartphones without requiring an app.
The technology will enable customers and employees to access rich-product content at the shelf simply by scanning a QR code with their smartphones — an especially attractive tool for shoppers at Fresh Thyme, which focuses on natural foods.
“When fully executed, the ELI codes will allow our customers to have real-time access to information and education to make well-informed purchases,” says Jonathan Lawrence, Fresh Thyme’s senior director of grocery and natural living. “They have all the benefits of an e-commerce platform experience, with the ability to utilize the product immediately.”
As food retailers embrace omnichannel commerce, and as they seek more efficient ways to manage inventory in this age of pandemic and rising grocery e-commerce, smart shelving and labeling technology offers solutions to those challenges. The technology is poised to grow in 2021, but to achieve successful deployments, as well as earning buy-in from suppliers and shoppers, food retailers need to figure out what they’re really trying to do.
Transparency and Inventory
Product transparency is among the main factors fueling the growth of smart shelving and labeling — some of which relies on cameras that keep track of products on shelves, while other solutions are more anchored to consumer and employee smartphones and their own cameras, as is the case with Fresh Thyme. The technology can help retailers keep up with inventory problems and restocking issues — resolving issues before, say, they start to annoy suppliers or slow down e-commerce fulfillment — as well as serving to keep shoppers better informed about available products.
Indeed, Arlington, Va.-based FMI — The Food Industry Association has found that 81 percent of consumers say product transparency is important in their buying decisions — a demand that smart shelving and labeling technology can help solve, and without making consumers seek out relevant product information via other sources such as Google, which might take a little bit longer and frustrate impatient grocery shoppers who just want to get home.
Continue reading your story on the app
Continue reading your story in the magazine
Live Masterclass With Chef Saransh Goila And Olives From Spain At The IHE Expo Virtual Hospitality Show
OLIVES FROM SPAIN PARTICIPATES AT IHE EXPO WITH A LIVE MASTERCLASS CONDUCTED BY SARANSH GOILA TO SURPRISE HIS CHEF COLLEAGUES WITH CREATIVE RECIPES USING OLIVES FROM SPAIN TO CREATE HIS VERSION OF INDIAN TAPAS. . .
Technology, Innovation and Invention are Transforming the Spice Industry
A LOOK AT HOW INCREASING RELIANCE ON TECHNOLOGY, CREATIVE INNOVATIONS ACROSS MANUFACTURING, PRODUCT CONCEPTUALIZING, MARKETING, AND OPTIMIZED BUSINESS MANAGEMENT PROTOCOLS HAVE BECOME THE NEW NORM OF THE INDIAN SPICE INDUSTRY POST THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC.…
What's the Proper Path for Better Payments?
HOW THE PANDEMIC AND LOYALTY CAN HELP FOOD RETAILERS GET A FIRMER HANDLE ON TRANSACTIONS.
Mahashay Dharampal Gulati: The Legend that Shaped India's Foodscape
THE OWNER OF MDH SPICES AND ITS ICONIC FACE, DHARAMPAL GULATI, PASSED AWAY AT THE AGE OF 98. ACCORDING TO REPORTS, HE WAS UNDERGOING POST-COVID TREATMENT AT A HOSPITAL IN DELHI FOR WEEKS TOGETHER BEFORE SUCCUMBING TO A CARDIAC ARREST IN THE EARLY HOURS OF DECEMBER 3, 2020.
Paras Spices Pvt. Ltd.: Spicing up with innovation
The FMCG Industry is expected to grow more in the domestic as well as in International markets. People are moving more towards e-commerce platforms and adapting new ways of technology for consumer durable products. So increase in technology adoption is expected to rise exponentially in the coming years,” – Paras Budhiraja, Director Paras Spices Pvt. Ltd.
Rakesh Group: Using Technology & Innovation to Produce Authentic Flavours
EVER SINCE ITS INCEPTION, THE RAKESH GROUP HAS EMPHASIZED ON PRODUCING ONLY PREMIUM QUALITY PRODUCTS WITHOUT COMPROMISING ON TASTE, TEXTURE, OR AROMA, AND TO ENSURE THIS, THE COMPANY ADHERES TO A SERIES OF METICULOUSLY FORMULATED PROCESSES…
FMCG Brands: Re-Engineering the Sales & Distribution System is the Need of the Hour
IT IS TIME FOR COMPETITIVE BRANDS TO USHER IN MORE INNOVATIVE AND EFFICIENT PLUG AND PLAY SALES AND DISTRIBUTION SYSTEMS TO LEVERAGE THE POTENTIAL OF THEIR BRAND…
Fulfillment Prophecy
AS RETAILERS RING IN THE NEW YEAR, THEY’RE LASER-FOCUSED ON E-COMMERCE LOGISTICS.
Ease of access to customers across multiple channels is our USP, says Modern Bazaar's Kunaal Kumar
MODERN BAZAAR WAS ESTABLISHED IN THE YEAR 1971, WHEN FOUNDER VISHWANT KUMAR REALISED THAT THERE WAS A DISCERNING CONSUMER WHO WAS LOOKING FOR A BETTER AND WIDER RANGE OF CONSUMABLE PRODUCTS WITHOUT HAVING TO TRAVEL ABROAD FOR THEM. IT WAS INDIA’S FIRST SUPERMARKET WHICH PROVIDED THE CUSTOMER WITH A WIDE RANGE OF QUALITY PRODUCTS FROM ACROSS THE WORLD AND UNDER ONE ROOF...…
Center Store Solutions
HERE ARE SIX WAYS THAT GROCERS CAN GROW IN 2021.