XON, a black-owned information and technology systems company, has secured the exclusive South African rights to the Pricer electronic shelf label (ESL) system. The system automates the traditionally manual process of changing prices in retail stores and electronically displays price information on store shelves.
The Pricer ESL system, aimed at retail, cash and carry, and convenience stores, changes prices simultaneously on both product labels and cash registers. "Pricer guarantees price integrity for stores and creates a sense of certainty for customers that prices on shelves and at the pay points are the same," says Minesh Manga, MD of XON KwaZulu-Natal.
"In South African stores, price errors between shelves and cash registers occur frequently. This problem cannot be ignored as competition for market share is intensifying. It then leads to high costs in the form of more resources and more work and it leads to dissatisfied customers."
Pricer is platform-independent and works on a two-way communication scheme as it feeds prices to the shelf and back again. This provides retailers with information on stock control, product information and space management. The Pricer system consists of a network that sends and receives information to and from the ESLs using a wireless infrared (IR) link. The network and the information are controlled and maintained by a Pricer server which receives data from the back-office computer system and then updates the ESLs. The Pricer system is also the quickest in the world, with the ability to make 50 000 price changes in an hour, or 1500 changes in two minutes.
"The ESL system simplifies setting prices in the store, saving time and money. It guarantees 100% price accuracy at shelf level, which can be controlled from headquarters. It also offers stores the possibility to run promotions more regularly, which will be very hard for the competition to keep up with if they only use paper labels, as all price changes today are done manually."
Pricer was founded in Sweden in 1991 and has over 3 000 installations across three continents, with more than 39 million ESLs delivered. It first reached South Africa in 2004 when it was bought by Skydirect, a subsidiary of XON. Following market research and testing, the product was implemented in the Tuscany Crossing and Safari SuperSpar in Rustenburg in December 2006.
Installation takes three weeks depending on the number of labels required. It is followed by customised hands-on training for employees of the store. Support can also be customised according to the needs of the customer, whether it is based on service level agreement (SLA) or time and materials.
"This year we will focus on franchise groups," says Manga. "However, in 10 years we would like to see Pricer having become the retail standard in South Africa."
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XON Systems, established in 1996 designs, builds, operates and manages information and communication technology (ICT) solutions created specifically for customers. It is a black-owned business that embraces social responsibility and upliftment. Its reach extends across Africa and it maintains sales offices in Gauteng, the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.
XON operates networking and security, financial and CRM business solutions, infrastructure, maintenance services through applications such as Columbus and consulting divisions in the parent company and through wholly-owned subsidiaries.
XON is the first certified South African Juniper Elite Enterprise Partner. Juniper delivers purpose-built, high-performance IP platforms which feature prominently in Gartner's Magic Quadrant. XON partners with some of the world's most prominent software and consulting businesses. As a Microsoft Certified Partner, XON has formed a global alliance with Watermark. Watermark is the largest Business Partner for Microsoft Dynamics AX (Axapta) and NAV (Navision) in Europe.
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