I’ve lost count how many times I’ve heard retailers say that a tough market with online outfits like Amazon is putting retailers stores under pressure yet when you walk into many of their stores they continually fail to view their most valuable piece of real estate through the eyes of the most important people in their business – the customer.

When I walk into a store, at a minimum I expect to easily find, see and understand where or what a product is, what the price is and what offer or killer feature is being promoted, yet time again I see bland, boring colourless shelf edge tickets with undecipherable acronyms and information that only means something to store staff – it’s time this changed and retailers raise their game, get the basics right and bring the shelf edge to life.

I want shelf edge tickets that tell me what an item is, preferably with a picture of the product so I can be absolutely sure it is in front of the right item and I want a rich full description of what it is with a clear price.

I don’t want to see £0.50p when 50p will do (I learnt this when I used to have to price products individually before barcode scanning became a reality – in fact, I can hear my old Store Manager shouting “You can have a P for a penny but not for a Pound!”).

Similarly I don’t want to have to work out what a KK4F BOGOF 2689542 is – Kit Kat 4 Finger, Buy one, get one free will suffice (and stick those stock numbers somewhere else or into a barcode so it doesn’t confuse me further) – If it’s a limitation of your ageing systems then invest in something fit for the 21st century.

I also want to know if the product I am going to spend my hard-earned money on is any good – I want a rating on the ticket or a QR code so I can check out reviews and more information online.

I like to know I am in good company when buying something over and above the average price point (How will I know if I am confusing value for money with cheap?)  Help me decide and influence me to make that purchase there and then else I will go home and shop online!

Why is it too that some Point of Sale looks great but then I see something that looks like a young child has created it on a basic word processing package out the back – I want POS to be vibrant, all the same, eye-catching and informative.

If I was running a store today I would want to be able to print POS in the store and on-demand for if it goes missing I can simply and quickly reprint another to ensure that most important person in my store gets the very best deal.

If the offer (or price) changes on a product I want to be able to update my POS and ticketing quickly so I can SHOUT VALUE to my customers and not have to wait for the postman to deliver some new material whilst I lose sales to the competition.

If retailer wants to win the battle for the shoppers purse (or at the very least give the online retailers a fight) then their ability to create clear, impactful, vibrant and informative shelf edge ticketing within the store is a must – screw in your customers eyes and take a look at how Metro Print Controller can help your stores deliver this and more.

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