Natureza Produtos Veterinários replaces paper labels to gain more practicality and agility in price changes and promotions in physical stores
Electronic labels on the Nature shelf in SP: boost to face-to-face sales (Reproduction)
Natureza Produtos Veterinários is a network dedicated to the wholesale, retail and distribution of agro products with a focus on small and large animals. Among its offerings, one of the most complete lines of veterinary pharmaceutical products in the interior of São Paulo stands out – with the capacity to serve customers in the north and northwest of the State of São Paulo and Mato Grosso do Sul.
In 1995, the company began a phase of operational expansion and revenue boost with the commercial representation of major brands in the pet market – a segment in which it achieved an average growth of over 30% per year, more than the industry average. Even before reaching this level and since the beginning of activities in 1987, the chain's leadership has made constant investments, including the acquisition of new equipment to improve customer service.
It was with this philosophy that Natureza Produtos Veterinários invested in electronic labels (or ESLs, for Electronic Shelf Labels). There are more than 3,800 tags positioned on the shelves of its headquarters and largest unit, in Araçatuba (SP), with an area of over 1,600 square meters; and around 1,200 tags at the store in Ribeirão Preto (SP), which has around 400 square meters.
This project represented an important differential inside and outside promotional periods such as Black Friday, adding more practicality and agility in changing prices and carrying out promotions. All values started to be updated synchronously and in real time from the integration with the ERP system used by the chain to centrally manage the two stores.
The technology also aroused greater interest and curiosity among consumers, through layouts and specific information displayed on the LED display of the ESLs, in addition to the updated price. This benefit is even important on Black Friday, as the solution has become essential at all stages of the promotional periods – from the pre-campaign to the “D-Day” of discounts. The initiative boosted sales and increased profitability of the products on offer, following a strategy that will be adopted again in 2022.
“Electronic labels are a great competitive differentiator. In addition to the practicality and agility in changing prices, the customer really likes this technology, as it is something eye-catching and informative that improves their experience inside the store”, says Rosangela Teixeira, IT Manager at Natureza Produtos Veterinários.
Expansion and modernization
The adoption of electronic labels was part of the expansion and modernization of the Araçatuba store, reopened in April 2018. In this project, Natureza even sought to solve an operational bottleneck in the process of sorting goods. As employees work at fixed workstations, in front of the computer, they had to travel individually to check the products and replace the paper labels with each price update.
It was in an attempt to streamline and automate this process that the Natureza team became aware of the electronic labels, based on the results it had generated in a drugstore in the region. Upon seeing the solution up close, the network's leadership called Seal Sistemas, responsible for its implementation. The technology was chosen to equip all the gondolas of the two stores, both in Araçatuba (even before its reopening) and in Ribeirão Preto – except for the cold rooms, where vaccines are kept, and the veterinary pharmacy.
After a tactical and simplified implementation process of the ESLs, which lasted a few weeks and included training for the 70 employees who work in these units, the tags gave Natureza quick gains in agility and operational efficiency. With remote and programmed entry of prices and other information, no employee had to leave their computer to go to the shelves.
“Changing paper labels is very demanding on the team and mistakes can occur. This does not happen with the ESLs, since price updates occur quickly via the system”, says Rosangela.
Less mistakes and more sales
Electronic labels also benefited consumers by reducing the amount of information errors and eliminating any risk of divergence between the shelf and the cashier – a point that usually causes dissatisfaction in those who go to a physical store.
In addition, larger labels, model 4.2 (with dimensions of 10 cm x 10 cm), inform about special promotions and help draw the attention of customers to stock clearances and weekly offers. A strategy that, associated with the rapid updating of values in the ESLs, supports the practice of pricing per batch of Nature – a tactic that accelerates sales of products closer to the expiration date.
“Customers find electronic tags interesting and even ask where they were purchased. There are very few stores that have implemented ESLs and, even so, almost never in practically the entire establishment, as in Natureza Produtos Veterinários. It really makes a difference,” says Rosangela.
The partnership with Seal Sistemas – the largest integrator of mobility solutions in Brazil and national leader in mobile computing and automatic data capture – will still bear more fruit for Nature, without being restricted to the sales area. The network's distribution activities, where goods are sorted for laboratories and veterinarians, will soon be supported by data collectors and the Kairos Store, a POS system that performs the intelligent execution of all day-to-day tasks in the physical store. The two technologies, which will work in an integrated manner with the ERP software and electronic labels, are expected to start operating in the last quarter of 2022.
“It is with reference projects such as Natureza that we are able to demonstrate the enormous potential of electronic labels and other solutions that support operational management in retail and logistics. These are end-to-end technologies and complete services that not only drive the digital transformation of the production chain, but also help retailers to extract the best results from periods of greater sales growth, such as Black Friday”, says Wagner Bernardes, CEO of Seal Systems.
