| This double-whammy of gains is leading to a growing number of retailers taking a closer look at their printing activities. Raj Meghani, head of strategic development at Lexmark, says: “The environment goes hand-in-hand with cutting costs. By optimising their businesses and reducing costs retailers can also achieve environmental benefits.”
One of the areas of focus is to reduce the level of centralised printing of PoS materials by pushing it out to the individual stores. “There is a lot of waste that comes with centralised printing especially in the fast-paced retail environment. The aim for retailers is to be more responsive (to printing) locally. This is now a lot easier through tailored printer technology,” she explains.
DSGi is one example of a major UK retailer that is working with Lexmark to achieve more localised printing. David Van Rhee, visual communications director at DSGi, says the companies have worked together to develop a solution for printing new price tickets locally and on a daily basis whenever prices change. This can amount to 500 new tickets during heavy promotional activity. To reduce waste during this process, Van Rhee says software was created to reduce the 31 ticket templates that DSGi was previously using down to only ten and these consist of only three different sizes. The result is a greater coverage of tickets on each A4 sheet thereby reducing wasted paper and cutting toner usage.
Another software development involves not allowing the printing of labels when the goods are not actually in-stock at a specific store. It is also possible to stop the printing of signage in-store when the goods involved are not sold in that outlet. This is a capability that has been created through a partnership between software developer Episys and Lexmark for use on the latter’s hardware including its multi-function printers.
Meghani says such devices (incorporating printing, scanning, faxing and copying) that benefit from small footprints are becoming particularly interesting to retailers as increasing amounts of printing is performed in-store in the back office.
Space is also being freed-up in retailers’ back offices as a result of the emergence of mobile printing technologies with printing on-demand now in-demand by retailers. This centres on the printing of price and shelf-edge labels and is again proving helpful with reducing waste.
Mark Thomason, marketing manager for retail at Zebra Technologies, says a good example of on-demand printing is Tesco’s regular programme of re-pricing its wine category. “They constantly need new labels but this will only be for four or five so a whole sheet from a laser printer would be wasteful. However, using a PDA mobile device and a small printer hooked-up wirelessly is much better.”
The additional advantage of such a system is that it pulls staff out onto the shopfloor where they can be visible and help customers. As well as Tesco, Thomason says Zebra supplies a range of direct thermal mobile printers to a variety of retailers including TK Maxx, Debenhams and John Lewis. He says John Lewis is also starting to use mobile printers in its warehouses as the devices are capable of “producing significant quantities of labels and have a battery life of over eight hours.” The key aspect of such applications is the wireless networks now used by retailers as they enable real-time information to be pushed through to the mobile devices.
As demand for such printers has grown, Thomason says there has also been increasing numbers of enquiries for coloured labels with example requests including price markdown labels that include a yellow band: “Custom-producing such labels to the requirements of retailers is a growing part of our business.” This extends to producing specific labels that will: stick onto plastic; can be used at cold temperatures in fridges; and have waterproof capabilities for outdoor use in garden centres.
Online growth
With the growth of the internet and home deliveries the printing of self-adhesive labels for use on the delivery packaging has increased and led to the development of new printer paper that can reduce waste caused by the clear plastic ‘liners’ that act as the carriers for the self-adhesive labels.
David Jarvis, marketing director in northern Europe for the consumables division at NCR, says 600,000 tonnes of this waste was created in 2008, which is a particular problem as it is not easily recycled. The NCR double-sided 2ST thermal printer can reduce this waste by printing on the reverse of the liner with receipt details or warranty information relating to the product being delivered to the customer. However, the initial appeal of the 2ST to retailers is its waste-saving capabilities at the PoS. This was the case with Sainsbury’s, which is the first European retailer to install the printers and is in the process of rolling out 7,000 units to half its near-800 stores around the UK.
It is estimated that the grocer will save over 500,000 till rolls per year and the total time taken to change rolls will obviously also be halved as the lifetime of each roll is doubled. Although the paper is more expensive and each device is $30 to $50 costlier than a standard thermal printer, Jarvis says “the total cost of ownership is less and there is also the environmental benefit.”
As well as splitting the printing of a standard receipt onto both sides of the paper, Jarvis observes that receipts can also be personalised to the individual products being purchased. “If you buy a tin of beans then you don’t need to be given any terms and conditions but with the supermarkets now selling TVs they might want to print such an item’s guarantee on the back of the receipt,” he explains. Receipts can also be personalised for individual customers who are part of a retailer’s loyalty scheme. Specific messages and promotions can be printed on the back of the receipt specifically targeting these shoppers.
When the reduction in paper used by the 2ST is combined with the significantly lower energy that the device consumes (compared with a standard printer), it again highlights how cost savings and environmental benefits are intertwined with printer technologies. And just why this area of technology is proving especially attractive to retailers in the current climate.
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