This means getting the basics right, starting with the shelf edge and high impact colorful point of sale and then joining up the other elements of communication.

At a minimum, customers now expect unit equivalent pricing in retail and country of origin on all products and for information generally to be available through a blend of shelf edge labels, colorful point of sale, multimedia and other channels.

Major global retailers specify our solutions, enabling them to meet the needs of multiple stakeholders within the organization, including trading, operations, merchandising and compliance.

With the explosion in the use of technology by multi-channel retailers, we provide the communications hub that enables the integration of new and emerging technologies, including Interactive Kiosks, Multimedia, Electronic Signage, Website, Coupons, Geo-Positioning, Fly Vision, and Interactive Gesture-based Multimedia Screens.

How joined up communications can deliver value to retailers:

• Demonstrate uplift in footfall and therefore sales and basket sizes
• Store associates are free to spend more time with customers on the shop floor rather than having to manually intervene and create signage
• Guarantee compliance – prices the same on the shelf edge and at the point of sale, as well as in external promotions
• Accurate promotions planning protects margins by ensuring they are put up and taken down at the right time
• Sophisticated menu signs improve sales through consistently clear, compelling and accurate signage
• Integration with existing back office systems, handheld terminals and planograms ensures accurate and consistent store layout and allocation
• Right number and size of shelf edge labels, tailored to each store and in walk order, enables employees to apply much more quickly and efficiently
• Flexibility to change signage with ease and speed
• Our solutions provide a platform for adding further customer communication improvements, possibly around mobile, multimedia, electronic signage and social media
• Highly scalable system that provides full international capability

Running in 25,000 stores large and small the world over, the ECS5 Media Suite is the communications solution that enables multi-channel retailers to communicate the right promotional messages to their customers at the shelf edge and at the point of sale.

We provide complete retail solutions, which manage the information that flows from Head Office to the customer. These solutions guarantee consistency of message and accuracy of information delivered in a timely and efficient manner, independent of the final output (printed catalog, website, advertising, electronic signage, shelf edge label, etc.)

A more recent innovation is that in the past, most Retail operations requiring the use of a PC or Printer have been confined to the back office. Hand Held Scanners were used on the shop floor, but these had only very basic functionality. To address this, ECS are harnessing mobile technology, which has improved significantly, predominantly being driven by technology using the Android and iOS mobile operating systems. These systems are being adopted in Retail and in turn are driving a trend to deploy functionality to mobile devices that was previously only available in the back office. This will help drive customer service levels and efficiency with more visible staff on the shop floor with easy access to all applications.

Significantly, it will also deliver a substantial reduction on the back-office infrastructure required in each physical store location.

The ECS5 Media Suite can:

• Extract data from existing Head Office systems, for example merchandising planning, supply chain, planogram and price management systems
• Process information derived from all of these together with a library of signage templates
• Produce signage to the right size, with the right information, to the right store, in the right quantities, in the right order, on the right day, in the right format whether displayed through promotional signage, shelf edge labels, electronic signage or multimedia for plasma TV displays
• Produce, in our Design Studio, 2 Dimensional Barcodes (2D), the first design being the Quick Response (QR) barcode, allowing clients to take advantage of this exciting technology. QR codes are not only used within store displays such as shelf edge labels, but can be used on billboard ads, event tickets, business cards, print ads, television ads, contests, direct mail, coupons, on the side of buses, PowerPoint presentations, websites and emails to name a few.  2D barcodes were used on posters along the route of an extreme sports competition to display information and promote services. Mobile users captured barcodes to access sponsored pictures, video streams, Facebook, blogs and product reviews.  Elsewhere, fashion retailers are using them on the hangers and the clothes themselves, as well as using them in films as part of product placement and also in glossy magazines