Company News • 13.03.2013
Avery Dennison delivers its smartest item-level markdown technology
Pathfinder 6140 Uses intelligence of smart devices to drive sales lift and save labour costs through more effective markdowns.
At Retail Business Technology Expo 2013 (RBTE), Avery Dennison Retail Branding and Information Solutions (RBIS) today introduced its smartest markdown management solution the Pathfinder™ 6140 Printer into the UK – the latest in its line of one-piece scan, print and apply price marking technologies.
The Pathfinder 6140 is a fast, lightweight and cost-efficient way to do item-level markdowns and enables retailers to add productive and accurate markdowns to the list of benefits gained by using smart devices in their stores. The Pathfinder 6140 is being featured at RBTE stand #645, where retailers will experience its potential through a hands-on interactive exhibit. The Pathfinder 6140 solution was created in the Avery Dennison Customer Design and Innovation Centers (CDIC), the Company’s innovation incubator where advanced research is developed with industry partners and retailers.
The Pathfinder 6140 delivers a complete solution to this critical retail problem. For the store assistant, it’s surprisingly simple: in one smooth motion they scan the bar code on the price ticket, and apply a new price label that matches the new price the retailer has set for that SKU. They can scan and mark 15 garments per minute at nearly 100% accuracy. In the background, the price management application logs their activity, enabling the central merchandising team to confirm that markdowns were completed on time, and store operations to adjust labour planning based on actual productivity.
Markdowns are a fact of life in apparel, with 35% of unit volume moving at discounted pricing. Effective execution is critical, since sales late in the season depend on giving the customer a good deal, but most retailers currently rely on an inaccurate, labour-intensive process that falls dramatically short of achieving desired results. Using the traditional “red pen” markdown process, store assistants can only complete three garments per minute with 63% accuracy. That means that over a third of items are mismarked, leading to lost sales when a potential customer fails to see the deal the retailer intended to offer.
According to Shawn Neville, president, Retail Branding and Information Solutions, Avery Dennison, "This smart item-level markdown solution not only reduces pricing errors but, but the Pathfinder 6140 also improves margins and operating efficiencies across the end-to-end supply chain. With the Pathfinder 6140, retailers can leverage their smart device technology investments to ensure accurate and productive price marking – leaving assistants more time to focus on what really matters: satisfying customers through an improved shopper experience.”
“Avery Dennison’s end-to-end solution and our unique scan/ print and apply markdown technology accurately translates markdown plans into effective execution, ensuring that the customer sees the right price at the moment of truth. Displaying the markdown price correctly has proven to lift sales,” said Mark Hill, Vice President and General Manager, global innovation and solutions, Avery Dennison.
Avery Dennison's Pathfinder 6140 price management solution includes a robust fully-featured smart device markdown application, created through a new partnership with VeriFone GlobalBay. The Avery Dennison GlobalBay application, which will operate on Apple, Windows, and Android platforms, is easy to use, and provides retail management executives with full dashboard reporting capabilities, providing feedback on markdown execution and productivity. It is highly configurable, allowing for rapid deployment so that retailers will drive ROI very quickly. Through the partnership with VeriFone, Avery Dennison 6140 customers will have a fully featured price management solution as well as the ability to easily add additional modules to their smart device applications suite.
The Avery Dennison Pathfinder 6140 Printer is the only one-piece scan, print and apply price marking solution powered by real-time intelligence from smart devices. Weighing around 771 grams, the Pathfinder 6140 can be comfortably held with one hand, has been fully tested to withstand multiple drops to concrete from six feet, and can manage a full 8-hour markdown session on a single battery charge.
The Pathfinder 6140 hardware has been certified under the Apple MFi program as “made for iPhone®, iPad® and iPhone®”, and is also compatible with Android and Windows CE/Mobile operating systems. It is now available in Europe and North America.
channels: labeling technology
