Adventures at Euroshop 2011  

EuroShop hall 6 & 7a Trends (and European Plumbing)

 

One trend that seems to be common at this year’s EuroShop is that many retail suppliers are really getting focused on improving the in-Store experience. They are finding ways to get better information faster to both sides of the sales counter. Digital lift technology (as with some of our solutions) is getting better and easier, and it seems to be clearer to retailers where the ROI will come from.

 

Digital pricing and tags that allows retailers to adjust pricing and sometimes even adjust images at the push of a button wirelessly, without having to revisit price tags and tag holders seem to be more and more prevalent. This may be a future driver of sales by being able to get information to the customer when they are standing in front of a product, or instantly be able to adjust pricing or promotions for a special rather than waiting on a human to go over to each fixture.

 

In the security hall, things are getting a little full and confusing. More and more companies are entering the EAS and line alarm markets, some with little more than prototypes printed off of 3D printers. Although, many are creating systems that work and produce the alarm, it seems that many are forgetting how these systems are going to be used and maintained, and in the Canadian market it is often by store employees who need to be focused on selling. The ease of use is not always there, although they do seem easier to use then the showers in a German hotel room, as I still can’t figure out all the knobs, or why they have raised plumbing.

 

Cardboard and Animatronics.

 

Walking halls 3 to 5 seemed to be heavily weighted towards animatronics and cardboard displays (I know they don’t necessarily fit together). For some reason card board pop up displays seem to be back with some improvements including plastic feet to prevent soaking through on the retail floor, and the ability to fold into a very small package when it needs to be shipped and packed. I’m not sure of the environmental impact of these pop ups, but there sure seemed to be a lot of dead trees advertising snack brands at the show.

 

Most of the animatronics were pretty creepy, like the German rubbery guy in lederhosen singing drinking songs and the caveman swinging a fish, but there were some that seemed functional for sales purposes at retail. There were a couple that could be used to see how clothes move while in action, this was demonstrated with a manikin in a snowsuit with skiing motion and a suit walking. It was effective to see how the clothes move with the actions they would be taking in a real life scenario (see video), and I could see how this could impact a buying decision, or at least entice the consumer to look further. The rest of the animatronic Santas and the dancing Egyptian dogs will do little more than produce nightmares.

 

I know animatronics and cardboard have little in common normally, but they were both plentiful at EuroShop this year. I guess Bratwurst and Wienerschitzel could also be part of this blog then.