Printing POS in store reduces labour costs

Pierhouse has suggested that retail store staff are spending 10 times longer to organise and display point-of-sale (POS) than head office is allocating.

The company said this masks the true cost of running campaigns and promotions, and can lead to lost sales as less time is being spent on customer-facing tasks.

Geoff Clifton, business development director at Pierhouse, said: 'In a climate where retailers are looking to cut costs in all areas, it is surprising that not only is 40-70 per cent of all POS material still being wasted, but associated labour costs for back office tasks are much higher than budget.

'On average, the time spent sorting, correcting, making and trying to order missing POS can be as high as between 20 and 35 man-hours a week, yet retailers are allocating just three or four hours under the bland banner of "sorting".

He added: 'By printing POS in-store in display order and moving to an automated system for creating signage - print, ESEL or digital - retailers can save a minimum of five hours a week and considerably reduce labour costs.

Somerfield, for instance, has benefitted from a 50 per cent saving in labour that is equivalent to more than GBP500,000 per annum, giving a return-on-investment of less than four months.

Clifton said: 'Retailers have been wasting tens of thousands of pounds a year creating and transporting POS that is not required.

'This cost may have been something that could have been absorbed or even overlooked when trading times were better, but not in today's climate when every penny counts.

'In addition, to remain competitive, retailers need to be able to amend prices and create new promotions in minutes, not days or weeks.

'Automating the creation and distribution of POS provides the flexibility, along with the compliance.

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