Avery Dennison delivers new smart item-level markdown technology

At the NRF 102nd Annual Convention & EXPO, Avery Dennison Retail Branding and Information Solutions (RBIS) introduced new smart markdown management solution including the Pathfinder 6140 Printer – 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 has been featured at the NRF 102nd Annual Expo booth #143, where retailers have experienced its potential through a hands-on interactive exhibit. The Pathfinder 6140 solution was created in the Avery Dennison Customer Design and Innovation Centres (CDIC), the company's innovation incubator where advanced research is developed with industry partners and retailers.

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 associates can only complete three garments per minute with 63% accuracy. ¹ 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. There's also no way for the merchandising team to monitor the timing and execution of the markdown process, and to work with store operations to address stores that have particular execution challenges.

The Pathfinder 6140 delivers a complete solution to this critical retail problem. For store associates in one smooth motion they scan the barcode 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.

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 associates 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. "In fact, using a scan, print and apply handheld versus traditional price marking methods generated over five per cent higher sales during the markdown period for a large U.S. vertical retailer piloting the technology."

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 a one-piece scan, print and apply price marking solution powered by real-time intelligence from smart devices. Weighing only 27.2 ounces, 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 programme 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. For more information visit: www.rbis.averydennison.com/6140.

The Pathfinder 6140 is just one of many innovative retail solutions being brought to life at Avery Dennison's unique innovation incubators, the Custom Design and Innovation Centres, with global locations in Sprockhövel, Germany and Miamisburg, Ohio. These centres were established to allow Avery Dennison to activate its cutting-edge solutions and demonstrate its enhanced capabilities for the apparel industry in design, high definition graphic embellishments, sustainable packaging, and RFID-enabled inventory and loss prevention solutions. The centres are state-of-the-art design workshops featuring a simulated global supply chain, where leading apparel retailers, brands and manufacturers can create custom solutions and interact with existing Avery Dennison solutions that elevate brand and accelerate performance – from inception to the retail sales floor. In order to truly demonstrate the potential of technology in retail, the centres bring to life the store of the future with Avery Dennison's proprietary demonstration apparel brand, UNITI as retailers follow the path of a newly designed UNITI garment as it moves through the manufacturing process, a distribution centre and into a UNITI retail store. For retailers interested in visiting a CDIC, key aspects of the centre will be recreated at booth #143 at the NRF 102nd Annual Convention and Expo to provide a preview experience of what the full centres have to offer.

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