DUSSELDORF, Germany, March 2010

The EHI Retail Institute granted the TOSHIBA TEC project at Albert Heijn the reta Europe 2010 Award in the category “Best In-Store Solution” in recognition of this outstanding IT solution developed in collaboration with TOSHIBA TEC, Capgemini and ImpulseLogic. Judged by a panel of European and American retail specialists, the award recognizes the innovative technology that reduces the operating cost and delivers a tangible ‘green’ business advantage to retailers.

The solution, based on an innovative Capgemini concept for a dynamic pricing and promotion system using ImpulseLogic’s software, helps reducing fresh produce waste and increases operational profits. The initiative lead by TOSHIBA TEC, as a distributor for the software and supplier of the required hardware, allowed Albert Heijn to integrate and trial the concept in an existing store automation landscape. Additional cross-sell opportunities are considered to realize a lift in overall sales and an incremental increase in aggregate margins.

The realized solution automatically updates messaging on large (15 inch) wireless full color graphical displays to reflect planogram changes as well as changes in product and price information to influence shopper’s buying decisions in the fruits and vegetables section. Automatically detected updates in relevant information either origin from Albert Heijn’s centralized systems or from local store overrides triggered by trained personal using a custom developed mobile solution.

The focus on reducing food waste requires the solution to compare predicted and actual sales rates and analyze expected deliveries and current stock levels to determine what predefined measures must be executed to avoid overstock or imminent out-of-stock situations. As a results the solution manages the messaging on the displays by reflecting the company standard colors for regular pricing or promotions or by raising the attention level for products that don’t meet expected sales rates or start promotions and price markdowns where required to reduce or eliminate waste. Suggested price changes will be executed automatically unless notified authorized personnel decides to override the system within a predefined time frame. Secondary, but from a business case perspective also important effects from the use of these digital media are reduction of labor and print costs and the elimination of price discrepancies between product location and POS systems.

The TOSHIBA TEC Team rolled out a series of advanced tools and introduced technology enhancements to further simplify and improve communication with shoppers. The same software can be used for shoppers using a handheld scanning device in the shop to receive price markdowns and relevant cross-selling offers on the display of their scanner. This personalized customer interaction is recognized by industry experts to drive increased basket size and margins.

“This Award demonstrates the remarkable innovation of the TOSHIBA TEC retail technology team,” Nobuhiko Takao, CEO TOSHIBA TEC Europe said. “We firmly believe that our Intelligent Waste Management model significantly reduces a retailer’s operating costs on a daily basis and we are delighted to see these advanced retail technology capabilities recognized by The EHI Retail Institute.”

“The retail industry has always been led by innovation and that is certainly true in today’s economic climate,” Michael Gerling, Managing Director, The EHI Institute said during the award ceremony. “When choosing the 2010 EHI Retail Technology Award winners, the jury carefully considered each organisation’s products and services and the new ideas and thought leadership that it has brought to the industry. An intelligent IT solution that reduces food waste, clearly fulfilled these criteria.”

The EHI Retail Technology Award Jury consisted of: Prof. Dr. Jörg Becker, Managing Director, ERCIS European Research Center for Information Systems, University of Münster (D), Jörg Glaser, Managing Director, Zentralverband Gewerblicher Verbundgruppen e. V. (ZGV), Berlin/Cologne/Brussels (D / B), Miya Knights, Editor, Retail Technology, Uxbridge, Middlesex (UK), Winfried Lambertz, Editor-in-chief, rt-retail technology, Cologne (D), Richard E. Mader, Executive Chairman, ARTS-Association for Retail Technology Standards, Washington D. C. (USA) and Ulrich Spaan, Vice President Research IT, EHI Retail Institute, Cologne (D).