The ability to implement price markdowns and sales at short notice is a vital activity for any retail operation. As competitive pressure increases, the need to be seen as a 'good value' store is essential and running 'instant promotions' creates consumer interest, helping to clear seasonal stock and slow moving lines. Labels for these initiatives must be easy to read and have a professional appearance that complies with, and enhances the retailer's brand.
That's why when independent family shoe retailer, Shoon, were looking for an effective price-point and price markdown solution for its 22 stores, they turned to the global barcode, labelling and AIDC specialist SATO for a solution. SATO proposed the new TH2 label printer which offers portable, standalone, intelligent printing and introduces the concept of Application Enabled Printing (AEP).
Before employing the SATO TH2, the preparation that was needed by Shoon for labelling for sales periods was extremely time consuming, taking up approximately two and a half days of shop employees' time. The labels themselves were also very expensive as they had to be pre-printed with sequential numbers and a total of three separate labels were required for the sales system; labels were required to match the shoes with their boxes and provide a final markdown label with room for a handwritten reduced price.
Through using the TH2 printer label format programming features, Shoon's employees are now able to not only print labels to Shoon's specifications, but they can also combine the three discrete sales labels into a single label and insert the sequential numbering on demand - all on the shop floor.
Using SATO's TH2 labelling solution allows Shoon to make considerable savings in time spent by the company's employees, as sales preparation time has been slashed from two and a half days to just five hours. The retailer has also been able to save money on label costs. Plus, despite its capabilities, the TH2 is extremely competitively priced and there are no other products in its price bracket which offer such innovative features and benefits.
On integrating the SATO TH2 into its stores, Shoon's Marketing and Design Manager, Jonathan Newton said:
"Since implementing SATO's TH2 the most significant change we have noticed has been the reduction in time spent on sales preparation by our employees. To have this technology make such a huge impact on our business, so quickly, is extremely impressive and it means that our employees can spend more time serving our customers, which is really important. The TH2 solution is helping our company to realise real cost and time efficiencies and down to its versatility in design, we will be looking to use it for a wider variety of applications in the future".
The TH2 is extremely simple to use, lightweight yet robust and is powered by a rechargeable lithium-ion battery that allows between 4000 and 5000 labels to be printed from a single charge. The TH2 features an in-built keypad, so there's no need for a PC in close proximity. It also has a wide, adjustable LCD screen which offers mobile phone type, intuitive operation.
Using the user-defined database, which can easily be downloaded to the unit's SD card or accessed via the LAN, price calculation responsibilities are removed from the staff on the shop floor while they are still able to implement a sale at short notice to clear end of line or perishable products or to improve inventory flow. Integrating with any handheld scanner the TH2 can print WAS and NOW prices with percentage discount information set automatically onto a tag or label.
The TH2 comes complete with a carrying handle as standard and a range of accessories is available such as a keypad cover, SD card, a hanging wall mount and a label cutter.