team energie deploys Panasonic ESLs in fuel station convenience store

Panasonic has worked with the convenience store of a German team energie GmbH & Company fuel station to deploy electronic shelf labels (ESLs).

The solution provides a wireless connection to a centralised PoS system to automatically update the price displays in-store - enabling marketing campaigns, reducing pricing errors and saving staff up to 30 minutes a day.

team energie, with 2,800 employees at 290 locations across Germany, has deployed the first ESL solution at its fuel station in Flensburg, near the German and Danish border.

Panasonic Connect engineers worked with team energie’s long-term PoS system provider, Huth, to customise and integrate the solution with the company’s backend systems. 800 ESLs were then installed and operational in a one day period. 

"In a fuel station shop, you don't have the luxury of space but customers still expect innovations and trends – like iced tea last year that suddenly became popular and everyone had to have on offer," says Benjamin Perner, Category Manager at team energie GmbH & Co.

"With the switch to the ESLs and the deliberate choice not to use different labels, we create certainty when pricing the products, keep things flexible if the range changes and still keep the shop tidy."

The electronic labels can be customised to display logos, flash special offers or provide more product information.

In addition, using NFC and QR codes, shoppers can scan labels to see special offers on social media or look up additional information.

Moving forward, team energie sees the opportunity to use transaction data to spot trends and tailor specific offers for customers to be sent directly or shared over social media.

The company says that the ESL system is also the perfect foundation for the introduction of dynamic pricing, where product costs could change in real-time depending on demand, the time of day or customers in the store.

“Fuel station stores are facing increasing competitive pressures,” says Jens-Michael Pohl, Manager Technical Field Engineering, at Panasonic Connect.

“Supermarkets and convenience stores continue to extend their opening hours and customers demand a wide range of ever changing products to be stocked – all in a small retail space with limited staff.”

“Panasonic ESL is the ideal solution to help fuel stations remain competitive and, in addition, to innovate with new in-store and targeted marketing campaigns.”