Retail surgery: How can we ensure the purchase of our point-of-sale material is as efficient as possible?

Simon Taylor, business development director at integrated marketing solutions provider APS Group, explains five steps to long-term point of sale savings.

First, assess the existing point of sale material. Taylor says: “There are savings to be made by specifying the correct materials or reducing sizes. Why produce something to last six months if it will only be used for two weeks?”

Then carry out an audit of where the material is going to be displayed. Multi-site retailers’ banding of stores by size goes some way, but often standard kits still contain more point of sale than is needed. It’s best to conduct a full audit of the entire store portfolio.

“Using the audit data to drive accurate collation of store kits is the third step,” Taylor says. “This reduces waste, the need to order additional point of sale and the costs of storing and distributing these orders, which could lead to reductions of between 5% and 10%.”

Then explore whether any point of sale could be printed in-store. “Many stores have low-cost printers that could enable store staff to produce small point of sale items quickly and at relatively low cost,” says Taylor.

Finally, step five, think how technology could be used. While still expensive, LCD screens can be used to drive footfall and impulse purchases and offer a measurable ROI. “‘E-paper’ allows near-instant updates of messages and is flexible enough to incorporate rapid price fluctuations of perishable products.”