The Doing Business in Bentonville Podcast
To create an ecosystem that connects leaders of all kinds – industry, community, student, educational, civic, investment and entrepreneurial – to help overcome Omnichannel Retail barriers through exclusive, insight-rich content.
The Doing Business in Bentonville Podcast
Ep. 85 - Transforming Retail with Electronic Shelf Labels
Unlock the future of retail with our insightful Digital Front Door discussion featuring Alex Walderman and Tim McCracken from the Solum Group.
Discover how electronic shelf labels are reshaping the shopping landscape by bridging the gap between physical and digital retail experiences.
From operational efficiencies to enhanced customer engagement, Tim, Alex and host Scott Benedict explore the multifaceted benefits of ESL technology and how it serves as a dynamic tool for retailers looking to innovate and excel.
Join us the trio uncover the revolutionary applications of ESLs beyond mere price displays. Imagine a world where grocery shopping is seamless, with digital signage guiding your decisions and personalized offers enhancing your journey.
Alex and Tim walk us through the integration of ESLs with retail media strategies, showcasing how this technology personalizes shopping experiences and strengthens consumer relationships. They delve into real-world scenarios where ESLs transform the decision-making process, linking online browsing habits with in-store purchases.
Furthermore, we journey into the broader implications of personalization technology across industries such as automotive and healthcare. Learn how ESLs guide customers to specific products and simplify inventory management in hospitals, promoting efficiency and satisfaction.
The conversation highlights the evolving landscape of retail, emphasizing the potential for collaborative innovation as the industry continues to unveil new business benefits and opportunities for growth. Join Doing Business in Bentonville and the Digital Front Door series to uncover how ESLs are not only changing retail but potentially every sector they touch.
Well, hello everyone and welcome to the Digital Front Door. I'm Scott Benedict. Many times, when we talk about the evolution of omni-channel retailing, our first thoughts run towards enhancements to a retailer's website, to their mobile app, to the store pickup or delivery, elements that are continuing to see innovation or improvements. It seems like with every passing week Now to be certain, these aspects of the technology investments and the process improvements that retailers are making are bringing benefits of anywhere, anytime shopping to life for consumers to a greater degree, and they're doing so really at a blistering pace. However, there is one area of digitally enabled shopping that I believe does not have the focus it should consistently across the retail community, whether that's here in the US or in other retail markets around the world, and that is the technology related to electronic shelf labels. Now, many in our industry view ESL technology as an in-store only technology innovation. However, the role that this technology plays as a connective element of both physical and digital retail is just beginning to emerge in ways that are both exciting for the retailer, for the store associate and front lines and, ultimately, for consumers. More about this exciting technology.
Speaker 1:I thought we could tap into the expertise of two leaders from a firm that is at the forefront of this emerging and very exciting technology. The Solemn Group is an exciting and innovative firm that was the result of a spinoff from Samsung's Electromagnetics Division, and they have offices not only in Seoul Korea division, and they have offices not only in Seoul Korea Frankfurt, germany and here in New York City in the United States, and we're excited to have two leaders from that organization join us today. First is Alex Walderman. Alex serves as the Director of Business Development for Solem in Toronto. He works with a number of Canadian retailers and Alex joins us today from his office just outside of Toronto. So hello, alex.
Speaker 2:Hello.
Speaker 1:Scott, Thanks for having us. You bet we're also joined by Tim McCracken. Tim serves as the Vice President of Sales for SoLum and Tim joins us from his office in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. And Tim, thank you for joining us as well.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. Thank you, Scott.
Speaker 1:All right. So we've got a little bit of an international element, and certainly a multi-location element, to our episode today, so I'm excited to have both of you join and talk a little bit about this. Join and talk a little bit about this, alex, let me come to you first and for the benefit of our audience who may be there may be people who are not as familiar with ESL technology Could you really kind of begin our conversation today by defining what digital store signage is broadly and maybe a little bit about electronic shelf labels in particular.
Speaker 2:Definitely for sure.
Speaker 2:So digital signage and ESL electronic shelf labels are two key elements that make up the in-store solution, which is very much connected.
Speaker 2:So for many, many years now we've seen, as we've all gone out into the world, shopping, digital signage, communicating advertising, promotional messaging and helping guide shoppers through the space to help them fill their cart with the right products based on what they need.
Speaker 2:But what's newer and what we're spreading far and wide and helping retailers implement effectively is ESL electronic shelf labels, in other words, digital price tags, and so what it does is it enables retailers to be much more operationally efficient in managing not only the price point but the other elements related to each individual product that they need to communicate at shelf level, which could differ by industry, to calorie count in food locations, to expiry dates, to pricing, to bulk pricing, to deal types for certain retailers that have a weekly special versus stock up savings. And the magic really in what we've been really bringing retailers and what they're excited about is the connection between digital price tags, esl electronic shelf labels and digital signage to tell a integrated story and allow shoppers to get a message on screen and connect it to what's on shelf in real time and even have a connected experience to what that shopper may have seen out of store that drove them into the store in the first place. And then we close the deal, so to speak, with signage and price tags in store.
Speaker 1:That is so neat. I look forward to kind of diving into that a little bit deeper. But I think one of the things, Tim, I wanted to kind of pose the question to you. I know, kind of at the beginning of the conversation or the thought process on the part of a lot of retailers as they're considering the business case for implementing ESL technologies, what do you and the team kind of suggest are the most important considerations in evaluating kind of the return on investment for a technology solution like what Solum and your team do?
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, it's a great question, Scott. So I would say that there are several considerations that retailers explore, I would say, the first being which department should we deploy these in? Does it make sense to deploy ESL in the apparel department if all of apparel in our store comes to us pre-tagged with a price tag on it? Or does it make sense to deploy only in a few key departments within that particular retailer and then maybe scale on an as-needed basis throughout the store? So many retailers that we speak with are reviewing that on a frequent basis prior to making their decision. I would say.
Speaker 3:Another consideration is how many stores to deploy at once. Do we want to do 20 stores this year or do we want to do we want to try to get all 180 stores that we have up and running this year because of that return on investment that many of our retailers are seeing in only 18 months that we have deployed our particular solutions to. So once they maybe they initially thought we would roll out 20 stores they quickly realized that ROI, and then there's like a mad dash to the finish how do we get all the rest of the stores up and running with ESL technology and digital signage as soon as possible. So I think that what retailers are discovering is that it's really not about eliminating headcount per se. When people traditionally think about ESL, the assumption is well, how do we reduce costs as it relates to headcount? But I think what our customers are seeing is that actually it's not really about reducing people, but reallocating that labor elsewhere within the store to help improve overall productivity and then, obviously, bottom line results.
Speaker 1:Yes, I imagine also being able to put some staff on customer facing activities where they're actually helping a customer instead of being stuck doing other less customer facing type work. Absolutely yeah. So, alex, when a retailer is considering an ESL solution, I'm kind of guessing that you don't suggest that they go store wide or chain wide excuse me right away that they start with a group of pilot stores. Is that accurate? How do you help retailers kind of decide how to get started with a pilot?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's complicated, so we try to help guide them, as we've done this. Like you said earlier, we have presence globally. We've done this globally for many retailers in many industries, so it's not chain wide from day one. Retailers rightly so want to test this, maybe in one area of the store, like Kim suggested, and that could be driven by a number of factors. But they want to test it in some fashion, see how it performs, see the benefits and then maybe deploy to more stores in those departments that they started, or maybe spread it across that one or two or three stores that they're testing before deploying elsewhere. But what we often find is that, yeah, of course, like most things, you start small, you see how it goes and you grow it from there.
Speaker 2:But to Tim's point earlier, several of our clients have found that they've estimated X time for ROI and planned accordingly, but then said, oh my God, we're seeing more than we thought quicker. How do we get this out to more stores faster? And we've seen the problem on our end, which we're happy to solve and have solved like at huge scale, is our clients tried this. They love it so much, they need so many tags so quickly. How do we get this to them. And that's when we go home and tell the team you know, turn that 24-hour clock on, because we've got to make some more of these, I'll bet that's a wonderful problem to have.
Speaker 1:Yes, retailers are facing so many investment decisions on what technology to invest in and how to go quick enough but not too quick, that when you have examples where it turns out the pilot worked out so great that the retailer wants to accelerate. What a wonderful problem to have in such a fast-paced environment. Tim, I'm curious. You know, it seems like one of the obvious business benefits of ESL technology is something you touched on earlier labor savings as it relates to changing or updating signage. But I want to go a little bit deeper on that. I would imagine, certainly as you all have educated me on your industry, there's a lot more business benefit that stems from ESL technology than just the labor savings of updating or changing signs. Is that right?
Speaker 3:Absolutely so.
Speaker 3:When we meet with potential customers exploring ESL as an option, they're often shocked to what they initially think are going to be saved labor costs.
Speaker 3:But again, as we said earlier, they find very quickly that they can reroute their existing labor in other areas of the store to increase productivity. But then they're astounded to learn that the ESL, or electronic shelf label, can assist with things like inventory notification, replacing empty shelf space on the floor, order picking, post pandemic or even during the pandemic, you know, a lot of people were not able to shop or were afraid to shop. So online ordering really got a jumpstart and a kickstart that hasn't stopped. So retailers are faced with challenges as it relates to fulfilling online orders and how do we fulfill those faster? The faster we can fulfill that order, the more revenue we're going to be able to take in on an hourly basis. Wayfinding is another capability that people will utilize, both digital signage and DSL for more information and so much more. Retailers are now learning that we can help them improve both revenue and decrease their costs simultaneously, which is really exciting for them.
Speaker 1:I'm your person, wait. So I mean just to follow up on that. That's where the sign can help someone with a mobile device find the location of a particular item or a particular category in that particular store.
Speaker 3:Is that right? That is correct. If I'm looking for a certain type of shampoo and I need to know where to go within the store, using the app that maybe that store already has incorporated or embedded into their mobile applications, it would allow me to essentially say okay, I need to go straight and to the left, and then, once I get to that aisle, I could even hit a button and it would then light up the tag to show me exactly the precise location of where that item is on the shelf.
Speaker 1:That is so neat, alex. One of the things that Tim just touched on was the fact that ESLs can help make the store associate more efficient as they are picking store pickup orders or delivery orders. Can you talk a little bit about that, maybe go a level deeper and talk about how your technology enables that process to be a little bit more efficient and easier for the store associate. To finish, sure A hundred percent.
Speaker 2:Well, let me open with a story of I started with Solium about a year ago and before I even joined I visited some stores that have it and, without revealing where I'm coming to work, I kind of asked how's this going? Our technology that their store pickers in a grocery chain can now pick three times in this case the number of carts per hour, because our ESLs are communicating with those pickers phones and saying here's Scott's order, look for the purple blinking tags in aisle two, nine and 11, and go pick this order for Scott. And now that picker can navigate the store and find the product so much quicker that he's able to do from three carts an hour to between seven and nine is what I was told at that time. And think of the revenue that that is generating for these stores when they use this technology for these associates In this case the associate is a picker fulfilling online orders Two to three times the amount of carts that this person is fulfilling per hour.
Speaker 2:Unbelievable staff that I learned and I validated that through multiple sources, since I've been doing this over the past while, and it's really unbelievable. Validated that through multiple sources, since I've been doing this over the past while, and it's really unbelievable. And that's the kind of thing that leads retailers to come back to us and say how many of these can you make? Because we said 50 stores next year, but now we want 100 of them Because the ROI is there. And that's just one example.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I would imagine that that process, which is so labor intensive, gets so much easier, so much faster. Quite frankly, a lot more enjoyable, I would assume, for the store associate to have those lighting lit up ESLs that help direct them to the item and make that process so much more efficient and easier for them to do right 100%.
Speaker 2:And there's more benefits too, even outside of fulfilling online carts, when customers are trying to find a product. Like Tim shared the shampoo type example earlier, imagine a shopper now going to an associate who can find things more easily in the store navigate himself to help the shopper find it more easily. And then also again, scott. We've chatted before about the magic of in-store communications and in-store marketing, upselling shoppers and getting them to put more in their basket. The connection of these tags, between the tag and digital signage is one thing. To help motivate the shopper to find the right products and maybe add a complimentary product on and guide them to that art show. It also goes to the associate, where the associate can now search based on what he needs. To help the shopper with and get additional pop-ups that help him sell more effectively to the shopper. To upsell, build baskets, generate revenue and look helpful to the shopper. To upsell, build baskets, generate revenue and look helpful to the shopper. And what a better use of that in-store staff than swapping tags or signs.
Speaker 1:No, that is so neat. This is a way in which technology is enabling not only a more efficient retail experience, but a much more enjoyable one and a more, perhaps solution-based approach for the customer, because we help them find everything that they're looking for and do it really efficiently. Yeah, yeah, and that leads me to kind of my next question for you Beyond the individual shelf labels for an individual product, are there other roles digital signage can play in other areas or other aspects of the retail shopping experience either directional signage or department signage. What other roles can your technology plot?
Speaker 3:That's an excellent question. So, essentially, customers are delighted to learn that we are more than just an electronic shelf label manufacturer. We are also in the digital signage space and one of the exciting things that's happening in our industry is having the ability to integrate their electronic shelf labels into a traditional 55, 65 or 75 inch display, for example. So what do I mean by that? So, for example, let's say that a customer is at a grocery store, or you're a customer at a grocery store and you're wanting to select a certain bottle of wine. You walk up to one of our displays and you can say, okay, I'm looking for a red bottle of wine, then I want it to be extra dry, maybe an international selection, etc. And, narrowing down that criteria, hit a button on that display that then lights up a series of tags that just went from thousands, literally thousands of bottles to choose from in that grocery store to maybe three. These three fit the criteria that you were looking for. So in a matter of seconds, the electronic shelf labels will light up.
Speaker 3:Narrowing down that focus for you as the shopper and even more exciting is okay. So now you've narrowed down that focus to three bottles. Which one should I select? Well, this particular bottle using the ESL may have a little message on it saying select the button underneath the tag for more information. So let's say you did that, you select the, you press the button on the tag.
Speaker 3:Well, right above the shelf there might be another 55-inch display that will then play a 45-second commercial telling you a little bit of information about where the wine originated from, where the vineyard, more information about the vineyard or the certain types of grapes that they use, or whatever. That allows you to immediately become connected with the product and even gives you a story for your dinner party that you're throwing that evening in terms of your shopping experience, combined with what you learned about this particular bottle of wine. So I think this capability is really a game changer, is what we're seeing, as it relates to helping the customer make the right choice based on their criteria while at the same time, enhancing the customer experience in the store.
Speaker 1:That is really exciting, I think. For someone like myself who came out of the consumer electronics business, where we were always taught to focus on solution selling, on understanding what a customer needed and trying to solve it not just with one product but a whole solution, it feels like your technology really is an enabler in those scenarios. You gave in the wine example of bringing that to life, but doing so in a very efficient, cost-effective way. Right, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and the solution is the key word, honestly, that these ideas often come up based on us our clients telling us challenges they're having, and we go back and build these solutions or find out ways to use the technology and often clients come to us with. Wouldn't it be great if we could use this this way? That way? We love collaborating with clients. Some of the best ideas happen that way, by figuring out what challenges are your shoppers facing. Here's how you can use our technology to help overcome it. Or you can't use our technology to overcome it today, but let me take that back. And then we go back to the lab and figure out how to make it happen, and we've done this so many times that that's what gets our team excited and keeps us all pumped to keep growing our capabilities is because we're helping retailers solve challenges, so much that. And then you tie that back to the ROI we talked about before. This is how they see it so much faster because it doesn't just do one thing, it's not a digital price, it's so much more.
Speaker 1:That is, I think, one of the least understood aspects. My perception is of your industry and of your solution is it does more than one thing it solves many business challenges and enhances the customer experience. And, alex, that brings me to one other area that I suspect your technology is beginning to address. That relates to retail media, and it's obviously one of the fastest growing elements of omni-channel retail. But most of the benefits of retail media marketing stem from the online experience, helping a consumer find what they're looking for when they're doing a search or browsing online. Is there a way that digital signage can now help retail media campaigns come to life in a physical store as well?
Speaker 2:store as well. Well, scott, from our past chats, of course this is the perfect topic for me to talk about with you. Of course, yes, retail media again, being a marketer at Art and coming up in the retail marketing world myself for 12 plus years that online search criteria that you just mentioned is now connected to the store. It's not that it's mimicked or that there's now a version. In the store, the shopper is a person. We all see things on our phone, see things on TV or a billboard and put it on a list or take note and build our lists or menus for groceries for the following week in real time, and we don't just shop online or just shop in store. It's a combination. So what this connected system that we're bringing into the stores of ESL, electronic shelf labels, digital signage, other technologies that integrate the store experience with the online experience what that does is it allows the shopper to continue their shopping journey from what they did at home or on the phone into the store and it allows them to truly continue that from when they maybe build a list on their phone to when they come into the store and how these elements, like an app, for example, for a grocery chain, is connected now to the store and they can communicate in a two-way fashion with the displays to help them find what they're looking for or trigger deals in store that are customized, personalized to the shopper, based on his habits or her habits. That's where this is all going and in some ways, many ways, it's already there that we are enabling the retailer to give the shopper a truly personalized experience.
Speaker 2:And, to your point on retail media. This is opportunity for retailers to bring their CPG consumer packaged goods product partners unbelievable opportunities to connect with their shoppers in very personalized ways, based on past purchase habit, what they've searched and now they're in store. How do we close the sale loop and get them to put my product in their basket? This is now all possible by connecting what happened at home to what happened in store through our electronic shelf labels, digital signage and, with the wisest retailers, them connecting these systems with our assistants and then bringing those opportunities to the CPG consumer packaged goods, cokes, pepsis, other brands of the world. So they want to get on board, to your point on a retail meeting and create an experience for their brand that they could not otherwise create. Yesterday they were buying an in-store 15-second ad on a digital sign. Today. It's a holistic full cycle experience.
Speaker 1:And it feels like all three of us have been tying back to this whole concept of the ROI, of the technology. And if you bring a retail media element to it, the ROI equation gets a whole lot more favorable, a whole lot quicker. I would imagine yeah, 100%.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So, tim, I mentioned earlier that I'm from a consumer electronics background and one of our major electronics retailers recently remodeled their store here locally in northwest Arkansas and implemented kind of a second-generation ESL solution where there is a QR code element on the digital sign that when you pull out your phone and scan that QR code, it immediately takes the consumer to that product's item detail page on their website and in the case of a consumer electronics product a little bit more complex product, in the case of a consumer electronics product a little bit more complex product it really creates kind of an end-to-end research before you buy scenario Is this printer ink compatible with my printer? Is this TV ideal for the room that I want to use that in? What is the benefit for the consumer and for the retailer of this kind of omni-channel aspect of ESL?
Speaker 3:technology? Absolutely so. The immediate benefit for the consumer is information. They want to be able to see and understand the basic features and benefits of a product that a traditional product sitting on a shelf isn't going to offer. You contrast that with e-commerce or some of the online retail shoppers that are out there, and they would be subject to a lot of reviews that help customers decide whether or not this is a product I want to purchase or not. So the benefit is information we as consumers have now. Because we have information at our fingertips, we have it in our pocket with our mobile devices, we are absolutely interested in wanting to make the very best purchase we can for the lowest price available. Of course, the benefit for the retailer is more sales, more revenue, because they helped inform the customer.
Speaker 3:Embedding a QR code into the content of the electronic shelf labels actually opens up a whole world of options for retailers other than just information sharing. Some may use it for customer information gathering. They're trying to learn more about their customer and maybe in exchange for that information, they'll be able to clip a coupon and by embedding a coupon within the app itself, that's capturing that data off of the tag. Some may use it to clip a coupon. That's all that's it. It's it's a way of being able to say, okay, I can get a dollar off this particular product if I scan the QR code. So it allows me to have a more intimate shopping experience and and make the shopping, uh, even more fun for the consumer, which is what a lot of the retailers that we speak to in the brick and mortar are very interested in doing. They want to enhance that customer's shopping experience within their particular store.
Speaker 3:And then another creative I've seen this used with QR codes as well is if there was an item that I see on the shelf the picture but it's out of stock, I really wanted to purchase that item. Maybe I actually drove from my home all the way to the store to actually pick up that only item. Well, being able to then scan the QR code and then allow me to place that order online using the retailer's website and have it delivered right to my home via free delivery is huge. That way the retailer doesn't lose out on that revenue, they're able to capture that revenue. So the utilization of QR codes is very interesting and we have seen with retailers that, depending on their biggest use case and sometimes it's departmental, it's not just store-wide. They know that there are certain products where that's more relevant than others, but being able to capture that revenue versus the customer saying, well, they're out of it, so I guess I'll just go order it online. I'll just go, I'll leave the store and order it online. They missed out on that revenue.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I imagine that just the concept of saving the sale and converting someone who is clearly indicating to you by their actions that they're considering that product and you've got them right there at the altar, so to speak and having access to the product detail page might provide the information or resolution it feels like. Whatever the issue is, that results in a purchase, and just that one aspect to it spoke to me, based on my background. But I got to tell you, even if it's a food product or a CPG product, as Alex was talking about, where you need to, maybe it's dietary issues what's the readiness for reviews, or is it available at the next store across town? Those are all kind of use cases that are enabled by that technology, right, absolutely.
Speaker 2:And I would also add to that it's not just saving that sale of that product, but it's saving that customer relationship because the store is in position, is helpful to the shopper by getting them what they want. And if we can't get it to you in this way, we can get it to you in that way. And what that does is keeps the shopper coming back and keeps repeat business right. There's a lot of marketing tricks out there to drive repeat business, but the best are building that relationship with the shopper so they feel this store has my back. They're going to make sure my kids have their snack, that they requested for lunches this week or whatever it is.
Speaker 1:That's right. That that is awesome, alex, you know. Occurs to me that you know again, we've talked a number of times about the ROI and the investment decision. When a retailer is considering new technology, obviously the evaluation has to begin at some point. How do you advise your retail clients on how to maybe begin the process of evaluating a technology solution like digital signage, like ESLs? Is there homework they need to do first before they engage you? How do you guys guide them down that journey to evaluating the possibility of piloting or rolling out a solution like this?
Speaker 2:Yeah, really good question. And the answer is we understand what they're trying to achieve. First, we want to know what challenges are they trying to overcome and what's their vision for how. We'll come back with how maybe our technology can help. But we really try to understand their business challenges and what they're facing. That's driving them to even have this discussion and through understanding the challenges they're facing today and working with them as true partners and this is exactly how we work with our clients and why they've stuck with us and keep coming back to us and are willing to share ideas with us and then have us go back to the lab, as I said, and come up with new technologies and solutions to solve those. The way that we are able to help them evaluate is by understanding and them sharing information about what they're trying to overcome problems, areas they're facing and then we can help work with them. It's a two-way conversation about how we can help them overcome those barriers. Tim, I'm sure you have some to add to this too.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, one of the things that we touched on earlier was the personalization technology of the tags themselves. I think most retailers are learning that personalization technology is the key to getting customers who have moved away from shopping on-site to e-commerce sites to rethinking their options and really by getting them back into the stores. Brick and mortar stores must think differently about making it all about the customer experience, and utilizing personalization technology enables them to do just that. I mean, if I'm a vegan and I go grocery shopping, it would be very helpful to know where all of the vegan items are on the shelf. Utilizing our ES esls with our lighting technology gives us that capability.
Speaker 3:Uh, maybe they're all lit up with a. Well, you mentioned the purple color earlier, alex, the purple light. There's seven different lights to choose from, but it enables me to to quickly know and go to that particular item because I know it's vegan friendly. Or we have multiple colors within the ESL technology and maybe throughout the store. If it's in a certain shade of orange, let's say, then I now know that that is a vegan friendly item. So it's making that customer shopping experience very personalized but enhancing their overall experience altogether.
Speaker 1:You know, tim, it's so neat that you mentioned the role of personalization and I was going to ask you about that. I had an experience with a friend recently who's from the automotive industry and there are a number of retailers who now, as part of the consumer's profile, put in here are the vehicles that I own. And so then when shopping in the automotive category for something that is vehicle-specific a headlight bulb or a fan belt or something that's unique ESLs I guess, can light up and show me this is just the products for my car, products that fit everybody's car. But it's kind of a play on personalization. You mentioned dietary. I just want to see things that fit my specific dietary restrictions. It just feels like it goes. The personalization benefits go across categories and shopping scenarios, do they not? In ways that I think a lot of retailers don't yet realize.
Speaker 3:Yeah, another example you mentioned automotive.
Speaker 3:That's actually a very strategic vertical for us and one in which we're dealing with a lot of dealerships.
Speaker 3:And one in which we're dealing with a lot of dealerships. And one of the things you mentioned customizing a certain vehicle that I'm looking for that has all the options I'm looking for, whether that be the color, the color of the interior, leather seats versus cloth, et cetera, that killer sound system, being able to use either a digital display inside the facility to help narrow down my focus, and or just being able to shop the parking lot through my mobile device. We actually have sizes of the ESL that are more like an eight and a half by 11 that actually work really well within the car. That replaced the traditional paper tag that's on the inside of the window. That would allow me, as a shopper looking for the very specific items, to point out exactly which car or cars are the perfect selection based on my criteria. So, if you can imagine, instead of walking up and down looking through an entire you know car lot, it's it makes it a lot easier if I can go right to the car. That is the car of my dreams.
Speaker 1:I hadn't even thought about that in the context of true automotive retailing not auto parts retailing, but automotive retailing. We're finding the vehicle, whether new or used, has what you're looking for. Researching it online and finding it in a physical dealership was not connected before. Sounds like the days of that are coming to an end and eventually we'll be able to connect researching for a vehicle online and then finding that location or that car on the lot and doing that really easily through your technology.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. Another example would be hospitals, healthcare systems, a lot of hospitals. If you can imagine the amount of inventory they have for their patient, for patient care, their back rooms are called par rooms. So if I'm a nurse and I'm looking for a particular item, patient needs it quickly or the doctors are needing it quickly for a surgery that's about to take place. Can you imagine not knowing where those items are that they're going to need and it takes several minutes to find those items, as opposed to incorporating our solution with ESLs? Using a mobile device, I can find exactly where those items are within seconds and being able to bring those back to the doctor and or the patient in a very timely fashion. So a lot of different applications other than just even retail. Even manufacturing distribution facilities to help find items faster seems to be something that's of great interest across multi-verticals.
Speaker 1:That is so neat.
Speaker 1:Well, tim and Alex, thank you so much.
Speaker 1:I feel like I'm a lot smarter and our audience is a lot smarter about the impact of your technology, and part of the reason why I'm so excited to have had the chance to talk with you is that, as this discussion comes up with people that I come across in our industry, it feels like there's a very one-dimensional view of what ESL technology can do and, as we've talked about today, there are so many other business benefits to it and it's evolving and changing. And, alex, to your point, you're willing to work with retailers to design new solutions enabled by your technology, all the time. So that is really exciting stuff. Thanks to you so much for sharing it. And so, tim and Alex, it seems like the business benefits for retailers and for consumer brands from ESL technologies are emerging every day, and it also seems as though the consumer shopping experience is absolutely benefiting from ESL in so many different ways that our industry has collectively just begun to discover. So thank you both for taking the time to educate me and educate our audience on the latest trends in your industry.
Speaker 3:So thank you. Thank you, scott, we appreciate the time yeah thanks for having us.
Speaker 1:You bet so for the Digital Front Door. I'm Scott Benedict. Thanks again for watching.