Walmart promises that “clear prices” will make for “happy shoppers.” But many shoppers aren’t so sure.
A month after Walmart announced it would be bringing digital price labels to more than 2,000 of its stores over the next couple of years, a new survey finds that many shoppers are skeptical, convinced that the technology will make Walmart far happier than it will make them.
The market research company CivicScience found that only 14% of shoppers believe that replacing traditional price tags with digital ones would positively impact their shopping experience. 40% think it would have a negative impact. And that negativity increases with age – only 29% of Gen Z shoppers view digital price tags negatively, while 56% of seniors do.
What could be so negative about price tags? If they allow a retailer to raise prices without you noticing, for one.
Walmart insists that’s not going to happen. “Consumer perceptions, however, are less clear,” CivicScience noted. Its survey found “a strong correlation between consumers who are less likely to shop at retailers who’ve switched to digital price tags and those who are less likely to buy from brands that use dynamic pricing.”
Various Facebook comments over the past month provide a glimpse into customers’ concerns about the changes. Digital tags “will allow for easier, faster price hikes and dynamic pricing,” one commenter wrote. “They’ll change the price anytime they want. Comparison pricing will be impossible,” another commented. The very idea that prices could fluctuate, even if Walmart denies it, “is a great way to erode customer trust,” a third commenter wrote. Another commenter suggested “the fact that they keep stating it isn’t for dynamic pricing means that it most definitely is.”
Regardless of what they think about digital price tags, a majority of shoppers said it wouldn’t impact their decision on whether to shop at Walmart. But 37% said they would be less likely to shop there, while only 9% said it would make them more likely to do so.
Walmart is far from the first retailer to roll out digital price tags. But no others are as large or as frequently shopped as Walmart. So Walmart’s announcement last month hit a nerve, in a way that other retailers’ digital price tag rollouts haven’t.
Walmart says its goals are to reduce paper waste from printed shelf tags, make the job of updating prices (when required) easier for employees, and free them up to do other tasks. 60% of Walmart shoppers told CivicScience it would be nice if those “other tasks” involved opening more checkout lanes.
“Allocating employee time to address customer concerns, such as more checkout lanes and faster customer service, may serve Walmart well in the long run to keep shoppers happy and coming back,” CivicScience concluded. So short-term skepticism may end up turning into long-term satisfaction. Walmart – and Walmart shoppers – certainly hope so.
Image source: Walmart
Clearly this saves labor, errors and reduces waste — most stores with “paper” labels use laminated ones that cannot be recycled. Even if they are pure paper, they are too small to be recycled.
I can’t tell you how many stores I’ve been to that have outdated shelf tags — especially ones for expired sales.
For those of us who shop at stores that have scan-error guarantees, there will be fewer freebies or price adjustments. Uless, perhaps, the price changes between the time the item is taken from the shelf and checks out.
I welcome the change, but there are environmental costs. All of the signs have some sort of battery and wireless technology in them, they are made from non recyclable plastic, and the technology to operate all of it uses electricity and data center space.
They also cost more than paper tags, but the cost is front-loaded whereas labor is an ongoing and high cost.