Sainsbury's trials electronic tags as it seeks to automate pricing process

The electronic shelves will be trialled in a Local store on Old Street, London, ahead of a potential roll-out to other stores.  

Sainsbury’s director of digital and technology Jon Rudoe said: “A key part of our strategy is to make sure we’re looking at new technology on behalf of our colleagues to make their lives easier.

“So this trial will give us useful feedback about quicker, efficient, digital-pricing information and how much time and paper we’ll save in the process.”

Electronic pricing tags are used by grocers outside of the UK in countries such as France, but have yet to gain traction in the UK.

Kingfisher-owned B&Q considered rolling out electronic pricing into its stores to emulate sister company Catorama, but ruled out rolling out the technology after deciding it was not cost effective.

Sainsbury’s employees will be trained to assign each label to a specific product. Prices can then be updated automatically using pricing data from the Sainsbury’s central database.

The grocer said units will use “secure, encrypted” software and have been designed to resist cold temperatures in fridges and freezers.