Kentucky Ag Connection - Cashier Survey: Widespread Problems Scanning Fresh Food Labels

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Cashier Survey: Widespread Problems Scanning Fresh Food Labels
Kentucky Ag Connection - 01/10/2018

Digimarc Corporation, inventor of the Intuitive Computing Platform featuring Digimarc Barcode, announced findings from an online survey conducted by The Harris Poll on behalf of Digimarc, revealing how damaged and misplaced retail labels from the fresh food departments reduce cashier productivity. The recent study focused on grocery store cashiers and label scanning, and revealed 90 percent of cashiers scanning printed labels believed that reducing the number of hard-to-scan perishable and store perimeter labels would help improve their productivity. Thirty two percent of cashiers who had items that did not read when scanned, report that these label issues led some customers to not purchase the item.

The survey collected responses from approximately 500 grocery store cashiers in the U.S. to gauge their experience scanning retail labels from the fresh food departments. Retail labels are applied to fresh food items like meat, seafood, bulk and cheese products. Dairy items, for example, are the source of the largest number of scanning issues, with nearly half of cashiers encountering items that did not read when scanned (47 percent).Cashiers also noted that these dairy items caused problems three or more times per shift. Meat and seafood items were also challenging, with 63 percent of cashiers whose store uses in-store printed labels saying these items at least occasionally cause them issues.

To address retail scanning problems, Digimarc Barcode can be added to labels and packaging. It carries the same data found in GS1 EAN/UPC and GS1 DataBar conventional barcodes. Digimarc Barcode is repeated multiple times across the surface of a label. This broad repetitive coverage provides scanners and mobile devices with a larger and more reliable scanning surface than a label with a traditional barcode.

"Sales of fresh food items are increasing and The Harris Poll survey demonstrates the need for reliable and efficient labels for cashiers to scan," said Heidi Dethloff, vice president of marketing, Digimarc. "With Digimarc Barcode, packaging and labels, even those that are wrinkled, crinkled, smudged, damaged or torn are easily scanned, preventing delays, ensuring data accuracy, and improving the customer experience."

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