Nationwide Marketing Group and Pricer, a global leader of electronic shelf labels (ESL), announced today that Pricer has been selected as Nationwide’s preferred vendor partner for digital price tags. Through the program, Nationwide will offer Pricer’s tags to all Nationwide members directly, centralizing all ordering, invoicing, customer service and co-op submissions to create a simplified member experience.

“Retailers who employ digital price tags in their stores will tell you that they are an absolute game changer, saving time and helping drive higher margins,” says Chris Kirk, vice president of financial and business services for Nationwide Marketing Group. “And when it comes to digital tags, Pricer stands out for their high-quality product and the white glove service they’ve always provided our members, from ordering and installation through maintenance of their tags.”

With Pricer, Nationwide’s dealers have access to a solution that utilizes the latest electronic shelf label technology, which ensures the product is reliable and able to meet the retailer’s needs. Pricer’s digital tags use unique bi-directional infrared technology (IR) to wirelessly update, which allows for less energy consumption than other tags and less lag time across the system. That means users can expect decades-long battery life, along with instant, real-time, guaranteed updates whenever the retailer manages the information on their tags. In fact, Pricer’s tags can successfully manage 30,000 label updates per hour. Additionally, Pricer integrates seamlessly into any platform, including Retailer Web Services’ FlashTags — the preferred website partner for Nationwide.

“We are excited to evolve the relationship with Nationwide,” says Ryan McConnell, director of national accounts at Pricer. “As an early ESL digital price tag adopter of several ESL solutions, Nationwide holds an advanced understanding of the power of real-time pricing built on speed, reliability and battery durability, a clear advantage of the Pricer IR platform.”

The business case for switching to digital tags is simple. Data from Nationwide shows that retailers who use electronics tags in their stores realize 2% more on margin than those who do not. And as the preferred partner for Nationwide, Pricer’s solutions are available to Nationwide’s members at an already-low cost that can be further subsidized through available co-op opportunities.

Logistically, digital price tags save dealers hours of time per week that would be spent ripping and replacing all of the paper shelf tags around the store. Digital tags also ensure that a retailer’s pricing remains consistent from their website to the product in-store, creating a seamless experience for their customers. And with Pricer’s market pricing technology, retailers can have the confidence that their prices consistently beat their nearby competition.

“Pricing changes so fast nowadays,” says Jeff Billman, co-owner of Nationwide member store Billman’s Inc. in Cut Bank, Montana. “We noticed that we were doing a good job when the promotions start. We could tag our floor and go down to the promo prices. The issue becomes leaving your tags up for too long. We were losing out on that revenue opportunity when prices were supposed to go back up.”

For Billman, it was more than the cost savings and boost to the company’s bottom line that convinced him to partner with Pricer.

“With Pricer, it’s the people, getting to deal with everyone from start to finish,” he says. “They walk you through every step of the way and educate you so that you 100% understand the investment. Their technical support has been awesome with getting things going. To top it all off, their team is just a phone call away. I could leave the store at 5:30 p.m. and come back the next day with my solutions fixed. From start to finish, the Pricer team has ensured that there is always someone there to help.”

For more information on the Pricer program, Nationwide dealers can visit MemberNet or reach out to Nationwide Business Services Coordinator Neely Carter at neely.carter@nationwidegroup.org. In addition to the preferred program with Pricer, Nationwide also continues to support vendor partner and digital price tag maker SES-imagotag.