The present invention relates to methods of creating, printing and distributing price information tags that are attached to store shelves under (or over) the products being sold, the tags often including other information associated with the products for sale. The present system is particularly well-adapted to facilitate collaboration between the customer and the printer right up to the time of printing, and is configured to handle huge amounts of data and thousands of last minute decisions characteristic of “box stores” selling hundreds of thousands of products in multiple locations. The present tags are particularly attractive due to the multi-color and high resolution of the digital presses that print them and further have features supporting multi-function and flexible/efficient use.
Consumers (as well as consumer protection laws) require accurate information about products being displayed on store shelves. Price information (such as a price change) placed on a shelf “too soon” or “too late” causes considerable consumer dissatisfaction (e.g., out-of-stocks or “mis-stocks”) and/or causes significant in-store confusion or delays (e.g., price checks), as well as concern from regulatory agencies. However, getting tags onto shelves is a surprisingly complex and difficult task for a number of reasons. For example, buyers may be negotiating on supplier prices right up to the last possible minute, such that prices and even product availability may be uncertain until the “last possible minute.” Product availability and delivery concerns may also cause uncertainty right up to the last possible minute. Management often wants to make product pricing decisions as close as possible to the “on sale” date so that uncertainties about future product availability and consumer purchasing trends and other price-related strategies can be incorporated into the pricing decisions. Thus, a system is desired allowing retail prices to be set as late as possible to allow optimal (last minute) control over retail pricing, and further a system is desired giving greater control to the retail store management late in the printing process.
Aside from timing issues noted above, information management is very difficult. Large stores now carry hundreds of thousands of products, and the logistics of getting timely-printed price information tags in appropriate places on store shelves is a time-consuming, highly-manually-intensive task. An amazing amount of time is spent inefficiently walking from one shelf to another, and from one end of a shelf to another end, as price information tags are attached to shelves under associated product. Further, this often leads to errors, such as tags being put under the wrong product, or tags simply not being put up at all. Further, attachment of the tags must be secure and long-lasting, yet inexpensive and easily engaged. Thus, a system is desired allowing tags to be securely attached, with minimal risk of mis-location, with secure but low-cost attachment systems. Further, it is preferable that a particular tag be able to be attached in multiple ways, given that many stores have different attachment mechanisms on their shelves.
Recent studies show that product sales can potentially be increased if the price information tags have high-quality product pictures and color on them. However, this adds greatly to the cost and lead times required for printing the price information tags. Specifically, in order for pictures to be placed on tags, the data for the pictures must be combined with price information, arranged for printing, and then printed. This greatly complicates printing of price information tags, since it compounds problems associated with getting accurate price information onto the tags, with getting accurate pictures onto the tags. Also, the quality of the pictures is very important, since poor photographs will potentially result in the consumer implying poor quality to the store and/or to the products being sold.
Some stores have attempted to reduce the lead time for providing price information tags by having in-store printing capabilities. However, it is difficult to control the quality of in-store printing for many reasons. High-quality printing equipment is expensive, and it is often not cost-justified to purchase a high-quality machine for each of several different stores. Further, the ability to produce high quality pictures is closely related to skilled machine operators and good quality printing materials and maintenance of the printing machine. Thus, it is difficult to control the quality of on-site printing machinery over time.
Digital presses are relatively new machines, and are capable of producing extremely high-quality pictures at high speeds. Software does exist for managing work flow and information to the digital presses. For example, see Wiechers Patent Application Publication Nos.2005/0030557 A1 and 2005/0043848 A1. However, to the present inventor's knowledge, the advantages and abilities of digital presses have not been used in the environment of price information tags and displays, where customized real-time information is used in conjunction with attachment technology to form tags and displays having particular structure facilitating their use in a just-in-time manner to optimize their value to a retail store.
Thus, a system and method having the aforementioned advantages and solving the aforementioned problems is desired.
In one aspect of the present invention, a method of printing price information tags comprises steps of providing at least one digital press at a printing site; providing a data management system with computer hardware connected for internet access at a data management site that is in communication with the printing site; providing a database of stored information at one of the printing site and the data management site; providing a supply of sheets having a suitable stiffness and surface quality for use as price information tags on store shelves at the printing site; receiving updated price information from a store purchasing site electronically from the internet at the data management site using the data management system; combining the updated information with selected elements from the stored information at the data management site to generate customized tag data; deciding which parts of the customized tag data to print and when; communicating the customized tag data from the data management site to the printing site having the at least one digital press to print customized price information tags, with at least one sheet including a series of tags, each having information thereon for different products and arranged to form a sequence of tags matching a predetermined plan-o-gram sequence of products in a store selling site; the printing site and the data management site being at a same location, but the printing site, the store purchasing site and the store selling site being at different locations; and delivering the sequence of tags to the store selling site after receiving the updated information from the internet
In another aspect of the present invention, a method of printing price information tags comprises steps of receiving updated sale price information electronically from a store purchasing site via the internet and managing the data using a data management system at a data management site, the data management system having stored information that includes product images, UPC code and descriptions; combining the updated sale price information with selected elements from the stored information to generate customized tag data; communicating the customized tag data to a plurality of digital presses to print customized price information tags including deciding which portions of the customized price data to print and in what order; printing the customized price information tags in a customized order specifically designed to match a plan-o-gram sequence of product in a particular store; and delivering the customized price information tags to the particular store.
In another aspect of the present invention, a method for producing price information tags comprises connecting a file transfer protocol (FTP) server to an internet connection for internet communication to receive customer data on price information tags; providing an information processing and printing system connected to the file transfer protocol (FTP) server, the processing and printing system including operably interconnected components comprising: at least one designer workstation computer programmed for developing templates and for assembling production data, a staging server, a load balancer, at least one production distiller workstation computer programmed to control flow of production data to the load balancer, a database server, at least two print servers connected to the load balancer, and digital presses connected to the print servers; and operating the information processing and printing system to manipulate the customer data on price information tags to generate the production data and to feed the production data to the load balancer and to the print servers, the production data being fed to the digital presses in a desired print sequence.
In another aspect of the present invention, a fully collaborative software management method for creating, printing, delivering and hanging-in-stores a sequential arrangement of shelf information tags, comprises steps of providing an internet-connected computer system with customer computers and printer computers operably connected and programmed to communicate and collaborate during a design and assembly stage via internet communication to develop customized tag data for a plurality of customized price information tags, the step of collaborating allowing customer decision-makers and printer decision-makers to collaborate on and affect template authoring, content management, template management, printing-event construction, staging and proofing, including integration of various elements such as stored data, timing, customer-driven controls, and event-driven controls; and printer decision-makers entering a publishing stage including operating a publishing engine that permits viewing the customized tag data and shelf information tags as a display prior to viewing as a printed product.
In still another aspect of the present invention, an apparatus for producing price information tags comprises a file transfer protocol (FTP) server adapted for internet communication to receive customer data on price information tags; and an information processing and printing system connected to the file transfer protocol (FTP) server, the processing and printing system including operably interconnected components comprising: a designer workstation computer programmed for developing templates and for assembling production data, a staging server, a load balancer, a production distiller workstation computer programmed to control flow of production data to the load balancer, a main database server, at least two print servers connected to the load balancer, and digital presses connected to the print servers.
An object of the present invention is to provide a system, apparatus, and method capable of handling large amounts of data for price information tags and capable of efficiently handling that data so that decisions can be made at a last possible moment prior to printing, yet so that control of the creating, printing and distribution process can still be maintained with high quality and reliability of information and delivery to stores.
These and other aspects, objects, and features of the present invention will be understood and appreciated by those skilled in the art upon studying the following specification, claims, and appended drawings.
In some stores, point-of-purchase signs and shelf tags are printed in black, such as by using laser printers located in the stores. Store employees manipulate pre-determined print batches using web-based software, load pre-printed perforated shells (e.g. stock paper with pre-printed information thereon), print, separate, and then place the signs in their stores on a daily and weekly basis. (See
A prior art extruded price tag holder 150 (
The present inventive method of printing price information tags includes providing at least one digital press at a printing site, providing a data management system with computer hardware connected for Internet access at a data management site that is in communication with the printing site; providing a database of stored information at one of the printing site and the data management site; providing a supply of sheets having a suitable stiffness and surface quality for use as price information tags on store shelves at the printing site; receiving updated price information from a store purchasing site electronically from the internet at the data management site using the data management system; combining the updated information with selected elements from the stored information at the data management site to generate customized tag data; deciding which parts of the customized tag data to print and when; communicating the customized tag data from the data management site to the printing site having the at least one digital press to print customized price information tags, with at least one sheet including a series of tags, each having information thereon for different products and arranged to form a sequence matching a predetermined plan-o-gram sequence of products in a store selling site; and delivering the sequence to the store selling site after receiving the updated information from the internet.
The apparatus and system of
The present tag 15 can be attached in three different ways as shown in
By the above system, the inventor's study showed that an existing known company could cut printing costs by over one million dollars per year. Further, employee productivity is improved considerably, such as 40% for many employees, both when setting/hanging tags, and also for productivity in general manpower for managing/handling/printing tags. Also, the need for pre-printed stock is substantially eliminated. Still further, in-store errors are reduced, due to the use of sequentially arranged price information tags as supplied to the individual retail outlet stores. Problems associated with out-of-stock items are reduced, due to the shortened lead times required for supplying the present customized price information tags. Also, “false fronts” and mis-information is reduced or eliminated. Also, there are faster “resets,” where old tags are replaced with new updated price information tags, such as up to 40% faster resets where sequentially arranged price information tags are supplied. There is expected to be a considerably faster stocking, with substantial reduction in mis-stocks and mis-information on stocked items. Also, the present system will greatly reduce the need for consumer price checks and will greatly improve correct posting of product-to-price identification. Still further, high quality multi-color photographs and color images are on the price information tags, resulting in higher sales volumes based on consumer attraction to the signage (based on recent marketing studies). There will be improved quality over B&W toner commonly used in black laser printers, and improved paper quality due to the printing capabilities of the digital presses. There is a reduced need for toner cartridges and laser printer consumables and maintenance. Also, signs will be cut by high-volume accurate cutters, as opposed to less accurate local cut or tear systems now used at many retail outlets. Also, signs will be shipped in “plan-o-gram” order according to the layout of a particular store, promoting efficient installation, less wasted manual time, and improved accuracy of sign postings.
A price information tag 200 (also called a “price tag”) (
The price tag 200 (
A price information tag 250 (
The window price information tag 250 can also be used on a more traditional price holder channel 11 on a shelf 10, as shown in
It is to be understood that variations and modifications can be made on the aforementioned structure without departing from the concepts of the present invention, and further it is to be understood that such concepts are intended to be covered by the following claims unless these claims by their language expressly state otherwise.
This application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 13/690,631 filed Nov. 30, 2012, entitled METHOD OF INFORMATION TAG ATTACHMENT/REMOVAL ON SHELVES, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 8,613,156; application Ser. No. 13/690,631 is a continuation of application Ser. No. 12/760,982 filed Apr. 15, 2010, entitled PRICE INFORMATION TAG, now abandoned; application Ser. No. 12/760,982 is a divisional of application Ser. No. 11/612,821 filed Dec. 19, 2006, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 8,020,765, issued on Sep. 20, 2011, entitled METHOD OF PRINTING, DISTRIBUTING AND PLACING PRICE INFORMATION, which in turn claims benefit of provisional application Serial No. 60/793,170 filed Apr. 19, 2006, entitled METHOD OF PRINTING AND DISTRIBUTING PRICE INFORMATION TAGS under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e), the entire contents of all of which are incorporated herein in their entirety.
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
1315892 | Wilson | Sep 1919 | A |
1757964 | Hurst | May 1930 | A |
1904457 | Healy | Apr 1933 | A |
2720044 | Montalo | Oct 1955 | A |
2755576 | Golden | Jul 1956 | A |
2763947 | Hopp et al. | Sep 1956 | A |
2882625 | Hopp | Apr 1959 | A |
2984031 | Giesecke | May 1961 | A |
3159937 | Barnes | Dec 1964 | A |
3290809 | King | Dec 1966 | A |
3753305 | Mueh | Aug 1973 | A |
3977109 | Berry, Jr. et al. | Aug 1976 | A |
4016977 | Krautsack | Apr 1977 | A |
4152851 | Goldstein | May 1979 | A |
4179138 | Bogdanovic | Dec 1979 | A |
4338739 | Greenberger | Jul 1982 | A |
4391375 | Joyce | Jul 1983 | A |
4477048 | Conway | Oct 1984 | A |
4483502 | Fast | Nov 1984 | A |
4557064 | Thompson | Dec 1985 | A |
4564548 | Fast | Jan 1986 | A |
4572380 | Langwell | Feb 1986 | A |
4693441 | Conway | Sep 1987 | A |
4716669 | Fast | Jan 1988 | A |
4718627 | Fast et al. | Jan 1988 | A |
4798014 | Stoerzinger et al. | Jan 1989 | A |
4832207 | Alexander | May 1989 | A |
4919377 | Alexander et al. | Apr 1990 | A |
5172314 | Poland et al. | Dec 1992 | A |
5284689 | Laurash et al. | Feb 1994 | A |
5419066 | Harnois et al. | May 1995 | A |
5838883 | Pekelman | Nov 1998 | A |
6026603 | Kump et al. | Feb 2000 | A |
6186555 | Rawlings | Feb 2001 | B1 |
6266906 | Nagel | Jul 2001 | B1 |
6360465 | Simpson | Mar 2002 | B1 |
6408553 | Brown et al. | Jun 2002 | B1 |
6519885 | Valiulis | Feb 2003 | B2 |
6566024 | Bourdelais et al. | May 2003 | B1 |
6745509 | Lapp | Jun 2004 | B1 |
6817127 | Gottlieb et al. | Nov 2004 | B2 |
6868629 | Fast et al. | Mar 2005 | B2 |
6981343 | Rawlings et al. | Jan 2006 | B2 |
7440903 | Riley et al. | Oct 2008 | B2 |
7584888 | Stephenson et al. | Sep 2009 | B2 |
8020765 | Nunez et al. | Sep 2011 | B2 |
20020198892 | Rychel et al. | Dec 2002 | A1 |
20030222139 | Stephenson et al. | Dec 2003 | A1 |
20050030557 | Wiechers | Feb 2005 | A1 |
20050043848 | Wiechers | Feb 2005 | A1 |
20050126060 | Rawlings et al. | Jun 2005 | A1 |
20060225593 | Flynn et al. | Oct 2006 | A1 |
20130086833 | Nunez et al. | Apr 2013 | A1 |
Number | Date | Country |
---|---|---|
9705556 | Feb 1997 | WO |
Entry |
---|
Henry, “Vestcom Moves HQ Back to Little Rock,” Arkansas Business, vol. 22, No. 11 Mar. 21, 2005. |
Kissel, “Vestcom Helps Retails Court Shoppers,” Associated Press Online, Mar. 28, 2006. |
“Vestcom Retail Solutions Group to Provide Point-of-Purchase Merchandising Solutions to Food Lion & Kash n' Karry Supermarkets,” PR Newswire, Feb. 10, 2000. |
“Xerox Extends Media Offerings,” Business Wire, Feb. 28, 2000. |
Bracke, “High Throughput Industrial Digital Printing,” NIP17:International Conference on Digital Printing Technologies, pp. 28-32, Sep. 2001. |
Chatow and Samuel, “Digital Labels Printing,” NIP19:International Conference on Digital Printing Technologies, pp. 476-481, Sep. 2003. |
Vestcom website accessible to the public at least as early as Mar. 14, 2006, and continuously accessible to the public thereafter through the internet archive at http://web.archive.org/web/20060314071113/http://www.vestcom.com/retail/pops ol—adtags.shtml. |
Number | Date | Country | |
---|---|---|---|
20130335755 A1 | Dec 2013 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
---|---|---|---|
60793170 | Apr 2006 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
---|---|---|---|
Parent | 11612821 | Dec 2006 | US |
Child | 12760982 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
---|---|---|---|
Parent | 13690631 | Nov 2012 | US |
Child | 13971891 | US | |
Parent | 12760982 | Apr 2010 | US |
Child | 13690631 | US |