Smart labels adopted in chain supermarkets
The electronic shelf label system, which is becoming widespread in large supermarkets across Turkey, is fundamentally changing both shopping habits and inspection processes. Experts are calling for transparency in the system against the risk of prices changing within seconds.
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The digital label application, which has begun in over 50,000 supermarket branches in Turkey, has paved the way for a significant transformation in the sector. Thanks to electronic shelf labels connected to a central hub via Wi-Fi, which replace traditional paper labels, product prices can now be updated nationwide with a single click. While this change eliminates price discrepancies between the shelf and the checkout, it has also brought new debates to the agenda.
Before the transition to electronic labels, staff in chain supermarkets were manually updating the labels of an average of 3,000 to 5,000 products. This process, which took place in tens of thousands of stores, both required high labor and limited the frequency of price changes. With the digital system, the prices of millions of products can be changed simultaneously within seconds with a command sent from headquarters. Experts emphasize that this convenience could trigger “micro” price hikes that are made not weekly, but multiple times throughout the day in small amounts.
On the other hand, the fact that the new electronic label infrastructure can work integrated with artificial intelligence is creating controversy in the retail sector. By analyzing store traffic, weather conditions, or the time of day, the system can bring dynamic pricing models used in the aviation and transportation sectors to shopping shelves. Especially during times when demand increases, such as after work hours or during weather changes, automatic price increases can occur on some basic food and essential products.
The technological capability of electronic labels to change prices within seconds also brings the effectiveness of price inspections into question. Against the possibility of prices being centrally pulled to legal limits during inspections, experts suggest that a digital “black box” system be made mandatory to record price movements retrospectively. It is stated that such an application would be of great importance in terms of consumer rights and market supervision.