Walmart shoppers will soon check prices on electronic shelf tags, and the nation's largest retailer says it will switch to digital price tag technology from its current paper stickers in its 2,300 U.S. stores by 2026 .
Walmart stores have more than 120,000 products on their shelves, each with an individual paper price. Each week, Walmart workers add price tags to new, clearance and sale items, a time-consuming and repetitive process.
Digital shelf tag technology will allow Walmart employees to update prices using a mobile app, rather than walking around the store and changing paper tags by hand. What once took a Walmart employee two days will now take minutes to complete, the company said.
The transition “represents a significant change in the way I and other store partners manage pricing, inventory, order fulfillment and customer interactions, ensuring our customers enjoy a shopping experience that is still better,” said Daniela Boscan, a Walmart employee who participated in testing the technology at a Walmart in Grapevine, Texas, said in a news release.
In the statement, Walmart did not disclose whether it would use the technology to implement so-called dynamic pricing, also known as surge pricing, which is when retailers quickly change the cost of products or services based on fluctuations in demand at because of the weather traffic or other problems.
Wendy's in February was criticized when announcing plans for use dynamic pricing, but tried to reassure customers that it would be used to offer discounts and not to raise prices when demand is high.
Walmart did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
