04.25.22
FLEXcon has engineered a new product range to help deliver value at the shelf. FLEXcon’s SHELF Select product line features several new products that are designed to convert browsers into buyers during those few pivotal seconds on a crowded shelf.
As part of L&NW Label Insights, we recently spoke with Bekie Berg, product manager, Retail & Advertising, FLEXcon, about how converters and brands can benefit from this new product line.
L&NW: What can you tell us about your SHELF Select product line, and how does the line provide value to label converters and their customers?
The SHELF Select products are manufactured in large master rolls at FLEXcon and slit to the width required by the converter. Converters print, diecut, fanfold or otherwise finish to the retailer’s specifications. Converters print the static information, and the brands and retailers print the key product information and product promotions that help the product stand out at the shelf and boost sales.
Converters serve as a resource to retailers and assist with material selection and design, helping to ensure performance and ease of use in terms of both printing, application at the shelf, changeover, and achieving sustainability goals. Non-vinyl shelf solutions, like the polyester SHELF Select CPET1FZR, provide converters with a sustainable alternative to vinyl to offer to brands and retailers.
L&NW: How can these shelf tags boost brand performance on the shelf?
Berg: The shelf edge represents a prime piece of retail real estate to engage with the consumer, promote brand loyalty, and increase sales. A UPL is a shelf marker affixed to the shelving channel. It helps the store associate for restocking purposes and communicates the item and unit prices to the consumer, along with product information.
A shelf tag is a small advertisement – a mini billboard – typically hanging off the shelf, that depicts a product sale or brings attention to an item with colorful, vibrant graphics and typography for promotion of the product. A shelf tag is one of the last places a retailer can advertise or draw consumer attention to a specific product or promotion. It can also be used to add product details for a consumer seeking additional information such as product content.
Both components are part of in-store advertising and key contributors to the First Moment of Truth (FMOT), when consumers are confronted with the product and, within three to seven seconds, can turn from a browser into a buyer.
L&NW: What are the advantages of going with the non-vinyl option?
Berg: There are advantages to both the environment and the converter to choosing a non-vinyl product option for shelf labels and shelf tags. Polyester products offer thinner alternatives to vinyl, with 1-mil or 2-mil film options. These thinner films mean less waste into the landfill when labels are ultimately discarded. An added benefit for converters is lower freight costs due to the reduced weight. SHELF Select CPET1FZR polyester is also more sustainably sourced, being comprised of up to 30% post-industrial recycled content.
L&NW: What feedback have you received from label converters for this technology?
Berg: Converters are excited to have a new “greener” product to add to their shelf marking portfolios that offers the same trusted performance through converting and at the shelf as the vinyl products they have depended on for decades. Brands and retailers are more focused on sustainability and reducing their carbon footprint than ever before, and non-vinyl options like SHELF Select CPET1FZR are valued.
L&NW: Are there other considerations when choosing shelf marking products?
Berg: Because UPLs may go through multiple printing processes, first at the converter and then at the retailer, cross-platform printability is a key product feature. Converters must be able to process it via flexo or digital, while retailers’ print capabilities are typically laser or sometimes thermal transfer. A press-applied varnish may be required for laser printability.
Ensuring that the selected products feature adhesives that will adhere to a variety of shelf channels but still remove cleanly at the end of a promotion are important criteria. There are a variety of shelf surfaces (powder-coated paint, metal, high and low surface energy plastics, glass, etc.) in the retail environment, and having a robust adhesive that will adhere to all different shelf channels is essential. Clean removability from the shelf is a critical feature of shelf marking products and allows for quick and efficient price or promotion changes and ensures that shelves remain clean for the application of the next promotion.
Lay-flat is another key feature for both converters and retailers to ensure ease of printing, converting and application at the shelf. The release liner must make for a good diecutting base for converters to diecut and/or kiss-cut the labels, and good lay-flat properties are essential for retailers to process through their own printers to add their variable information.
