Case Study: Large Department Store Chain Achieves 50% Productivity Improvement And Saves $926,000 In Clearance Markdown Labor Costs

Each week, selected "classes" of items such as "missy blouses" or "junior jeans" are marked down. Virtually every item in the clearance area must be touched to locate the markdown items. Markdowns are accomplished with a red pen.

Using this method of clearance markdown presents many challenges for the Retailer. For example, an employee doesn't know which merchandise in a class is to be marked down, so every item must be matched against the list.

This markdown method was taking 9.4 hours each week to complete, creating resource problems. Additionally, errors were being made during the matching because employees had to look away from the product to verify its price and determine the new price, if necessary. When the employee looked back, the wrong item was often marked.

The Monarch® Pathfinder® Ultra® Platinum™ printer eliminates the need to use a markdown list and manual match process. With the Ultra Platinum, the employee scans the barcode on the tag and the current price is matched to files loaded on the Ultra. If the item is to be marked down, a label automatically prints and is applied while the user is still holding the tag from the scan.