As Endeavour Group heads into its busiest trading period, Dan Murphy’s is embracing new technology in store to meet its lowest price guarantee commitment, while selling five times the amount of champagne than the rest of the year.
To beat prices in almost real-time, the retailer has invested in electronic shelf labels (ESLs) in its stores - with more than 10 per cent of the fleet now using the technology - allowing price beats for members to occur instantly.
The group reported that in the last 12 months, it had beaten over 330,000 competitor prices for ‘My Dan’s’ members.
During Cyberweek, the retailer recorded its biggest week of wine sales since Easter, and the biggest week of zero alcohol sales on record.
Dan Murphy’s managing director Agi Pfeiffer-Smith said the retailer was determined not to be beaten on prices over the Christmas period.
“An average store lowers hundreds of prices every week, and changing those price tickets can be quite time consuming, but thanks to the ESL system, the price beats happen immediately.
“Additionally, we have pulled forward our inventory and worked very hard to ensure we have great availability of a range of products typically popular at this time of the year, including imported items such as Champagne,” Pfeiffer-Smith said.
Champagne and Sparkling are the two subcategories that see the biggest uplift over the Christmas period, with nearly five times the amount of Champagne being sold in the Christmas week compared to a normal week. Customers also spend more on red wine and fortified wine for gifting, and Australian whisky sees an uplift too.
Following a mass hiring blitz in September, Dan Murphy’s employed 2200 casual team assistants and does not foresee any disruptions to supply.
