Our Journey So Far… And What’s Next

Hello to everyone! This includes customers we’ve been supporting for 10+ years, some new ones from 2024 and maybe even a few retailers who aren’t yet customers. We want to start giving more regular updates on what we’ve been up to, what we’re developing and our upcoming developments.

We also intend this newsletter as a place to look at what’s interesting in the world of retail, marketing, technology – or any other areas where we might share interests.

As many of you know, we took over the marketing portal services from Documation in July 2023. We’ve been heads-down since then, focused on transitioning and building our new Instore Express platform, but now it’s time to share more about where we’re headed.

The heart of our business is our customised marketing portal solution. Each retailer gets their own branded platform, designed around their specific workflows. For pharmacies, we provide a comprehensive product image library for their convenience. For retailers managing large product ranges, we integrate directly with their product databases to automatically populate pricing and product details. Store managers can create everything from shelf-talkers to social media posts, while maintaining brand consistency. Promotional campaigns can also be built in head office and shared out to stores, who can then customise or add to them as needed.

One of our most practical new features is the ability to create shelf edge pricing labels (SELs). We supply perforated paper suitable for any desktop printer, enabling you to produce branded SELs with pricing information and bar codes – or promotional messages. We’ve also added QR codes as a template option, great for pointing your customers to your special offer online, or to get a link to a product demo video.

Speaking of bridging the physical and digital world of retail, we’re excited about several new developments we’re working on. We’ve already created some animated social media templates for retailers who want to make their social feeds more dynamic. Looking ahead to 2025, we’re exploring solutions for digital screen content management – imagine being able to create and manage your in-store screen content as easily as you currently manage your printed materials.

We’re also excited about the potential of AI integration. We’re looking at ways AI could help retailers create more engaging marketing copy across different channels, from social media to in-store promotions, and even help suggest ideas for seasonal promotions.

We’re really looking forward to keeping you updated on these developments – and we’d really like to thank all our customers for your continued support. While we aren’t enabling comments in our blog posts (too much spam!), we’d love to hear your thoughts and ideas. Drop a line any time at info@instoreexpress.ie.