Survey Reveals Widespread Problems Scanning Fresh Food Labels

BEAVERTON, Ore., Jan. 8, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Digimarc Corporation (NASDAQ: DMRC), inventor of the Intuitive Computing Platform™ featuring Digimarc Barcode, today announced findings from an online survey conducted by The Harris Poll on behalf of Digimarc, revealing how damaged and misplaced retail labels from the fresh food departments reduce cashier productivity. The recent study focused on grocery store cashiers and label scanning, and revealed 90 percent of cashiers scanning printed labels believed that reducing the number of hard-to-scan perishable and store perimeter labels would help improve their productivity. Thirty two percent of cashiers who had items that did not read when scanned, report that these label issues led some customers to not purchase the item.

The survey collected responses from approximately 500 grocery store cashiers in the U.S. to gauge their experience scanning retail labels from the fresh food departments. Retail labels are applied to fresh food items like meat, seafood, bulk and cheese products. Dairy items, for example, are the source of the largest number of scanning issues, with nearly half of cashiers encountering items that did not read when scanned (47 percent).Cashiers also noted that these dairy items caused problems three or more times per shift. Meat and seafood items were also challenging, with 63 percent of cashiers whose store uses in-store printed labels saying these items at least occasionally cause them issues.

To address retail scanning problems, Digimarc Barcode can be added to labels and packaging. It carries the same data found in GS1 EAN/UPC and GS1 DataBar conventional barcodes. Digimarc Barcode is repeated multiple times across the surface of a label. This broad repetitive coverage provides scanners and mobile devices with a larger and more reliable scanning surface than a label with a traditional barcode.

"Sales of fresh food items are increasing and The Harris Poll survey demonstrates the need for reliable and efficient labels for cashiers to scan," said Heidi Dethloff, vice president of marketing, Digimarc. "With Digimarc Barcode, packaging and labels, even those that are wrinkled, crinkled, smudged, damaged or torn are easily scanned, preventing delays, ensuring data accuracy, and improving the customer experience."

To view an infographic from The Harris Poll survey, click here.

About The Harris Poll Survey
The survey was conducted online within the U.S. by Harris Poll on behalf of Digimarc Corporation between October 13 and November 4, 2017. Respondents comprised 502 U.S. teens and adults aged 16 or older who are employed full- or part-time as a cashier in a grocery store ("cashiers" or "checkers"), including 468 whose store uses in-store printed labels, and 454 who ever experienced items not registering when scanned. Data are weighted where necessary by age by gender, race/ethnicity, region, education, household income, marital status, size of household, and propensity to be online to bring them in line with their actual proportions in the population.

About Digimarc
Digimarc Corporation (NASDAQ: DMRC) is a pioneer in the automatic identification of everyday objects such as product packaging and virtually any media, including print, images, and audio. Based on the patented Intuitive Computing Platform (ICP™), Digimarc provides innovative and comprehensive automatic recognition technologies to simplify search, and transform information discovery through unparalleled reliability, efficiency and security. Digimarc has a global patent portfolio, which includes over 1,100 granted and pending patents. These innovations include state-of-the-art identification technology, Digimarc Barcode, as well as Digimarc Discover® software for barcode scanning and more. Digimarc is based in Beaverton, Oregon, with technologies deployed by major retailers and consumer brands, central banks, U.S. states, film companies and professional sports franchises, among others. Visit digimarc.com and follow us @digimarc to learn more about The Barcode of Everything™.

About The Harris Poll

The Harris Poll is one of the longest running surveys in the U.S. tracking public opinion, motivations and social sentiment since 1963 that is now part of Harris Insights & Analytics, a global consulting and market research firm that delivers social intelligence for transformational times. We work with clients in three primary areas; building twenty-first-century corporate reputation, crafting brand strategy and performance tracking, and earning organic media through public relations research. Our mission is to provide insights and advisory to help leaders make the best decisions possible.

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