ESL stands for electronic shelf label. The electronic shelf label is a system used to display the prices of the product electronically. Instead of having your employees change prices printed on paper, you can choose ESL which changes the prices automatically.
Most of the end-users of ESL are from the retail sector. This system can be implemented in most stores, from grocery shops to electronic stores. It’s easy to use once it’s placed on the shelves and employees only have to check it from time to time instead of wasting time to change each label.
How does ESL work?
Electronic shelf labels rely on E-paper or LCDs to showcase the price of the product to the shoppers. Electronic paper is used more often for electronic shelf labels because it offers a better, more crips display. Also, it can support full graphic imaging and it doesn’t need any power to maintain an image.
The communication network is the one that allows the price display to automatically update when the product’s price is changed. This communication network is the one that makes the difference between regular labels and ESL. The wireless communication needs to support reasonable range, speed, battery life, and reliability.
The importance of ESL in brick and mortar stores
Electronic shelf labels are a great alternative to regular labels. Some of their biggest advantages include:
- Accurate pricing: The best thing about an ESL is that it updates the prices of the products automatically. This will increase pricing accuracy to avoid branding issues revolving around price integrity.
- Saves costs: As opposed to traditional pricing labels, whenever prices are changed and updated; employees will no longer be required to print out labels and manually replace them in the shelf tags.
- In-store heat map: Some ESL providers integrate with Bluetooth Low Energy enabled devices to track the movement of consumers and how long they remain at a particular location.
- Product finder: Retailers are able to integrate each ESL tag with an external application to offer wayfinding capability for their products.
- Regulate stock levels: Inventory information may be displayed on ESL through connection with the point of sale processor.
