Electronic Shelf Labels

Electronic shelf labels are the key to transforming your physical store into a digital asset. With SESimagotag’s high-resolution labels, you benefit from direct communication capabilities with your customers, perform automatic updates, and guarantee the integrity of the information displayed on the shelves.

ESLs operate through a cloud-based management system that enables real-time updates and control. This system allows retailers to manage their entire network of digital labels, ensuring consistency and accuracy throughout the store while providing efficient tools for monitoring and updating product information across all connected labels.

Implementing ESLs provides several key advantages for store operations:

• Operational Efficiency: Dramatically reduce time spent on pricing tasks – retailers like Lee’s Discount Liquor update prices 8x faster with ESLs, while stores like Kavanagh’s save up to 10 hours per week on ticket changes. ESLs eliminate manual pricing processes and pricing errors, as demonstrated by Westside Market.
• Enhanced Inventory Management: Save up to 2 hours daily on gap scans and increase on-shelf availability by up to 7% through prioritized replenishment. ESLs help streamline the ordering process and increase inventory accuracy.
• Improved Store Performance: Boost sales by up to 2% through better execution. ESLs assist with planogram execution and help ensure products are properly placed and stocked.
• Customer Experience: Enhance the shopping experience through automated pricing and promotion management while eliminating pricing errors that impact customer satisfaction.

These benefits can lead to increased sales and improved store performance.

Electronic Shelf Labels (ESLs) integrate seamlessly with existing Point-of-Sale (POS) systems, ensuring consistent and accurate pricing and product information across all platforms. This integration facilitates optimal inventory and pricing management, enabling retailers to update prices in real-time and maintain synchronization between shelves and checkout. By automating these processes, ESLs help reduce manual errors, enhance operational efficiency, and improve the shopping experience.

ESLs come in various sizes and designs to suit wide-ranging retail needs. Customization options include:

• Display Sizes: From small tags perfect for aisle shelves to larger displays for prominent products.
• Color Displays: Options for monochrome or color screens.
• Mounting Designs: Various attachment methods to fit different shelving systems.

These options allow retailers to tailor ESLs to their specific branding and operational requirements.

ESLs are powered by energy-efficient batteries designed for extended operation. The battery life varies depending on the model and usage conditions. Vusion electronic shelf labels, such as the V-Tag series and V300 BWR Series, offer a battery lifespan of up to 15 years, catering to diverse retail needs. When a battery eventually depletes, the ESL unit can be refurbished rather than discarded. Vusion’s electronic shelf labels are designed with eco-friendly features, allowing for battery replacement and parts reuse to extend the device’s lifecycle.

Electronic shelf labels go beyond pricing—they become dynamic access points to operational intelligence. Labels can display real-time stock levels, product availability, planogram compliance indicators, expiry dates, or even picking instructions. This transforms the shelf into a live data hub, directly synchronized with the retailer’s ERP or inventory system. Store associates gain instant visibility into stock-outs, backroom availability, or restocking needs—without leaving the aisle. By eliminating the need for handheld devices or paper-based checks, ESLs streamline workflows and accelerate task execution, enabling faster, data-driven decisions in-store.

Digital price tags turn the shelf edge into a communication channel. Beyond static pricing, they deliver contextual content, highlighting promotions, cross-sell suggestions, or real-time stock alerts. Shoppers can interact with ESLs via QR codes or NFC to access product reviews, nutritional scores, availability in nearby stores, or alternative formats online. These touchpoints empower customers with instant, relevant information? while enabling retailers to personalize engagement based on shopper needs. The result: higher conversion rates, better in-aisle experience, and more seamless online-offline transitions.

ESLs are designed to automate price updates, align online and in-store pricing, and improve shelf-level accuracy across all SKUs. They ensure operational precision and reduce manual workload. Digital shelf displays, on the other hand, are used to highlight promotions, run in-store marketing campaigns, or provide shopper guidance. ESLs drive executional efficiency, while digital displays enhance shopper engagement. Both can be part of a broader shelf digitization strategy, depending on retail objectives. 

The price of electronic shelf labels (ESLs) depends on store size, label format, and deployment strategy. On average, unit costs range from $6 to $25 depending on functionalities such as color display, NFC, or size. But what matters most is long-term ROI. By eliminating manual pricing updates, ESLs significantly reduce labor costs and pricing errors. Retailers typically recoup their investment within 12 to 24 months, thanks to operational efficiencies and improved pricing accuracy. (Source: IDC)

Replacing paper tags with ESLs can eliminate over 200,000 paper labels annually per store. This transition reduces CO₂ emissions, lowers paper consumption, and removes the need for frequent reprinting and transport. In fresh categories, dynamic markdowns via ESLs help reduce food waste by automatically adjusting prices as expiry dates approach. This enables smarter inventory rotation and more sustainable stock management. (Source: Statista)

High-quality ESLs generally offer a lifespan of 5 to 7 years. Their battery life often exceeds 5 years due to energy-efficient protocols. Maintenance is minimal and mainly involves occasional battery replacements or firmware updates. With centralized management platforms, retailers can update thousands of labels in seconds, removing the need for in-store interventions. Some solutions also support automated shelf monitoring, further reducing the need for manual checks and ensuring long-term system reliability.

Yes, electronic shelf labels are fully scalable across a wide range of store environments, from small-format urban stores to hypermarkets and specialized retail chains. ESL infrastructure is modular and can be deployed incrementally or at scale, depending on business priorities and rollout strategy. Centralized management systems enable real-time updates across thousands of labels, regardless of geographic location or store format. Retailers benefit from a unified digital backbone that ensures consistent execution, even in complex multi-store networks. Scalability also extends to multilingual content, promotional strategies, and regional pricing regulations—critical for large retail groups operating across multiple markets.

Modern ESLs use encrypted, low-power wireless protocols designed specifically for retail environments. Communications between labels, access points, and cloud platforms are protected using industry-standard encryption (such as AES-128), with strong authentication mechanisms. All data transmissions are monitored and logged to ensure compliance and traceability. Vusion’s infrastructure is designed to meet enterprise-grade security standards, with robust safeguards in place to prevent tampering, spoofing, or data leaks. Integration with existing IT environments also includes API-level access controls and secure data pipelines—meeting the expectations of retail IT and data governance teams.