Digital Price Tags - opportunities and risks for retailers
Digital Price Tags, also known as Electronic Shelf Labels (ESL), are becoming increasingly popular in retail. But what are the advantages and what challenges do they present? In this article, we highlight the most important aspects and help retailers to make a decision.
4 Advantages of Digital Price Tags
Sustainability and cost control of digital price tags
With flexible price adjustments and more efficient real-time stock control, digital price tags can reduce food waste and optimize shelf life and shelf capacity management. See also the article "Too Good To Go enters into a partnership with Hanshow to take surplus food management in grocery stores to the next level". In addition, paper consumption, toner and physical replacement are eliminated, resulting in a significant reduction in operating costs in the long term.
Potential disadvantages and challenges of digital price tags
Advantages vs. disadvantages: Digital price tags compared to conventional paper labels
Paper price tags are still widely used in retail, but digital price tags (ESL) are setting new standards. While paper labels are attractive due to their low acquisition costs, they cause a lot of effort and errors. It takes an employee around 3 minutes to replace a paper label - with 100 items, this adds up to hours, which is not the case with digital labels (source: Wedeko).
Digital price tags enable real-time price changes and significantly reduce error rates. They also offer additional functions such as stock displays and QR codes, which are required by law. Although the acquisition costs of ESL are higher, the investment pays for itself quickly thanks to lower personnel costs and faster price updates and promotes digitalization.
In the white paper you will find further detailed information, interesting sources of supply and a clear comparison table.
Are digital price tags worthwhile?
Digital price tags are not a luxury, but a tool for future-proof retailers. They solve the biggest pain points of traditional labels - inefficiency, error-proneness and a lack of flexibility - and create space for data-driven strategies. Those who invest in electronic shelf labels (ESL) today not only secure cost advantages, but also a competitive edge in the highly competitive retail sector.