Price optimisation is a hot topic for retailers. But this can result in frequent price changes and, manually executed, these changes are time consuming and expensive.

Price optimisation is a hot topic for retailers. But this can result in frequent price changes and, manually executed, these changes are time consuming and expensive.

For this reason, retailers increasingly see a business case in electronic shelf labels, which display price information electronically and update prices immediately and automatically, controlled from a central server.

They allow prices to be changed, according to the marketing strategies of the retailer. Even price changes during the day, happy hour pricing or end-of the-day mark-downs for fresh products are enabled through this technology. Additionally, the system ensures that shelf prices and the POS system are always in sync.

But electronic self-labels, or ESLs, are not a new concept, in fact they pre-date many of the technologies we see in stores today.

ESLs first emerged in the late nineties and at that time it was quite conceivable that within 10 years we would see mass adoption of it. But 15 years on France is the only market where we see dominance of electronic pricing technology where over 60% of the shelf labels are digital. The driving force in France has primarily been legislation driven.

The lack of take up in markets like the UK or the US is because retailers are put off by the upfront costs. They also believe the quality of information on digital label versus the paper alternative is poor and there are logistical challenges of such a roll-out, while many would rather wait for someone else to take the first step.

However, as the technology matures and the hardware price falls, more and more retailers in more and more countries are taking a serious look at it. One such example is Billa in Austria which fitted out over 1,000 stores with an Imagotag eInk paper display to cope with the volume of price changes required on a national best price guarantee promotion on 300 key value items within the stores.

The motivation and business case for ESLs can’t be just cost reduction it has to be a conduit to drive revenue. It is more than that because by combining its ability to store real time competitor data and price optimisation means display technology can help retailers to launch marketing campaigns and promotions which improve customer loyalty, value and improves their ability to compete effectively and in real time.

Roy Horgan founded MarketHub Technologies, a company which provides digital price technology