How Electronic Shelf Labels Turn Sustainability Into Smarter Retail Operations
With economic uncertainty, rising costs, and shifting regulations piling on, the pressure on retailers is only intensifying. Shoppers are thinking twice about every purchase. And sustainability? It can start to feel like just another box to check instead of the strategic lever it truly is.
When done right, sustainability leads to smarter operations. Reducing waste, reusing materials, and optimizing inventory management can lead to significant cost savings. That’s probably why Deloitte’s 2023 CxO Sustainability Report noted that 73 percent of consumer industry executives increased investments in sustainability, recognizing it as a priority that aligns with efficiency and cost reduction goals.
The retailers pulling ahead today are rethinking what sustainability looks like in practice, using the tools at their fingertips to make change easier, smarter and more effective. That’s where forward-thinking technologies, like electronic shelf labels (ESLs), come in.
Why Leading Retailers Are Moving to ESLs
Paper price tags wrinkle, fade and get soggy over time. Imagine replacing all of those with sleek digital labels that offer benefits beyond inventory: ESLs.
These small digital price tags replace traditional paper labels and can be updated remotely in real time. Meaning, no more staff swapping out stickers by hand every time there’s a price change. That alone cuts down on paper waste and saves hours of manual labor.
ESLs might not be flashy, but their impact is hard to ignore. However, the real power of ESLs is what they unlock.
- Less paper, more agility: There’s no need to print and toss paper tags. ESLs eliminate that waste entirely. They also enable dynamic pricing, letting retailers adjust prices instantly based on supply, demand, or time of day.
- Cut food waste at the source: ESLs can integrate with inventory systems to track expiration dates and automatically trigger markdowns before food spoils, helping keep products out of landfills and money in retailers’ pockets.
- Fewer maintenance visits: With centralized updates and reliable performance, ESLs reduce the need for frequent store-level audits and manual fixes. For the retailer, this also lowers fuel use and travel-related emissions in the process.
- Smarter, scalable operations: By helping digitize inventory and supply chain systems, ESLs make it easier for retailers to modernize without massive overhauls. This digitization lays the groundwork for broader automation, like artificial intelligence-driven pricing optimization and real-time stock alerts. It also enables consistency across store locations, making multi-site management far more efficient.
- Built to last: These aren’t single-use gadgets. ESLs are designed to be reused season after season, product after product, lowering their environmental footprint over time.
For all the reasons above, retailers including Lowe’s and Loblaws, Canada’s leading grocery and drugstore, have implemented massive ESL rollouts. These deployments have helped the retailers unlock real-time pricing, reduce paper waste, and reclaim significant labor time.
Sustainability doesn’t have to come at the expense of profitability. ESLs are a perfect example. With the right tools, retailers can achieve a future that’s not just greener, but good business, too.
Steve Jun is head of the ESL division, SOLUM, a leader in power solutions, display technologies, and electronic shelf labels (ESLs), driving innovation across the global retail sector.
Steve Jun is the head of the ESL Business Division at SOLUM. Since joining the company in 2016, he has been leading the growth and innovation of SOLUM’s flagship business — electronic shelf labels (ESLs).
