‘Biggest tech benefit’

The template for ESL success in UK retail has been established by CJ Lang, a Scotland-based convenience chain which operates 115 of its company-owned Spar-branded stores and serves close to 200 independents on a wholesale basis.

Working with Solum, CJ Lang has put ESLs into all bar one of its company-owned shops, completely replacing paper tickets. In the words of IT director Graham Murdoch, this “gives the business an efficiency that was previously out of reach”.

Starting with a trial store in March 2021, which was expanded to stores across its regions, the business case for ESLs at CJ Lang was quickly proved, Murdoch explains. In November 2024, the project to put them in all stores – apart from one that is due a refit this year – was completed.

The benefits are manifold, according to Murdoch and Sonya Harper, the retailer’s central operations director, who both cite the improved productivity in stores, more modern looking spaces and happier staff among the benefits to date.

From deploying a range of label types – spanning from 2.2 inches to 11.6 inches – CJ Lang is now reinvesting thousands of hours of task per annum across all its stores. Staff who were writing labels, price checking or manually updating the point of sale systems are now able to spend more time on the shopfloor or better push the company’s higher margin food-to-go offering which offers a unique selling point for CJ Lang.

At 1am every Thursday morning, prices are updated centrally and fed into other systems, including CJ Lang’s Relex supply chain tech. Staff only need to stock the shelves to planogram the night before, and the prices get updated automatically.

Murdoch calculates the hour saved on these manual operations is reinvested into the business and generating three times the cost in benefit. Included in his mathematical model – which has been “reaffirmed by real-life case studies in the business” – are stationery savings, printer savings and advertising kit savings, while CJ Lang has also been able to reduce its use of paper and food waste through the ESLs facilitation of automated price reduction, which it views as an environmental win.

CJ Lang is working on a return on investment figure of 1.26 to two years from its nearly £2.9m investment. And with the inflationary environment retailers are facing, Murdoch argues that the savings are greater every year as the cost of doing business rises.

“Not only is it the largest tech investment we’ve had, it’s the biggest benefit we’ve provided by use of tech in our business,” he says, adding that automatic dynamic pricing has been introduced in an effort to clear fresh food such as bakery items at the end of the day to reduce food waste and increase sell-through.

Tech retailer Currys is also rolling out Solum’s tech across its estate in the UK and Republic of Ireland, and its focus is on making staff and customers’ in-store journeys smoother. It has electronic shelf edge labelling in 100 stores, including four in the Republic of Ireland, with a plan to have them in every shop by the end of 2025/26.

Currys cites similar benefits to CJ Lang, and is expected to take the opportunity to add real-time stock info onto the labels in due course to give its staff accurate data on stock availability at a glance.

Matthew Speight, Currys director of stores, says: “Since launching electronic shelf-edge labels [ESEL], we’ve noticed an increase in conversion in the stores where the tech is deployed. This is mainly because our colleagues now have time back to focus on helping our customers and improving their shopping journey through the latest shelf edge technology, instead of completing manual ticketing tasks.

“As well as these operational benefits associated with ESELs, we’re seeing the customer experience improve because the stores look smarter. We also believe there is an environmental benefit from not using as much paper and ink as before. While the batteries have a warranty of seven years, the typical use case is closer to 12 years, which contributes to the wider business case.”

ESLs have long been a part of European retail, which is partly related to price compliance laws in the European Union. They have been widely available for many years, but the technology is experiencing its lift-off moment in 2025.

“I looked at ESLs several times during my career, and early on the quality of the label was very poor – like a calculator screen – and a very poor experience,” Murdoch says.

“The battery life was another problem – while it could [remove] tasks, [another] would be introduced in the form of people replacing batteries. E-paper’s real benefit is the life of the label before you change the battery with power only consumed when the price changes – there is effectively zero power consumption when maintained at a static price.”

The cost of ESLs used to be more than 10 times per label, says Murdoch, adding that price, durability and image now make the business case add up.

Market opportunity

Hugh Walker, senior sales manager at Solum UK, argues that the decision for big retailers to continue using paper tickets could represent their Kodak or Blockbuster moment, illustrating his confidence that this tech will be pervasive in convenience and big box retail, and his belief that staying analogue will be bad for business.

“In UK market, ESLs are having a huge resurgence primarily because they are automating what is a labour-intensive task,” Walker says, referencing the growing need in UK retail for better productivity as operating costs rise.

He adds that using paper tickets leaves retailers prone to errors and inconsistencies between till and shelf, adding that the next-gen Solum ESLs coming to market are attached to a solar-powered “power rail”, promising more energy efficiency.

As an ESL salesman, Walker’s views are not entirely surprising – but predictions from insight and research company Technavio do support his comments. According to the company, the global ESL market size is estimated to increase by $1.64bn from 2024 to 2028, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of almost 15.69% during that time.

Technavio cites supermarkets and hypermarkets, as well as convenience, department stores, mass merchants, and health and beauty chains as ripe for change and suitable for ESL deployment. The surge in digitisation of stores supported by the proliferation of technologies such as 5G and the need for real-time, accurate pricing, better shopping experience and reducing labour costs are all reasons it suggests for ESL usage growth. 

Lidl’s UK stores now all have ESLs, but they still use paper pricing for marketing material to complement them. The big question, however, is which of the traditional big four grocers – Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda and Morrisons – will go next.

“The biggest barrier is they don’t understand the business case fully enough,” Murdoch says of the bigger grocers, which have all trialled the tech in some form. “They are looking at it in very simplistic terms about taking the cost out of business rather than adding value to their business.”

Toby Pickard, retail futures senior partner at grocery training and research organisation IGD, says: “I expect to see more retailers trialling and rolling out ESL across their stores in 2025 and beyond.

“ESLs offer significant advantages, including time savings, assistance with replenishment, markdown identification and support for online pickers. They also help alleviate rising costs and staffing challenges while contributing to sustainability efforts. Additionally, ESLs benefit shoppers by ensuring pricing accuracy and highlighting promotions, meal deals, ethical credentials and shopper star ratings.”