James Tenser

ESL: The (Seemingly Endless) Search for Retail Adoption

January 18, 2010

FROM RETAILWIRE:
Once again this year, there are new companies introducing new electronic shelf label (ESL) systems that they hope will - once and for all - replace paper labels at the shelf edge in supermarkets. What's holding up the adoption of ESLs?      [more...]

Cost is clearly a significant factor in ESL adoption. But I'd submit that process and organizational changes may be greater ones. Their widespread use would require changes in store labor practices, planogram compliance practices and in-store sensing and measurement, for starters. The associated economic impact is very difficult to forecast. I have strong doubts that present ESL vendors are able to provide dependable guidance in these operational areas.

While the label systems themselves have evidently advanced in meaningful ways, FMCG retailers won't adopt them until and unless they have worked out their own In-Store Implementation methods for measuring and maintaining planogram compliance.