RFID based Electronic Shelf Labels expected to replace paper

Filed in archive Retail on June 16, 2009

The recession has taught us a lesson - adopt cost saving approach from day 1 or perish. Many have already hit the dust and the ones which survived are looking at putting all the pieces together and start afresh.

Retail sector has been one of the hardest hit in the process and it has been trying to get back into shape once again and for this purpose they have sought the solace of RFID. Millions of paper shelf labels are wasted each year which not only increases operating costs of the stores operating on thin margins but also disturbs the environment around us.

The solution for it lies in the electronic shelf label or ESL system which includes RFID based LCD displays and can be attached to the store shelves for identification of products and their prices. This system can be taken care of from a remote location and is expected to save millions of paper labels each year.

With an average retail store making ten to twelve thousand price changes each week you can yourself calculate the amount of paper labels, printing solution and labor required to achieve it. Also you cannot miss on the aspect of human error.

The system deploys 2.4 GHz RFID chip with a proprietary air-interface protocol along with chip and coin battery for controlling LCD screen of the label. The RFID chip is entrusted with the responsibility of storing name, price, stock keeping unit and other information pertaining to the product.

RFID readers need to deployed on the ceiling of each store and computer server needs to be set in the back room of each store for receiving price updates from the headquarter where the server sends the interrogators via Ethernet cable and the reader transmitting the information to the shelf labels.

Product information can be displayed on ten thousand labels in less than an hour. The system developed by Altierre is already being tested by two US grocery stores.