Europe Electronic Shelf Label Market value was USD 300 million in 2019 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 9% from 2020 to 2026.

Get more details on this report - Request Free Sample PDF

The expanding regional retail industry is incorporating advanced technologies to ensure customer satisfaction, thus boosting the adoption of ESL. The UK retail sales witnessed a 3.4% increase in 2019 compared to 2018 with around 306,665 merchandizing outlets in 2019. Large stores are adopting advanced technologies to streamline and speed up operations, in turn, offering improved customer service. With the use of ESL technology, authorities can automatically update prices instantly with minimal human intervention. The growing penetration of digitalization across the retail sector will propel the ESL market growth.

The ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has negatively impacted the ESL market in the first half of 2020 due to the temporary closure of industries and commercial buildings. Several economies are heading toward recession due to the stagnancy in industrial activities in the first half of 2020. Industries and commercial complexes remained temporarily shut, following stringent lockdown measures imposed by government organizations in several countries in the region. However, with industries resuming operation and retailers reopening their stores, the ESL market will regain traction.

There is increasing demand for full graphic e-paper ESLs that offer wide viewing angles and improved visibility. Full graphic e-paper displays provide high readability in all lighting conditions. Low-power consumption feature in these labels also increases their popularity amongst store owners. There will be a growing demand for full graphic e-paper ESLs due to the long battery life offered by these displays. Enhanced legibility even in low lighting conditions propels the demand for these labels from industrial warehouses. The growing penetration of automation across the industrial and commercial sectors will boost the adoption of ESL technology.

In the retail sector, the NFC technology considerably adds up to standard ESL features by facilitating instant price updates at any time. As increasing number of customers use NFC-enabled smartphones, there will be high demand for ESLs that can interact digitally with other NFC-enabled devices. ESL enables customers to pay with their phones instantly using digital wallets without the need to stand in queues for payments. The growing popularity of contactless payment techniques will boost the adoption of NFC-enabled ESLs.

There is high demand for ESLs from hypermarkets as they focus on streamlining operations to maximize productivity. Hypermarket owners face the challenge of managing several sections in a store efficiently. Updating prices, offering discounts, or changing product information on shelves manually become time consuming. These factors fuel the need for ESLs that can be controlled with a centralized software, enabling store authorities to automatically change the data displayed on the digital labels. The software also reduces issues caused due to erroneous tags or wrongly assigned prices or offers.

Key market players operating in the Europe electronic shelf label market include Altierre Corporation, Herbert Retail Limited, Displaydata Limited, M2COMM, Opticon Sensors Europe B.V., Pricer AB, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., SES-imagotag, SoluM, and Diebold Nixdorf Incorporated. Players are focusing on strategic partnerships to expand their market presence. For instance, in February 2019, Strongpoint, a reseller of Pricer AB, partnered with a large grocery chain in the Baltics for the installation, delivery, and service of the company’s system with digital price labels to expand the company’s industry presence.