By Tom Ryan
Two U.S. grocery-store chains are trialing an electronic shelf label (ESL) system to help stores avoid using millions of paper labels annually. Developed by Altierre, RFID-based LCD displays attach to store shelves to identify products and their prices, enabling immediate shelf-side updates of product data.
In development since 2003, Altierre considered a Wi-Fi based solution, but found that the individual Wi-Fi nodes could not support the sufficient quantity of tags. Wiring electronic tags was also not feasible since shelving fixtures are often moved. The company considered radio frequency identification, but could not find any existing technology that met its requirements.
"We found no chip existed to meet the cost needs, the low power requirements or the read range we wanted," Mr. Saxena explained. Altierre wound up developing its own 2.4 GHz RFID chip with a proprietary air-interface protocol for use in its electronic shelf label, which also contains a coin battery and a chip that controls the label's LCD screen. Each label's RFID chip stores the product's stock-keeping unit (SKU) number, name, price and other information. Pricing for each label was not disclosed.
The two retailers, which decline to be named, have installed Altierre's RFID readers in the ceilings in several of their stores on the East and West coasts. A computer server in each store's back room receives pricing updates from the retailers' headquarters via an internet connection. The server sends those changes to the interrogators via an Ethernet cable, and the readers transmit the new information to the appropriate shelf labels. The labels then update the product information on the LCD screen, as well as send a confirmation to the interrogators indicating the transmission's reception.
Mr. Saxena said a store can update the product information displayed on 10,000 labels in less than an hour. The stores piloting the system have typically installed two RFID readers to control 25,000 shelf labels deployed across a sales floor measuring 50,000 square feet in size.
In addition, a handheld interrogator, also designed by Altierre, can be used by employees to switch the data displayed on the labels' LCD from customer information (such as pricing) to data such as bar-coded SKU numbers that might be utilized to order additional inventory. The handheld can be used to "flip" that information on a particular aisle, or throughout the entire store.
The Altierre software also includes a recall feature. When identified, specific labels for items being recalled flash a recall alert on the display in bold lettering, immediately warning customers to not purchase that item.
Altierre also opened a retail technology center at its headquarters in San Jose, Calif., consisting of a 45,000-square foot paperless retail demo store and adjacent tech lab.
Discussion Questions: Where do you see the progress of electronic shelf label technology? What remain the primary hurdles toward greater adoption?