Sainsbury’s is the latest supermarket to confirm it is trialling electronic shelf-edge labels (ESLs).
The Grocer understands the supermarket installed the tech at three of its larger-format stores late last year and has been testing the technology’s impact across different categories, including beers, wines & spirits, health and general merchandise.
Sainsbury’s partnered with fixtures specialist Harrison Retail to develop the shelf fixings to house the devices, which have been developed by a number of different providers, The Grocer understands.
Witney is understood to one of the locations where the tech is being trailed. The Oxfordshire store was refitted in November 2023, and is one of Sainsbury’s ‘Future Stores’ in which it tests new formats and technology. The trials have focused on both the hardware on shelves, as well as potential efficiency savings of the technology itself. The shelf fixings at Witney have been supplied by HL Display.
“We are trialling electronic shelf-edge labels in a small number of our stores,” confirmed a Sainsbury’s spokeswoman. Sainsbury’s declined to provide further detail. Harrison Retail also declined to comment on the rollout.
More supermarkets trialling electronic shelf-edge labels
It is the latest retailer to confirm trials of the still nascent technology, which has also been recently trialled by Waitrose, Asda, Morrisons and a number of independent retailers.
Others, like The Company Shop, have committed to roll the tech out across their entire estates. Last week, The Grocer exclusively revealed that Co-op aims to have installed ESLs in all 2,400 of its stores by 2026, which would be by far the largest UK rollout confirmed to date.
While the first ESL systems launched more than 30 years ago, supermarkets have never fully embraced the technology. Tesco, for example, abandoned a rollout in 2017 claiming “there was nothing new to say” about the tech.
However, executives are reexamining its use as a way of making stores more efficient and cutting costs in response to the cost of living crisis.
Supermarkets like Sainsbury’s now also have much more established IT infrastructure and are better at handling data thanks to the rollout of loyalty schemes and e-commerce, meaning they are in a better position to make the most of the benefits of the technology.
The ESL trial is one of a number of tech trials underway at Sainsbury’s as part of its ‘mission-based’ strategy for stores, aimed at making its supermarkets easier to shop.
It includes making its scan and shop service SmartShop checkout-free, by allowing shoppers in two stores to pay via the device.
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