Electronic shelf label manufacturers compared

The main electronic shelf label (ESL) manufacturers seen in Europe are Vusion (formerly SES-imagotag), Pricer, Hanshow, SoluM and Zkong, plus smaller makers whose labels are sold under another brand. They differ mostly in radio, the size of their installed base and how open their platform is. This page gathers public data, each item with the date it was checked.

Before you read: who publishes this

This site is edited by Keonex, a company in the sector. That is an obvious conflict of interest and we treat it as one.

• Keonex is not ranked in the tables. Placing it would mean sourcing every cell from public material, and we do not have that material today.
• Keonex has not told us which manufacturer, if any, produces its labels. We therefore say nothing about its market position or its technology. If that information is supplied and can be disclosed, it will be added here in the same format as the others.
• None of the companies compared has paid for, reviewed or seen this page before publication.
• The criteria and general method are in the methodology and the comparisons index.

One more limitation: nearly all technical data comes from the manufacturers themselves or from regulatory filings. A manufacturer describes the best of its product; an FCC filing, by contrast, says what radio the device actually emits. Where possible we preferred the latter.

A note for readers outside Spain: most of the named customer references below are Spanish, because that is where the sourcing was done. We have not verified comparable references in the UK, Ireland or the US, and we do not substitute guesses for them.

Short answer

For a large chain that already buys by tender, the realistic shortlist is usually Vusion, Pricer and Hanshow, with SoluM as a fourth option backed by strong distributors. Zkong and white-label products fit smaller businesses and small projects better, where unit price weighs more than track record. That split is a tendency read from public references, not a rule.

Criteria and why we use them

We do not give a single score, because it would hide exactly what changes from one buyer to the next. We compare seven things.

1. Radio. It sets coverage, the number of gateways, battery life and future compatibility. Labels on standard Bluetooth LE have a path to interoperability that proprietary ones lack; the Bluetooth 5.4 specification itself includes a profile for shelf labels (Wikipedia), though its existence does not mean every vendor uses it.
2. Range. Sizes and colours. For how each display type affects power use and legibility, see LCD versus e-paper and the e-paper glossary entry.
3. NFC. Useful for pairing labels and for phone interaction; not every model has it.
4. Platform and API. We only record whether public API documentation exists and whether the vendor claims ERP or POS integration. How a label platform is run day to day is outside this page.
5. References in Spain and Europe. Only those found in the press or in statements from the vendor or the customer.
6. Financials, if the company is listed.
7. Sales model. Direct, through a distributor or integrator, and whether the vendor lets someone else provide support.

Where a fact is not in an accessible source we write “not stated”. We do not fill the gap with assumptions.

Comparison table

All checks were made on 9 November 2026. “Not stated” means we did not find it in the linked sources, not that it does not exist.

Criterion	Hanshow	Pricer	Vusion	SoluM	Zkong
Radio (per source)	2.4 GHz, proprietary protocol; separate NFC on NFC models	Wireless optical communication on its site; radio band not stated	Bluetooth LE as main radio	2.4 GHz ISM, BLE physical layer with proprietary protocol	Wi-Fi and IoT named; “ZKONG ESL Communication”, protocol not specified
Colours	Black and white, with red and yellow depending on range; colour LCD (Lumina Aqua)	Not stated in the sources consulted	Black/white/red (V100); BWRY (V300); full colour (V700)	Not stated in sources consulted	BWRY on most; full colour on some models
Sizes	Wide range; 2.66” on Stellar Plus	Not stated	1.5” to 9.7” on V300; 8.2” on V700	Not stated in sources consulted	1.3” to 31.5”
NFC	Yes, on specific models	Not stated	Mentioned as an option; models not specified	Not stated	Not mentioned on its site; uses QR and phone proximity
Declared battery	5 years (Stellar Plus) to 10 years (Stellar Pro)	Battery-powered; rail-powered on Pricer Avenue (2026)	Up to 15 years (V-Tag and V300 BWR)	Not stated	5 to 10 years
Platform and API	Own platform; public API not verified	Pricer Plaza in the cloud, in about 6,000 stores; API not verified	Cloud IoT platform; no public API documentation	Newton Link and AIMS; API not verified	“200+ Open API”, SDK and firmware customisation (marketing)
References in Spain	Alcampo (560,000 labels, 84 stores, 2026)	Carrefour (2023 contract; exclusivity ended in France, Feb. 2026)	Global customers include Carrefour, Lidl, Decathlon, Edeka	Not stated in the sources consulted	Distribution through resellers (see text)
Declared scale	55,000 stores, 70+ countries	380+ M labels delivered, 28,000 stores, 80+ countries	~650 M labels sold in 2025, 75,000 stores (Wikipedia)	Not stated	Capacity >50 M units a year (declared)
Listing	Shenzhen Stock Exchange, 301275, since 11 Mar 2025	Nasdaq Stockholm	Euronext Paris, since 2006	Not verified	Not listed as far as found
2025 sales	Official figure not found; secondary sources disagree	SEK 2,147.9 M (2024: 2,558.0 M)	EUR 1,507 M (2024: 1,011 M)	Not stated	Not stated

Sources by column: Hanshow, Hanshow FCC filing, Pricer, Vusion, SoluM, Zkong.

Profile by manufacturer

Vusion (formerly SES-imagotag)

Founded in 1992 as Store Electronic Systems, it became SES-imagotag in 2014 and VusionGroup in 2024, and introduced the name Vusion on 7 January 2026. It has been listed in Paris since 2006. According to its Wikipedia entry it sold about 650 million labels in 2025 and booked EUR 1,507 million in revenue, against EUR 1,011 million in 2024; BOE Technology is a shareholder, with 25% in May 2025 after having held almost 80%.

Its published range is the most detailed of the five: the V300 series reaches 13 sizes between 1.5 and 9.7 inches, with water-resistant and freezer variants, and the V700 is an 8.2-inch full-colour model. It declares up to 15 years of battery life on the V-Tag and V300 BWR. The main radio is Bluetooth LE. That said, the site shows no API documentation; it speaks of “API-level access control” without naming concrete interfaces.

One caveat when comparing: the labels-sold figure comes from Wikipedia, a secondary source. If a decision hangs on that number, ask the company or read its annual reports.

Pricer

Swedish and listed. In 2025 it reported SEK 2,147.9 million in net sales (2,558.0 in 2024), order intake of SEK 1,892.1 million (2,918.4 in 2024) and a net profit of SEK 1.3 million; the order backlog closed the year at SEK 386 million. This is the profile of a supplier in a weak year, not one in terminal difficulty. We say so because the drop in orders is a legitimate data point for a buyer signing a multi-year contract.

Its best-known reference in Spain is Carrefour. Pricer announced a three-year contract in 2023 covering several countries, Spain included, and Alimarket reported it. In February 2026 Pricer itself said Carrefour would add a second supplier in France, that it would remain a partner there with more than 1,200 stores, and that sales to Carrefour were under 10% of its 2025 revenue. In those figures, over 70% of sales to Carrefour in France, Belgium and Spain went to franchisees.

Technically, its Pricer Plaza cloud platform is used in more than 6,000 stores, and Pricer Avenue, presented in January 2026, uses a rail that powers the label and removes the battery. It is the most distinctive technical proposition in the group and the one least like a coin-cell label.

Hanshow

A Chinese manufacturer founded in Beijing around 2011-2012 (its site gives both years). It has been listed on the Shenzhen exchange under code 301275 since 11 March 2025. It claims deployments in more than 55,000 stores in over 70 countries. We could not find an official 2025 sales figure: secondary sources contradict each other, so we prefer to cite none.

Its manuals and FCC filings describe a 2,402-2,480 MHz band with GFSK modulation and a separate NFC channel on models that have it. That points to a proprietary protocol rather than standard Bluetooth LE. Declared battery life runs from 5 years on Stellar Plus to 10 on Stellar Pro, always depending on daily update volume.

Its most visible Spanish reference is Alcampo: 560,000 labels in 84 stores, an investment of EUR 3.8 million according to the trade press, installed with HL Display’s Slimline system (Alimarket, 1 September 2026). Here is a point worth keeping as a buyer: the fixtures integrator (HL Display) is not the label manufacturer. That split between who makes, who installs and who supports is normal in this sector.

SoluM

A Korean manufacturer. From public documentation we could only cross-check the product: FCC filings for the Newton series show a link in the 2.4 GHz ISM band, with a Bluetooth LE physical layer and SoluM’s own protocol, 128-bit AES encryption and a range of about 30 metres in the sheets consulted. Nor could we confirm its sales channel in Spain from a verifiable source. On listing, sales or installed base we found nothing reliable, and we don’t estimate any.

Zkong

Its legal entity, per its own FAQ, is Hangzhou Zkong Networks. It advertises more than 50 models from 1.3 to 31.5 inches, with full colour on some, over 220 patents and production capacity above 50 million units a year. All of that is self-declared. Its serverless cloud platform and its offer of API, SDK and firmware customisation stand out as a potential point of openness, though the documentation would need to be seen under contract.

The site names no customers or store counts. In Spain it is found mostly through resellers with online shops that publish per-unit prices.

White label and OEM: what really changes

A white-label label usually comes from an Asian factory and carries an integrator’s logo. Three different cases coexist in the market and are best kept apart.

• Reseller of a known manufacturer. The label is Hanshow, SoluM or Zkong and the integrator adds installation and support. This is transparent: the manufacturer is named.
• OEM with its own brand. One party makes it and another sells it under its own name. The buyer may not know who the real manufacturer is.
• Integrator with its own platform on third-party hardware. The hardware is someone else’s, but the software and support belong to the integrator.

What to ask in any of these, because the answers decide future dependency (covered in depth in vendor lock-in):

1. Who makes the label and who writes the firmware?
2. If the integrator disappears, can someone else support the labels already installed?
3. Is the radio protocol proprietary or standard?
4. Is there a documented API and is data ownership written into the contract?
5. Who replaces the batteries, and at what cost?

On the last point, also look at the rent versus buy comparison.

How to read the Spanish references

Separate what was announced from what is installed. The Alcampo deal is from 2026 and is written in the future tense. Hanshow calls it a plan (“plans to roll out”) across 84 supermarkets, and Alimarket says the labels will be in place before the end of 2026. It is a real reference, but not a finished rollout until someone announces it as one. Figures for other chains that we have only seen in notes without backing from a news outlet or the company itself stay out until we can verify them.

For Carrefour and Pricer, the prudent reading is the company’s own: it remains a partner, but without exclusivity since 2026. A large reference can also be small for the supplier. Less than 10% of Pricer’s 2025 sales went to Carrefour.

How to use this comparison to choose

A reasonable sequence, without claiming it is the only one:

1. Decide the power model first (battery or rail-powered), because it limits which vendors remain.
2. Ask three manufacturers or integrators for the same sheet: radio, protocol, API, who provides support, battery cost per label.
3. Ask for references from stores of your size and sector, and call two of them.
4. Work out total cost with your own assumptions in the TCO calculator; label price is only one part.
5. If you are unsure what each piece of the system does, start with the basic guide.

What this page does not include

• No prices. Apart from some resellers’, they are not public, and list prices are no use for large projects.
• No ranking and no buying recommendation.
• We do not assess management platforms as products; here they are only a criterion.
• We could not verify Pricer’s radio band, nor company and funding data for SoluM and Zkong. They will be completed with sources and dates.

Change log

• 9 November 2026: first publication.