In this section
Electronic shelf labels by sector
Published by Keonex, a manufacturer and implementer of electronic shelf labels. How we work and why we say so: methodology and transparency.
Electronic shelf labels are less alike across sectors than any vendor brochure suggests. What decides a project is each store’s dominant constraint: fresh goods sold by weight, thousands of items that almost never move, prices that must match the web, or allergens that must be declared.
This page walks through the retail sectors, states that constraint in a sentence and points you to the guide for each.
One constraint per sector
Each guide goes deep on the workflows, numbers and FAQs of its sector. Here is only what sets them apart.
- Supermarkets and grocery: fresh and weighed goods mean the price per kilo, the unit price and promotion changes must all arrive together and without errors.
- Convenience stores and franchises: small floor area and many outlets; the hard part is keeping one pricing policy in stores where nobody has time for it.
- Hardware and DIY: a very long tail of items, many bulky or outdoors, where the challenge is locating and assigning labels rather than changing prices.
- Consumer electronics and appliances: shoppers compare prices on their phone while standing at the product, so the store has to react within hours.
- Fashion and footwear: mass sale campaigns, size and colour variants and a lot of hung or stacked stock, where a shelf-edge label fits less well.
- Wine shops and delicatessens: few, high-value items with vintage, origin and tasting notes that the label can carry if the format allows.
- Jewellers and watchmakers: tiny formats and locked cabinets; visual discretion and security come before speed.
- Bookshops and stationers: book prices are fixed by law in some countries and rarely change, so the label earns its place through the rest of the range.
- Pet stores: food sold by weight, accessories and very uneven product formats under one roof.
- Petrol stations and forecourt shops: fuel prices change often and are visible from outside; the shop is a convenience store with its own rules.
- Hospitality and buffets: the label rarely carries a price; it carries allergens and composition, and the legal duty outweighs the savings.
- Logistics and warehouses: the label marks locations and guides order picking; no customer ever reads it.
- Cooperatives and buying groups: one system must serve member stores that differ from each other, and price governance matters as much as the technology.
- Opticians and non-pharmacy health: few high-value units and a lot of product information, in displays where space is the limit.
- Pharmacy: it has its own regulation, management software and dispensing; the full guide lives on a specialist site, which this link takes you to.
Quick comparison
The table is not a market study. The size and frequency columns are qualitative orders of magnitude written to compare sectors with each other; they come from no survey, and each project sets them with its own fixtures and pricing policy. The rules column does point to a source. Legal references are mostly EU-level or UK; national transposition differs, so check your own country.
| Sector | Typical sizes | Price change | Rule that weighs most |
|---|---|---|---|
| Supermarkets | Small and medium; large for promotions (qualitative) | High: weekly offers, daily fresh (qualitative) | Unit price indication (UK: Price Marking Order 2004) and price-reduction rules (Omnibus, in the EU) |
| Convenience and franchises | Small and medium (qualitative) | Medium (qualitative) | Same as supermarkets |
| Hardware and DIY | Medium, sometimes with an industrial-rack rail (qualitative) | Medium and uneven (qualitative) | Price-reduction rules; unit price for loose goods |
| Electronics | Medium and large, with more product data (qualitative) | High, driven by online comparison (qualitative) | Price-reduction rules (Omnibus) |
| Fashion and footwear | Small or hanger-mounted (qualitative) | High in season, low outside it (qualitative) | Price-reduction rules (Omnibus) |
| Wine and delicatessen | Small and medium (qualitative) | Low (qualitative) | Unit price for loose goods; allergens for unpackaged food |
| Jewellery | Minimal (qualitative) | Low (qualitative) | Clear indication of the selling price |
| Bookshops | Small (qualitative) | Very low for books (qualitative) | Fixed book price where it exists (e.g. Germany’s BuchPrG); none in the UK as a statute |
| Pet stores | Small and medium (qualitative) | Medium (qualitative) | Unit price on food |
| Petrol stations | Outdoor board plus indoor label (qualitative) | High for fuel, medium in the shop (qualitative) | Fuel price display rules (check current national and local rules) |
| Hospitality and buffets | Medium, with room for allergens (qualitative) | Low on price, high on the daily menu (qualitative) | Allergens in non-prepacked food (Regulation 1169/2011; UK Food Information Regulations 2014) |
| Logistics and warehouses | Medium and large, rugged (qualitative) | Not applicable: the location changes, not the price | No price rules; safety and operating conditions matter (qualitative) |
| Cooperatives | Mixed (qualitative) | Medium, centralised (qualitative) | Those of each member store |
| Opticians | Small and medium (qualitative) | Low (qualitative) | Clear indication of the selling price |
| Pharmacy | See farmaconnect.es | See farmaconnect.es | See farmaconnect.es |
Rules that cut across most sectors
Two rules run through a good part of the table and are worth understanding before you read each guide.
The previous price. Directive (EU) 2019/2161, known as Omnibus, governs how a price reduction is announced in the EU. Its practical core is that the reference price for a reduction is the lowest price of the prior 30 days, not whichever figure flatters you most. An electronic label does not satisfy this on its own: the platform behind it has to keep the price history. The UK sits outside Omnibus and has its own pricing-practice rules, so UK retailers should check them separately. We cover this in the regulation section of this site.
The unit price. Where goods are sold loose or in varying quantities, the selling price must be accompanied by a price per unit of measure. In the UK this sits in the Price Marking Order 2004, which has separate articles for the selling price (article 4) and the unit price (article 5); the EU framework is similar. This is why a supermarket label carries two prices and why its screen needs room for both.
Sector rules come on top: allergen information for unpackaged food under Regulation (EU) 1169/2011 and, in the UK, the Food Information Regulations 2014; or fixed book prices, which Germany imposes through the Buchpreisbindungsgesetz while the UK has no such statute.
How to choose where to start
If your sector is listed above, start with its guide. If not, these questions usually orient you better than a vendor catalogue.
- How many times a year does a price change? With few changes the labour saving thins out and the business case rests on something else.
- How many items does the store carry, and how many actually move? A long, static tail is closer to a data project than a label project.
- Is there a legal datum to display? Allergens, unit price or reference price can decide the screen size.
- What does the fixture look like? A gondola rail, a glass cabinet and a warehouse rack change the mounting and the radio coverage.
To put numbers on the first question, use the total cost calculator. And if you are still unsure what you are buying, the guide to what an electronic shelf label is is the starting point.
About this page
This site is published by Keonex, which makes and implements electronic shelf label systems; the relationship is explained in the About section. The sector guides try to describe the retailer’s problem before selling any particular solution.
Electronic labels for hotel buffets and hospitality
What UK law requires for allergens at a buffet, what changes when a paper card becomes an e-label, and what to check on heat, cleaning and battery.
Read →Electronic shelf labels for co-operatives and buying groups
What changes when electronic shelf labels go into a retailer co-operative or symbol group: central pricing, independent members, joint buying and cost.
Read →Electronic shelf labels for convenience stores
What electronic shelf labels cost a small convenience store, why fixed costs weigh so much, and who sets shelf prices in a symbol group or franchise.
Read →Electronic shelf labels for DIY and hardware stores
What DIY puts in front of electronic shelf labels: thousands of lines, peg hooks and bins, garden centres, product finding and trade prices.
Read →Electronic shelf labels for pet stores
Pet food sacks, price per kilo, brand promotions and aquatics: what changes in a pet shop when it moves to electronic shelf labels.
Read →Electronic shelf labels for petrol stations
What electronic shelf labels do in a forecourt shop, why they do not replace the price pole, and which fuel price rules sit next to them.
Read →Electronic shelf labels for warehouses and logistics
What e-paper labels do in a warehouse: bin locations, pick-to-light, kanban and cold stores. What each KPI measures and what the sources actually say.
Read →Electronic shelf labels in wine shops
What electronic shelf labels do for a wine shop or fine-food store, the unit-price rules and why the case rests on information, not labour hours.
Read →Electronic shelf labels in bookshops
UK books have no fixed price, so bookshops can reprice freely. Where electronic shelf labels earn their place in a bookshop, and where they do not.
Read →Electronic shelf labels in consumer electronics and appliance stores
What electronics retail asks of an electronic shelf label: online price matching, energy labels, finance adverts and public rollouts such as Currys.
Read →Electronic shelf labels in fashion retail
Where electronic shelf labels fit in a clothing or footwear store, what changes with sales events and why adoption trails grocery.
Read →Electronic shelf labels in jewellery and watch shops
What electronic shelf labels offer a jeweller: gold-linked prices, tiny formats, locked cabinets, and why almost nobody uses them yet.
Read →Electronic shelf labels in opticians
Frames on display, offers on lenses and health claims: what electronic shelf labels can do in an optician's practice and what UK rules say.
Read →Electronic Shelf Labels in Pharmacies: How This Sector Differs
Why a pharmacy is labelled differently: government-set NHS prescription charges, pharmacy-set prices for over-the-counter lines and the dispensing system.
Read →Electronic Shelf Labels in Supermarkets
What electronic shelf labels change in a grocery store: fresh and weighed goods, chilled and frozen, expiry markdowns, the 30-day rule and chain rollouts.
Read →
Frequently asked questions
Does every retailer need the same kind of label?
No. Screen size, colour, how the label attaches to the fixture and how often it refreshes all depend on what you sell and how you display it. A supermarket shelf edge, a jewellery cabinet and a warehouse rack each ask for something different.
Which sector sees the savings first?
Wherever prices change often and the range is wide, such as grocery, DIY or consumer electronics. When prices move only a few times a year, the argument shifts from saved hours to accuracy or store image.
Why is there no full pharmacy guide here?
Pharmacy has its own regulation, management software and workflows, and a specialist pharmacy site covers them. This page only summarises it and sends you there.
Are the figures in the table market data?
No. They are qualitative orders of magnitude meant to compare sectors with each other. Your own values depend on the fixture, the vendor and your pricing policy.
Sources
Keep reading
What are electronic shelf labels and how do they work?
What electronic shelf labels are, their four components and how a price change travels from the ERP to the display. They are not RFID or anti-theft tags.
Read →Total cost (TCO) and ROI calculator
Work out the total cost and return of an electronic shelf label project with assumptions you can edit. No vendor prices.
Read →Electronic Shelf Labels in Supermarkets
What electronic shelf labels change in a grocery store: fresh and weighed goods, chilled and frozen, expiry markdowns, the 30-day rule and chain rollouts.
Read →Electronic labels for hotel buffets and hospitality
What UK law requires for allergens at a buffet, what changes when a paper card becomes an e-label, and what to check on heat, cleaning and battery.
Read →Electronic Shelf Labels in Pharmacies: How This Sector Differs
Why a pharmacy is labelled differently: government-set NHS prescription charges, pharmacy-set prices for over-the-counter lines and the dispensing system.
Read →