Panasonic India announced a strategic alliance with E Ink, a pioneer in ePaper technology, to provide innovative display technology solutions for the retail industry in India. With this association, Panasonic is launching an all-new Electronic Shelf Labelling (ESL) solution to support retailors to improve operational efficiency and customer experience over traditional paper-based price labels.

The retailers across the country will be able to experience the ease and simplicity of the Electronic Shelf Labelling (ESL) platform to be provided by Panasonic. The ESL solutions will help retailers to alter prices on a real-time basis, monitor product information, showcase promotional discounts, reduce pricing errors, respond to their customer traffic patterns and reduce wastage through seamless promotional pricing changes for perishable goods.

Commenting on the partnership, Vijay Wadhawan, Group Chief, Systems Solutions Division, Panasonic India said, “We at Panasonic are committed to providing our customers with the best in innovation and technology. Through this collaboration with E-Ink we aim to empower the retail industry by bringing in innovative display solution that helps the retailors provide a seamless experience to their customers. We are continuously expanding our product portfolio, ESL being the latest example of our technology offerings and we remain dedicated towards developing more solutions catering to the demands and needs of our customers in different markets and businesses.”

Johnson Lee, Chairman and CEO of E Ink Holdings said, “We are pleased to collaborate with Panasonic to develop and launch the ESL solution with E Ink display in India Market. With this collaboration, the ESL solution will offer retailers to update product pricing and promotional information in real-time without using printed paper tags and transform in to a smart and sustainable retail store in the era of IoT.”

The ESL solution developed at the Panasonic's India Innovation Centre (IIC), will allow retailers to ensure operational efficiencies by maintaining stock levels and establish a communication channel with them by transmitting real-time information. It will also enable stock-based sales allowing the retailers to reduce the inventory of any stock that is soon expiring or is outdated.

One of the early adopters of Panasonic’s ESL solution, Samir Modi, President 24SEVEN said, “Technology excites us and we look forward to the Panasonic ESL launch. This modern and technology-based solution will create a substantial value add for the retailers. ESL is an innovative product which can help transform retail businesses by facilitating end-to-end solutions for our store operations.”

Leaders in their respective industries, Panasonic and E Ink are known for devising innovative solutions that focus on addressing the evolving needs of customers and together aim to create solutions for the 'Future of Retailing' in India. Electronic Shelf Label (ESL) with ePaper display inherit the benefits of ePaper to be a role of human and machine interface allowing consumers and retailers to communicate, improving shopping and store operation experience. E Ink’s ePaper display offers benefits of low power, very wide viewing angles and paper-like readability under all store lighting conditions by its bi-stable and reflective technology features.