Over the past seven years, there have been more than 600 million electronic shelf labels (ESLs) installed globally – resulting in automatic, real-time updates, a better customer experience, and giving staff the time back that was needed update manually. And they’re better for the environment too: E Ink estimates that single use paper tags create 32x the carbon emissions of ESLs. The new tech, called Spectra 3100 Plus, is built for retail and adds orange to the color line-up of black, white, red and yellow. It also adds E Ink Sparkle, creating a partial image flashing effect to catch eyes in busy retail environments.
E Ink Spectra 3100 Plus offers a variety of display sizes, including 1.64-inch, 2.36-inch, 3-inch, 4.37-inch, 7.3-inch, and 8.14-inch, allowing retailers to choose a suitable size of five-color ePaper for different application scenarios. This new ESL is based on E Ink Spectra 3100 four-color ePaper platform (black, white, red, and yellow), E Ink Spectra 3100 Plus adopts a new waveform to display the fifth color, orange. In addition to offering a wide range of solid and saturated colors, E Ink Spectra 3100 Plus can create a partial image flashing effect, E Ink Sparkle, when E Ink Spectra 3100 Plus is equipped with the relevant All-in-One Driver IC. E Ink Sparkle can enhance the effect of advertising messages through this motion, and help retailers achieve better results for their product promotions.
“Since its launch in 2013, the E Ink Spectra series ePaper has been well received by the retail industry. We have gradually designed and developed the series from three-color and four-color to our latest release of E Ink Spectra 3100 Plus, five-color ePaper, which shows our strong R&D capabilities in color ePaper technology. We have continued to improve our R&D based on the feedback from ecosystem partners and end customers, so we can develop color ePaper technology that meets business needs and is closer to user values. The E Ink Spectra series allows ePaper signage and Electronic Shelf Labels in the retail market to be eye-catching as well as energy-saving and eco-friendly,” said Johnson Lee, CEO of E Ink Holdings.
Digital transformation has driven retailers to accelerate the adoption of Electronic Shelf Labels (ESLs). Over the past seven years, 600 million ESLs of around three inches in size have been installed worldwide. If we assume that the price and information changes four times a day, single-use paper price tags would create 32,000 times CO2 versus ESLs. Electronic Shelf Labels can not only reduce the consumption of environmental resources but can also help significantly reduce CO2 emissions versus traditional signage, contributing to more environmental sustainability.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.