ePaper and Digital Price Tags:
The Benefits and Companies Changing to ePaper

Electronic paper and ePaper, sometimes referred to as electronic ink or eInk are display devices that mimic the appearance of ordinary ink on paper. These electronic paper displays were first used with digital readers like the Kindle or Nook and quickly became popular for their ability to reflect light like paper, rather than emitting light like conventional backlit flat panel displays. ePaper is also easy to read in any sort of lighting or at any angle due to its use of ambient light. Not only are these ePaper devices as easy to read as traditional books, but they also save massive amounts of paper by replacing the paper used for books. You may be wondering why ePaper goes by that name, being that it is an electronic device and not paper. ePaper actually uses a type of ink called electrophoretic ink, which uses the same pigments as real ink. eInk is bistable, meaning that images will remain present upon it, even if the power shuts off.

Electronic ePaper tags are an extremely useful tool in any retail setting. Customers browsing items for sale in a retail environment want as much information about those items as possible, including the price of the item, whether it’s on sale, how many are in stock and how it’s rated by other customers. And if they can get that information right there on a digital price tag, it means they require less help from store personnel, who can therefore focus their energy and time towards enhancing the customer’s experience.

There are a number of other reasons why ePaper tags are a superior alternative to traditional paper tags. Digital tags can be read at any angle, as well as in bright lighting, making it as easy as possible for customers to quickly find what they are looking for. The devices are also extremely durable and the batteries that power them will last for about five years, during which time countless paper tags would have been used for the same purpose.

Spending time and money manually performing tasks that could be completed remotely results in lost productivity and increasingly higher operating costs. Research shows that paper-based processes not only waste time and money but also raise employee turnover rates. By switching to faster and more convenient digital processes, like ePaper product tags, businesses can improve employee productivity and retention, increase their bottom line and stimulate business growth. Consider how many hours it would take to switch out all of the physical paper tags in a retail store as opposed to simply remotely editing ePaper tags across the store.

Not only are digital ePaper tags a cost-effective, time-saving alternative to conventional paper tags, switching to electronic tags also saves a great deal of paper, which is good for the environment. At a time when many consumers actively seek out companies that have proven themselves to be eco-friendly, putting your multifunctional, non-paper digital price tags on display in your store is a great way to entice environmentally conscious consumers to shop there.

Many businesses and retail stores are seeing the considerable benefits of changing over to ePaper and eInk. Take Amazon and Best Buy. Both companies have taken steps to create in-store experiences that mimic the online shopping experience and that includes utilizing ePaper tags. At Amazon’s Four-Star Store in New York City, the company uses digital price tags to display the price of the product, the Amazon Prime member price, the product rating and the number of reviews it has received from customers - all of the information you would expect to find while shopping on Amazon.com. At the end of the day, implementing digital price tags in the retail sphere is a win-win solution for store owners and customers alike; not only does the technology improve in-store productivity and streamline merchandising, it also enhances the overall shopping experience for consumers.