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How ESL Devices Transform into Connected Label Solutions: A Perspective of Actor Interaction and
Information Rebundling

4. Findings: Stages of ESL Retail Digital Transformation

Digital transformation in the retail ecosystem focuses on certain benefits at different
levels, such as the individual (Meyer et al., 2018), organizational (Reinartz et al., 2019),

and ecosystemic (Palmié et al., 2022). The outcome of the digital transformation is
promising, and retailers can benefit by adopting emerging technology. Retailers should be
able to follow the iterative processes for introducing digital technologies into bricks-and-
mortar business. Jeniffer Guan, Hanshow Vice President for Strategy and Partnership, has

said that ESL retail transformation happens gradually and continuously:

It is true that the retailers who were quicker to adapt new technologies outperformed
their peers. For our solutions, we address a number of challenges for customers from
a different angle for traditional retailers to save costs and increase efficiencies during
difficult times. Efficiency enhancements, such as staffing surges during peak hours,

labor costs, space constraints and better productivity management for hundreds of
stores across regions, were important for these established retailers. (Zhu, 2021)

The current study follows (Bonnet, 2022) in capturing ESL-enabled retail digital
transformation in three stages: modernization, enterprise-wide transformation, and new
business creation. However, Bonnet (2022) overlooks how actors interact in digital

transformation and the information mechanism as a consequence of technology’s
implementation. Digital technology triggers the dematerialization of information and
will influence its effect on retailers. Therefore, we extend the conceptualization of digital
transformation stages by undertaking and identifying the interaction of the actors and the

impact of digital transformation on information density. We argue that digital technology
changes information density, with dematerialization mechanisms triggered by devices
and affected by technology features. Understanding the information density process will
be beneficial to extend digital transformation. Figure 5 explains the three stages of how

retailers adopt and adapt ESL in their operations.

4.1 Stage 1: Modernization
This stage describes the early stage of ESL adoption by retailers and technology

suppliers to replace paper-based, on-the-shelf labels with electronic ones. ESL technology

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