Page 270 - 34-3

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

collaboration between ESL system integrators and digital service providers becomes
tighter and more robust. As declared by Jeniffer Guan in 2021, vice president for strategy
and partnership at Hanshow,

To realize cloud-based management on the scale of our customers’ international

operations, we partnered with Microsoft IoT technology to develop a SaaS solution
that can handle this massive amount of integration. (Zhu, 2021)

ESL triggers the development of software as a service (SaaS) at this stage through
collaboration between ESL system integrators and digital service providers to help retailers
cut the initial infrastructure investment fees. SaaS allows users to license software on a

subscription basis and keep data on cloud storage. Blending ESL with cloud services also
helps retailers manage the entire store chain and extend the supply chain network—for
instance, ESLs can be responsible for tracing every product at every level at the store. Then,
the connection between ESL and the logistic system can help in assessing the inventory level
and provide some recommendations for restocking. To improve the capabilities of ESL, ESL

technology suppliers embed geolocation information that can help locate particular items or
products. Geolocation information can also help shoppers and employees find the location of
specific products by providing a flashing light on the ESLs. Cloud-based ESL services can

offer a viable and durable inventory tracking system by allowing users to update the status of
every shipment as it progresses down the supply chain.
ESL is also integrated with an AI camera to detect the product identity and position
of ESLs. Digital service providers, ESL system integrators, and ESL technology providers
provide AI and machine learning to detect and identify ESLs within their field of view.

Based on this capability, it can ensure product locations, detected holes (holes mean no
product is found on the shelf), and missing product identification. This feature enables
more efficient store management. Shopping platforms and ESL should be able to have

data interchangeability that can ease the sharing of data. That is, they provide an API to
share data among actors in the ecosystem. APIs enable ecosystem actors to rapidly and
effectively implement more advanced technology to help retailers conduct more efficient
operations and increase revenues.
We also find that the role of ESL system integrators has shifted from contributors

to enablers of value for all new business creation. The evolution of this technology has

260