Guide
Electronic shelf labels explained
Electronic shelf labels replace the printed tickets on your shelf edge with small digital displays. The price shown on the shelf comes from your pricing system rather than from a printer, so changing a price no longer means printing, sorting and walking a stack of tickets around the store.
The basics
What an electronic shelf label is
An electronic shelf label is a display that clips to the shelf edge in place of a paper ticket. It shows the same information a printed ticket shows — product, selling price, and whatever else your ticket layout includes.
Each label is linked to a specific product, and when that product's price changes, the label is updated over the store's wireless coverage rather than by hand.
Deployment
How a PriceFlow deployment works
Four stages, from first survey to a store running on digital shelf pricing.
- 01
Coverage
Store coverage infrastructure is installed so every shelf can receive updates, and is confirmed during deployment planning.
- 02
Binding
Your team attaches labels to the shelf edge and links each one to its product using the PriceFlow mobile app.
- 03
Connection
PriceFlow connects to a supported POS system, so the shelf edge follows the prices you already maintain. We confirm compatibility and configure the integration during onboarding.
- 04
Running the store
A price change in your system is sent to the labels on the shelf. Promotions start and end without a print run.
Label types
Five hardware families, one platform
Most stores use a mix. The right mix depends on your shelf strips, how much detail each ticket carries, and where you want promotional messaging to stand out.
We confirm the exact mix and mounting when we review your shelf layout. Browse the full hardware range.
Store coverage infrastructure
Labels need wireless coverage across the shop floor to receive updates. That coverage hardware is part of a PriceFlow deployment rather than something you specify or buy as a separate product — we work out what a store needs during deployment planning, based on the layout and shelving rather than on floor area alone.
The PriceFlow hosted platform
PriceFlow runs its own hosted platform on PriceFlow-managed infrastructure. You sign in to PriceFlow Cloud to manage products, prices and promotions, and to see the state of the labels in your store. Multi-store estates are managed from the same place, so a change can be applied across sites rather than store by store.
How a price update reaches the shelf
A price changes in your system, PriceFlow picks up the change, and the labels bound to that product are updated over the store's coverage network. The work that used to be a print run and an aisle walk becomes a change you make once.
Operationally
What changes day to day
Less shelf-edge labour
The time spent printing and replacing tickets moves out of the weekly routine. Model that with your own figures.
Fewer till and shelf mismatches
When the shelf edge is driven by the same price data as the till, the two are less likely to drift apart. PriceFlow does not remove your responsibility for the accuracy of your prices, and we do not claim it makes your pricing compliant with any regulation.
Promotions that start and stop on time
Offers can be applied and withdrawn without a print run for each change.
A consistent shelf edge
Every ticket is generated from the same layout rather than by whoever printed it.
Store coverage infrastructure is included in the estimate and confirmed during deployment planning.
What it costs
PriceFlow plans start from £99 a month, and you can either take the hardware as part of the managed service or buy your labels outright and pay a lower ongoing platform fee.
Read next
- Electronic shelf labels vs paper labelsIncluding when paper is still the right answer.
- Price Marking Order changes from April 2026What is changing for UK unit pricing.
- Electronic shelf label hardwareThe full range of label formats.
- POS integrationsSupported systems, configured during onboarding.
- PriceFlow pricingPlans, payment models and the estimator.