case studyMarch 1, 2026
Conad speeds up price updates with ESL rollout across 54 supermarkets
In Central and Southern Italy, electronic shelf labels reduced shelf-price errors and accelerated daily promotional campaigns.
innovazione
January 18, 2026
Pharmacies and electronic shelf labels: digital hits the shelves
More and more Italian pharmacies are adopting ESL electronic labels to update prices in real time and reduce manual repricing work by 90%.
The pharmaceutical sector is experiencing a quiet but significant digital transformation: electronic shelf labels (ESL) are rapidly replacing paper tags in hundreds of Italian pharmacies.
What are ESLs
Electronic Shelf Labels are e-paper or LCD displays connected to the pharmacy's management system. They automatically update when a price, promotion, or product card changes, eliminating the need to manually print and replace tags.
Concrete benefits
- 90% reduction in time spent on manual repricing
- Zero pricing errors between shelf and checkout
- Dynamic promotions activatable in real time across all locations
- Automatic regulatory compliance with Ministry of Health requirements
The Bologna Municipal Pharmacy network case
The Bologna Municipal Pharmacy network has completed the installation of over 45,000 electronic labels across its 19 locations. The result: every price update, which previously required 2 days of work across the entire network, now happens in less than 5 minutes with a single click from headquarters.
Integration with queue systems
The most interesting aspect is the integration with queue management systems: labels can display contextual information such as counter wait times, while central displays inform customers about pharmacist availability across departments.
The Italian market
According to GFK estimates, the Italian ESL market in the pharmaceutical sector will grow by 45% in 2026, driven by the need for efficiency and increasing competition from parapharmacies and large-scale retail.
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