Supermarket shelf-edge labels could soon be displaying videos as well as prices following the launch of the “smallest digital signage solution in the world”.

Developer Online Software AG claimed its new Prestige Enterprise software would allow retailers to use any form of multimedia on high-resolution LCD shelf-edge labels.

To date, electronic shelf-edge labels have been limited to static black-and-white displays. This development meant retailers could now show manufacturers’ adverts directly beneath branded products on shelf, or their own adverts highlighting product promotions.

“Our multimedia and graphic electronic shelf labels open up new capital in the field of customer contact,” said Online Software AG director Jürgen Berens von Rautenfeld.

“For our clients, this means they can meet any future requirements in digital marketing. It is now possible to show the customer up-to-date pricing information and promotions, prepared in multimedia as a mix of video sequences, animations and emotive images, on a screen the size of a wristwatch.”

Von Rautenfeld added that the shelf-edge labels could also be controlled remotely, so that the prices, promotions, images or videos could be changed immediately by retailers from a central location.

Electronic shelf-edge labels were first introduced into the UK by Safeway, which started trialling them in 2002. However, to date no retailer has rolled them out nationwide.

In November 2012, Tesco said it plans to launch them into UK stores based on positive customer feedback from trials in Hungary. The retailer said they would help to reduce the amount of time its staff spent changing labels, and would allow it to “improve and maintain price integrity”.

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