## R&D Background
With the continuous development of the retail industry, in the dense shelf environments of large supermarkets and convenience stores, traditional paper price tags can no longer meet the needs of convenient management and display. They also cause a series of problems, such as low shelf space utilization, unclear display of product information, labor-intensive management, and waste of paper resources.
To avoid the cumbersome operation of paper price tags, some retailers opt for e-tags, which are time-saving, labor-saving, convenient, and flexible. In retail scenarios, shelf space is extremely valuable. Traditional multi-tag deployment requires reserved independent installation space for each tag. However, due to the dense arrangement of products, if dense shelves adopt the common small-size tag solution used in supermarkets, the cumulative occupied area becomes large; if a separate tag is configured for each product, the hardware cost of deploying tags increases significantly given the large variety of products on shelves.
To address this, Minew’s R&D team conducted on-site research at multiple large chain supermarkets, combined the layout of supermarket goods and actual needs, and finally took "integration" as the breakthrough point. Using the 2.13-inch e-ink screen, the most widely used size in supermarkets, they proposed a five-screen integration solution — integrating five 2.13-inch e-ink screens into the same housing. After repeated calculations, compared with traditional single-screen deployment, this design reduces space occupation by about 15%, freeing up more effective space for product display.
Meanwhile, survey results show that 90% of stores require tags to support the independent editing capability of "one screen, one piece of information." Based on this, the five-screen e-price tag is equipped with a "single-screen independent control" function. Each screen can independently display and edit product names, prices, origins, specifications, and other information, supporting black-white-red three-color or black-white-red-yellow four-color display to meet the visual display needs of different products.
In terms of cost control, the traditional multi-tag model incurs expenses for multiple sets of hardware and manual replacement, from hardware procurement to later maintenance. The integrated design significantly reduces hardware costs by sharing the housing and circuit modules.
Thus, based on a deep insight into the pain points of dense shelves and user needs, Minew launched the five-screen e-price tag product.
This product innovatively integrates five 2.13-inch e-ink screens into a single housing, which not only greatly saves space for deployment but also significantly reduces hardware costs. At the same time, the display content of each screen can be independently edited and displayed to meet the information display needs of different products.
### Innovative "Five-Screen" E-Price Tag: Enabling Intelligent Space Utilization for Dense Shelves
Dense shelves typically refer to the display form in retail stores, especially large supermarkets and convenience stores, where products are densely arranged with limited space. Such shelves are generally used to display a large number of similar or same-category products, such as bottled drinks and cigarettes.
Targeting these pain points, the five-screen e-price tag provides a convenient, flexible, and low-cost solution. Its innovative design, integrating five e-ink screens, makes full use of shelf space while meeting the demand for intensive information display.
Each screen can display different product information and supports custom layout of text, images, color blocks, and other elements, enhancing the flexibility for merchants. Additionally, the five-screen e-price tag supports black-white-red three-color or black-white-red-yellow four-color display, allowing merchants to design richer and more personalized content to attract customers’ attention to products.
### "Real-Time Synchronization" and "Second-Level Refresh" Efficiency: Making Shelf Information Updates Easy and Fast
Rapid price changes are a common demand for retailers. The five-screen e-price tag optimizes the price adjustment process of retail stores and improves product management efficiency through real-time refresh of display content.
Merchants can easily add, delete, and modify product data through the cloud platform, and the tags will synchronize and update in real time. Each screen, with a size of 2.13 inches, has a relatively small display area, enabling faster refresh speed and ensuring that product and promotion information is presented to customers timely and accurately.
### Cost Reduction through Integration: 1＞5 for Higher Cost-Effectiveness
For retailers, the five-screen e-price tag has significant advantages in saving hardware costs. Firstly, the cost per screen of the five-screen e-price tag is lower than that of a single 2.13-inch e-price tag, making the overall hardware investment more cost-effective.
*Comparison of length: 5 individual 2.13-inch e-price tags (top) vs. five-screen e-price tag (bottom)*
Moreover, on the same shelf, the five-screen e-price tag saves more space compared to deploying multiple individual tags. This means more product information can be displayed, facilitating the expansion of product varieties, and reducing the processes of equipment installation and maintenance.
Therefore, the five-screen e-price tag not only reduces hardware procurement costs but also makes deployment and subsequent maintenance more economical and convenient. It is also equipped with a high-capacity battery, which can last up to 10 years with 3 refreshes per day and supports battery replacement. This design not only ensures long-term stable operation of the device but also significantly reduces maintenance costs, helping merchants save operating expenses.
### Multi-Terminal Control via PC, Mobile Phone, and PDA: More Convenient Management Across Scenarios
The five-screen e-price tag supports operation on multiple terminal devices such as computers, mobile apps, and PDAs, enhancing the convenience of tag management. Merchants can quickly refresh a single device using a mobile phone and perform batch refreshes on a computer. This flexible cross-terminal control allows merchants to optimize store operation processes according to different scenario needs.
### 7-Color LED Lights On Demand: From "People Looking for Products" to "Products Attracting People"
The five-screen e-price tag is equipped with 7-color LED lights, and merchants can adjust the light color and brightness according to different needs. For example, during promotional activities, merchants can set bright lights to highlight discounted products and attract customers’ attention; when inventory is low, flashing lights can remind staff to restock.
This innovative design improves the visibility of shelves and the exposure of products, transforming the traditional "people looking for products" model in retail scenarios into "products attracting people."
The five-screen e-price tag represents a technological innovation in the retail industry, providing an ideal solution for dense shelf display and demonstrating significant advantages in enhancing product attractiveness and optimizing shopping experience.
The design of Minew’s five-screen e-price tag not only solves the actual pain points in retail scenarios but also promotes the upgrading of retail digital infrastructure with the design concepts of "integration, intelligence, and low carbon." From single-screen to multi-screen integration, it is an innovation in hardware form; from manual replacement to remote control, it is a transformation in interaction modes; from paper consumption to electronic display, it is the implementation of green concepts. The design process of this product interprets the innovation logic of "demand-oriented, technology-supported, and experience-centered," providing a reference model for the design and development of retail technology products and contributing to the continuous evolution of retail innovation scenarios under the vision of "Better Life, Created in Shenzhen."
