For a lot of independent retailers, the idea of switching to electronic shelf edge labels (eSELs) sounds fantastic. There are no more paper tags, no more frantic price changes, and a much slicker customer experience. But then they see the price tag for buying them outright, and the dream fades pretty quickly.
The truth is, owning eSELs comes with a serious capital cost that many small or medium-sized businesses simply can’t justify. But thankfully there’s a smarter way to get all the benefits without the big spend: hire them.
With Velocity’s hire model, you get the same functionality like dynamic pricing, freezer-grade durability, and centralised control, without having to sink tens of thousands of pounds into hardware.
The upfront costs of buying eSELS
Buying eSELs is a pretty big commitment. The tags themselves typically cost £10 or more each and you’ll often need hundreds. Then you’ve got controllers and supporting equipment, which can set you back another £200–£300 per unit. Add in installation, and for even a modest shop, you could be staring at a bill anywhere from £20,000 to £100,000+.
That’s before you even think about the ROI. For many retailers, it can take years to make back that investment and by then, the technology might already be out of date. When you’re running a small but busy operation, tying up that much capital in hardware often just doesn’t make sense. That money could be better spent on stock, staffing, or marketing as they’re things that directly grow your business right now.
Should you hire eSELS instead?
Hiring turns the whole equation on its head. Instead of a huge upfront bill, you pay a predictable monthly fee for the exact number of tags you need.
Velocity’s hire packages start from just £250 a month for 250 tags on a 12-month minimum contract. The bundle includes:
- Equipment rental
- Break/fix replacement guarantee
- Full system replacement at year five so you’re always on the latest tech
- No depreciation or obsolescence risk hanging over your head
The best part is you can scale up whenever you need to. Start small, and grow your system as your business grows.
Financial benefits of hiring eSELS over buying
The savings of hiring at actually much larger than you may expect too! A typical 250-tag setup can deliver direct monthly savings of around £450. That’s from cutting out paper and printing supplies, slashing the hours staff spend manually updating prices, and avoiding costly pricing errors.
When you’re only paying £250 a month to hire the system, those savings mean you’re making back almost double your spend right away. And that’s without factoring in the indirect benefits:
- Staff freed up for value-added tasks
- Better compliance with pricing regulations
- Faster reactions to supplier price changes or promotions
The result is an almost immediate ROI, without having to wait years to see your investment pay off.
Control, flexibility, and built-in support
When you buy outright, once the kit’s installed, the ongoing support is often minimal or charged as an extra. With hiring, it’s built in.
Velocity gives you direct access to the developers who work on the system, with SLA-backed response times and ongoing updates included in your monthly fee. You get a partnership rather than a box of tech you’ve got to figure out for yourself.
The hardware is also flexible. You can mix freezer-grade, shelf-edge, and counter display tags without buying different sets of kit. And if you need to change your setup later, it’s no problem, instead it’s part of the service.
Why retailers prefer hiring eSELS
Independent retailers who’ve moved to a hire model are seeing real results, really quickly. Take a medium-sized butcher shop that went for the 250-tag hire package. Their £250 monthly fee started paying for itself within weeks:
- £200 saved in printing and label materials in the first month
- £250 saved in staff time spent manually updating prices
By month two, the system had more than covered its cost, and the team was already reinvesting saved hours into merchandising and improving the customer experience.
And because there was no big upfront spend, they didn’t have to worry about whether the tech would still be relevant in five years.
Are you thinking about using eSELS?
Here’s how to approach the decision:
Run the numbers
Work out what you currently spend on paper, printing, and staff hours for manual price changes. Compare it with a monthly hire fee. Many retailers find the hire cost is less than half the savings they generate.
Avoid CapEx pressure
Hiring keeps your capital free for other priorities. There’s no need for bank loans or big chunks of your budget disappearing in one hit.
Focus on ROI, not ownership
When you hire, you don’t have to worry about maintaining or replacing hardware. Your job is to use the system to make your shop more efficient, we’ll handle the rest.
Plan for peak trading periods
The install process takes about a month, so starting in September means you’re ready to go for Christmas, without the stress of a major rollout in December.
Scale at your own pace
Start with what you need now, then add more tags as your business grows. With Velocity, there’s no need to renegotiate contracts or buy more kit from scratch.
If you’ve been putting off eSELs because of the cost, it’s worth running the numbers again, but this time with hiring in the equation. Chances are, you’ll see why so many retailers are talking to us about making the switch.
