Sally Liang with Hanshow

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

sally, technology, work, talk, retailers, paper, price, industrial, esl, store, pricing, labors, years, put, electronic, world, give, honcho, solution, customers

00:00

Scott. Welcome to the Industrial Talk Podcast with Scott. MacKenzie. Scott is a passionate industry professional dedicated to transferring cutting edge industry focused innovations and trends while highlighting the men and women who keep the world moving. So put on your hard hat, grab your work boots, and let's go all right

00:21

once again. Thank you very much for joining Industrial Talk. Thank you for your continued support of the number one industrial related podcast in the universe that celebrates industry professionals all around the world. You are bold, brave, you dare greatly, you innovate, you collaborate, you solve problems each and every day. That's why we celebrate you because you're making the world a better place. If you can hear some sound in the background, we are broadcasting on site. IoT solutions, World Congress, Barcelona, Spain, is the location, and it is a collection of problem solvers destined to make life better. You gotta, gotta put this on your calendar as a must attend event. All right, Sally's in the hot seat. Hot so hot show is the company. We're going to be talking more about, e paper, Alliance and all of the stuff that's associated with that. Let's get cracking. Hi, Sally, hi.

01:18

Thank you for having me here.

01:19

Thank you for being on the show. I'm excited about hearing this. I'm telling you, it's just opened up my eyes. I didn't know that it's one of those things that nobody knows about, but

01:32

actually, it's around you all the time. That's the point.

01:36

You just take it for granted. And the listeners saying, what do you guys take it for granted. It's e paper. It's just that whole technology associated and and we talk about the E paper Alliance, we're going to get into that. But it takes a lot of people to put it all together, to make it all work, and it makes sense. So anyway, I'm I'm all giddy with the excitement. Before we get into your conversation, give us a little background on who Sally is. So

02:03

my name is Sally Liang. I'm working for Hanshow technology for more than 10 years. I'm now the Vice President and representing Hanshow Europe. There

02:15

she is, she's she's got some street credit. So with that said, take us just give us a little understanding of honcho. That's H A N, S, H, O, W, make a note of that. Listener, Hanshow, give us a little background. So

02:33

we, our major business is basically electronic shelf labeling. So it is a solution that for retailers, instead of having the paper price tag on the shelf, as usually, you see that everywhere, I see it everywhere. And today we have this technology that replace the paper tags. And so it's electronic, with batteries inside and with the E Ink, e paper technology. So it looks like paper tech, but it's actually with, with the router, with the we call it access point, we are able to remote control and updating prices from distance, for example, if you have 1000 stores all over the countries, you actually can manage all the prices changes at the same time from one location.

03:33

See this? That's interesting, because if I was a retailer, such as a big retailer that starts with a W, then that gives me the ability, there's, there's, there's some advantages, some efficiency advantages that that I can take advantage of to where I can modify the pricing, relatively easy to optimize whatever I'm trying to achieve in my my strategy, my pricing strategy,

04:04

exactly because usually in the store operation, changing the prices for especially for the food regulars, is huge job, and it's also consumed a lot of papers. So with today the green, let's say the green, low carbon energy technology that we got, we are able to save a lot of cheap cuttings, and we save a lot of Labors so that this people the stuff in the stores, they can actually spend time on increasing customers buying experiences instead.

04:38

How difficult is it to take sort of that E signage to upgrade and come into a store and say, Okay, I see all the you know, pricing signage, I see it. This is a perfect application. How difficult is it for me to just sort of change that?

04:58

You mean, change of pricing. Is just, just pick

05:01

on paper today I'm going to be E paper tomorrow I see and how do I make that transition?

05:08

Well, it's, it's not that difficult, I must say, because we usually do the deployments during when the when the stores are closed. So for example, some of our customers. They they, they bond the, bind the label with the product, before moving to the store. So everything will be done before actually putting the store. And then everything set up. And then they move. They shut down the store in the evening, and they move everything there and put them in the right place. So binding, it takes a bit time, but if you do it, you don't have to do it in the store, because the hours that opening golden hours. So you don't want take those hours away. No, yeah, therefore so love could be done. And of course, we also need to install access point on the ceilings which give you the signals to the labels. Yes. So that is another separate job to be done.

06:15

What about so now I have, I have my, my E paper signage, I've installed my routers or my access point access points, so I'm able to now communicate. I'm good exactly, what about the software that that manages the pricing? So I've got to, I get it now. I've got to be able to take, Okay, I'm ready to modify. Basically,

06:41

you will have a software that's easy to manage. It's very visible, and it's a dashboard, and you are able to see how the ESL working. There few ESL, maybe it's offline, so you're able to monitor the how the ESL is working online.

07:00

So who provides that solution? It depends.

07:04

We usually with those large retailers. They have very strong IT capabilities. So they, yeah, they make their own dashboard. We provide the API. But some, sometimes we work with our distributors, and they provide also the dashboard to towards the customers. So for those smaller retailers, they are able to have, let's say, ready made solution to

07:39

fascinating when you manufacture these products, you've seen a lot of changes. You've been there for 10 years. Yeah. Have you always been in the E paper business the honcho? Or is this?

07:58

Yeah, it's about like, since I, since I work, work with Henshaw, I've been in this business for, let's say, 10 years, 11 years. So yes, there are huge changes. Originally, actually the ESL again, yes, a short version of electronic shelf labeling. Thank you.

08:18

I was getting ready. So

08:21

ESL was originally like 20 years ago, actually in Europe. So the earliest, let's say usage was applied in France, for example, and in some retailers in Germany. So, but in I think about six, seven years ago, it started to boost. So we see that that pretty much more and more new retailers adapting the technologies. I think it's coming from some pressures from the, let's say the development of E commerce, partly, but also the pandemic is definitely one of the, let's say the reasons to to boost the business so during the pandemic there all the retailers are facing the issue of having not enough labors, and also that the situation requires a lot of price changes, so they're having hard time to manage the job. And besides, if they're having they put the wrong price on the on the tax, if the consumer complains, they actually have to pay fines. Oh, so this is also to avoid, like complaints and also penalties. It

09:54

just makes sense. Yeah, it all makes sense. It does i I can only imagine. Uh, the amount of work that goes into. You know, coming in, I'm coming in, and I'm there's price changes. So I've got all these paper I need to bring

10:13

you need to print them. You gotta print them on the right place, exactly

10:17

correct. So it's a lot of work. It is a lot of work, but now you've just, you've streamlined it. From a price perspective, you see the price going down. Be able to deliver these solutions. Definitely, yes, because that's, that's yeah, that's a driver, yeah, of

10:33

course, because it's once the market is evolved. Then of course, the pricing was relatively lower compared to, let's say, 10 years ago, of course. So it's becoming more more doable for most retailers.

10:49

Is there a life span for these?

10:55

Yeah, in let's put in two dimensions. One, is lifespan for the batteries. Yes. Other hand is the screen itself. So usually today, today we, we managed to to expand the battery life to 10 years. So, but of course, again, it depends on how, how you use it? Yeah, the more you use, of course, the more power you consume. Sure. So, of course, there's another solution. Is to replace the batteries when it when it's like on the fifth year or six year, you can replace it and to extend the lifespan.

11:40

What about the screen? Does the screen begin to degrade over a period of time?

11:43

In theory, in theory, years, there is a time limit, but let's say within 10 years. You wouldn't it's

11:52

just that's just outrageous. I is like, no, nobody remembers that. Yes,

11:59

besides the I'm sure there are, like, new technology, better, yeah, yeah, there's

12:05

gonna like, Hey, we got new signage. And this is, it's, it's all this E paper stuff, and it's even better, stronger, faster, it's multi colored. Is whatever it is, you know, take advantage of that. That makes sense. So where do you see it going? Like, what's a what's the future look like? Well,

12:23

one direction, if you're talking about ESL itself, I think again, the one of the challenges is to to really, to to add more features that actually fit customers needs, because we can do lot more than what are we doing now with the ESL, but of course, having more features means that we need more power. So providing sustainable power for the ESL, it's a new a new challenge for for company like us, but I need to stay confidential, because we are working but we're working on even more greener technology, so make sure it's sustainable.

13:13

Sally, you're absolutely wonderful. How do people get a hold of you? Are you out on LinkedIn? Great. You're on LinkedIn. Uh, yes, yes. So if I want to get a hold of Sally and say, Man, I I'm interested in in finding out more information. LinkedIn, good

13:32

for you. Yeah, sure you can find Hanshow on the LinkedIn as well. Very good. Thank you. You're

13:38

wonderful. All right. All right, listeners, we're gonna wrap it up on the other side. We are broadcasting on site, IoT solutions, World Congress, Barcelona, Spain. Put this on your bucket list to attend. It's a great show. Do not do not miss out next year. Fun stuff. All right, we're gonna wrap it up on the other side. Stay tuned. We will be right back.

13:58

You're listening to the Industrial Talk Podcast Network.

14:07

Her name was Sally. The company is Hanshow, H, A, N, S, H, O, W. The event was IoT Solutions World Congress, as well as Barcelona Cybersecurity Congress. Both events were at the same location. We were talking electronic shelf labeling, which is very cool, just fascinating, technology making the shopping experience even that much more better, much more better. Er, if that's even English, all right, reach out to Sally. She's out on Industrial Talk. Her LinkedIn profile is out there. So reach out, find out more about this electronic shelf labor. All right, you have a podcast, you have technology. You have something that you want to amplify. You need to put it out on Industrial Talk. You need to just go to Industrial Talk. Click on Connect. You talk to me. You. Let's figure this out, because you need to succeed. Industrial Talk is here for you to succeed, to get that message out, be bold, be brave. There greatly. I sing it all the time. Hang out with Sally. Change the world. We're going to have another great conversation shortly. So stay tuned.