From Connectivity to Action: Building Sustainable Retail Operations

As retailers look to improve resource efficiency across increasingly complex store operations, greater visibility into products, equipment, and workflows is becoming essential to identifying waste and taking more timely action. 

In a recent Bluetooth SIG sustainability feature, Michelle Liang, CTO of Hanshow and Chair of Bluetooth ESLWG, shared how low-power connectivity can help turn sustainability goals into measurable operational improvements. By connecting products, devices, assets, and workflows across the store, retailers can gain the visibility needed to reduce waste, use resources more efficiently, and improve day-to-day operations 

In the interview below, Michelle Liang explores how Bluetooth technology is supporting this shift, how these capabilities are being applied across real-world retail operations, and where the next opportunities may emerge. 

Please share a bit about your background and your experience developing Bluetooth® enabled technologies that support more sustainable operations. 

I currently serve as CTO of Hanshow Technology and Bluetooth ESLWG Chair. I have spent many years working in IoT and wireless communications, with extensive hands-on experience in the development and application of Bluetooth® technologies. Over the years, I have led the development of multiple high-density, low-power wireless communication solutions designed for the retail industry. 

As an active contributor to industry standards, I led the development of Hanshow’s proprietary HiLPC (High-Density Low-Power Communication) wireless protocol. We have integrated wireless connectivity technologies with electronic shelf labels, smart devices, IoT platforms, and digital store applications to help retailers improve price management, shelf management, device coordination, and overall operational efficiency. 

Based on my experience, the value of Bluetooth technology goes well beyond device connectivity. Its real strength lies in providing an open, low-power, and scalable foundation that enables products, devices, people, and operational workflows across stores to become visible, connected, orchestrated, and continuously optimized. 

Sustainability has become a growing priority across industries. What are the biggest sustainability challenges organizations are trying to solve today? 

I believe the sustainability challenge has moved beyond optimizing isolated processes. Organizations now need to improve resource efficiency across the entire operational lifecycle. 

Retail stores, for example, manage high-frequency activities every day, including price changes, promotional execution, inventory turnover, expiry-date management, lighting and refrigeration. When visibility is limited or action is delayed at any point, the result can be unnecessary paper use, energy consumption, food waste or repetitive manual work. 

Sustainable operations therefore require more than reducing a single type of resource consumption. Stores need stronger real-time visibility, better coordination across systems and greater execution capability. When products, equipment, people and workflows are connected through a shared digital foundation, retailers can allocate resources more effectively, reduce environmental impact and improve business performance at the same time.

As organizations look to operate more efficiently, what role do you see Bluetooth® technology playing in helping them achieve their sustainability goals? 

Physical stores today face increasing demands on connectivity, from supporting large-scale device deployments and adapting to complex in-store environments to handling high volumes of concurrent operations. At the same time, retailers are under constant pressure to improve cost efficiency and enhance customer experience. Wireless connectivity is a core layer of the digital infrastructure needed to meet these demands. 

Bluetooth technology provides a standardized, low-power foundation for identifying and connecting distributed devices, electronic shelf labels, smart terminals and sensors. Hanshow complements this foundation with our proprietary wireless communication technologies, which are designed for the density and complexity of retail environments. 

Together, these capabilities help retailers connect and manage devices at scale and gain more timely insight into asset locations, device status, product information and operational changes. This creates the visibility and coordination needed to run stores more efficiently and sustainably.

What sustainability challenges is Bluetooth technology uniquely positioned to help organizations solve? 

Bluetooth technology is particularly well positioned to addressing three common sustainability challenges: maintaining visibility and control across large numbers of distributed assets; reducing the material and operational waste associated with manual and paper-based processes; and improving visibility into equipment and operational conditions so that unnecessary energy use and maintenance can be reduced. 

Its low-power consumption widely adopted standards, broad ecosystem compatibility and deployment flexibility make Bluetooth an ideal connectivity layer for electronic shelf labels, sensors and other connected devices throughout the store environment. 

In Hanshow's deployments, low-power wireless connectivity including Bluetooth technology and Hanshow’s proprietary communication protocols, works with ESLs, smart devices and IoT platforms to support faster price updates, more accurate product location, more efficient device management and clearer visibility into resource use. These capabilities can help retailers reduce paper consumption and repetitive work while improving day-to-day operational performance. 

What characteristics of Bluetooth technology make it particularly well suited for helping organizations reduce energy use, minimize waste, and extend the life of products, assets, and infrastructure? 

Several core characteristics make Bluetooth an effective enabler of more sustainable operations. 

●   Low power consumption: Bluetooth technology is ideal for large-scale deployments of labels, sensors, and connected devices that need to operate for long periods, helping extend device lifespan and reduce maintenance frequency. 

●   Standardized connectivity: It reduces integration complexity across different devices and systems, lowering deployment duplication and replacement costs. 

●   Device discovery, identification, and positioning capabilities: These allow organizations to gain clearer visibility into the location and status of products, assets, and equipment, reducing unnecessary searching and idle resources. 

●   Broad ecosystem compatibility: Bluetooth can easily integrate with mobile devices, IoT platforms, and business systems, supporting more timely and granular data collection, device management, and predictive maintenance. 

Can you share a customer example that demonstrates how Bluetooth technology helped achieve meaningful sustainability outcomes? What role did Bluetooth play? 

One representative example is Hanshow's collaboration with a leading AI-powered food waste management platform, which helps retailers identify and manage products approaching their expiration dates more efficiently. A persistent operational challenge, however, is the time store associates spend locating those products on the sales floor before they can act. 

To address this challenge, Hanshow's electronic shelf label solution connects product information, shelf locations and store applications within a unified digital environment. This enables associates to quickly identify and locate items that require attention, helping stores respond more efficiently and reduce unnecessary waste. 

During the initial pilot deployments, the integration helped simplify the process of locating near-expiry products, reduced search time, and improved the efficiency of handling expiring management. The example shows that sustainable operations depend not only on back-end systems, but also on extending connectivity to the shelf and product level so that stores can identify issues and act sooner.  

Can you share a customer example that demonstrates how Bluetooth technology helped achieve meaningful sustainability outcomes? What role did Bluetooth play? 

One representative example is Hanshow's collaboration with a leading AI-powered food waste management platform, which helps retailers identify and manage products approaching their expiration dates more efficiently. A persistent operational challenge, however, is the time store associates spend locating those products on the sales floor before they can act. 

To address this challenge, Hanshow's electronic shelf label solution connects product information, shelf locations and store applications within a unified digital environment. This enables associates to quickly identify and locate items that require attention, helping stores respond more efficiently and reduce unnecessary waste. 

During the initial pilot deployments, the integration helped simplify the process of locating near-expiry products, reduced search time, and improved the efficiency of handling expiring management. The example shows that sustainable operations depend not only on back-end systems, but also on extending connectivity to the shelf and product level so that stores can identify issues and act sooner.  

What measurable outcomes have organizations experienced, such as reduced energy consumption, less waste, improved operational efficiency, or extended asset life, by using Bluetooth enabled technologies? 

Based on our work with retailers, Bluetooth-enabled low-power connectivity with electronic shelf labels (ESLs), smart devices and IoT platforms can generate measurable improvements in four key areas. 

First, it can reduce paper consumption. ESLs can replace large volumes of paper price tags and promotional signage, reducing printing, transportation, replacement and disposal. For example, one multinational grocery retailer served by Hanshow has reduced paper consumption by approximately 3.53 million A4-equivalent sheets of paper since deploying wireless ESLs in 2021, corresponding to an estimated reduction of 16.38 tons of CO2 equivalent emissions. With support from Microsoft Azure technology, Hanshow’s SaaS platform can reduce carbon emissions by up to 99.25%, supporting a lower-carbon approach to digital store operations. 

Second, it improves workforce efficiency. By linking product information with shelf locations, store associates can locate products more quickly, carry out price updates more efficiently and manage near-expiry items with less effort. 

Third, it supports more efficient energy and equipment management. Connectivity provides better visibility into the status of lighting, air conditioning, refrigeration and other store equipment, helping reduce unnecessary operation while supporting predictive maintenance. 

Finally, it can help extend the lifecycle of assets. Continuous condition monitoring and more systematic maintenance can reduce unexpected failures and unnecessary replacement.

Looking ahead, where do you see the greatest opportunities for Bluetooth technology to enable more sustainable operations? 

I believe the biggest opportunity for Bluetooth technology in sustainable operations lies in extending low-power connectivity from individual devices to continuous visibility across products, shelves, assets, and operational workflows. 

For retailers, this is not simply about deploying more smart devices. It is about understanding, in a more timely way, where products are, whether equipment is operating efficiently, and whether each operational action is reducing waste or creating it. 

I see three particularly important areas of opportunity. First, the continued evolution of open standards such as Bluetooth ESL will make electronic shelf label and smart device ecosystems more open and scalable. Second, resource visibility enabled through labels and sensor nodes will help organizations further reduce food waste, excess inventory, and repetitive manual work. Third, the integration of connected data with AI and IoT platforms will support more granular energy management, predictive maintenance, and operational automation. 

Hanshow will continue contributing to related standards initiatives while bringing these connectivity capabilities into real-world retail scenarios.

What emerging sustainability trends or connected technologies are you most excited about over the next three to five years? 

The first is the continued advancement of open standards. As standards such as Bluetooth ESL evolve, the ecosystem for electronic shelf labels and smart devices will become more open. This can reduce integration complexity, improve the efficiency of large-scale deployments, and avoid redundant infrastructure investment.  

The second is the evolution of ESLs from simple price displays into IoT nodes within stores. Electronic shelf labels can increasingly connect products, shelves, inventory, employees, and consumer interaction scenarios, creating an important entry point for greater resource visibility and operational efficiency. 

The third is the convergence of connected data with AI and IoT platforms. As products, equipment, and operational activities across stores become continuously connected and monitored, organizations will be able to identify waste earlier, forecast demand more accurately, manage energy consumption more precisely, and achieve sustainable operations at lower cost. 

For Hanshow, the most exciting opportunity is turning these technology trends into operational capabilities that retailers can realistically deploy, measure, and scale sustainably. 

How does Bluetooth technology help organizations make better use of products, assets, and materials throughout their lifecycle? 

Bluetooth technology helps organizations make better use of products, assets, and materials by creating connected, identifiable, and manageable digital entry points for physical resources. 

In retail, low-power connectivity can enable products, labels, shelves, and devices to be identified, located, and managed at critical stages throughout their lifecycle. 

From product placement, promotions, and sales to near-expiry handling, and from equipment installation and operation to maintenance and upgrades, organizations gain more timely access to operational data. 

Through smart touchpoints such as ESLs and IoT platforms, enterprises can reduce paper-based processes and manual searching while improving resource turnover efficiency. At the same time, equipment visibility and predictive maintenance capabilities help organizations maintain assets more proactively, reduce unexpected failures and unnecessary replacements, and extend the lifespan of equipment and infrastructure. 

As a result, organizations can improve resource utilization across multiple operational stages and shift sustainable operations from retrospective reporting to real-time operational optimization.

How does greater visibility enabled by Bluetooth technology help reduce waste, improve resource utilization, or extend the life of products and infrastructure? 

Greater visibility helps organizations move from reacting to problems to managing resources proactively. In retail, waste often occurs not because resources are unavailable, but because stores cannot see quickly enough where products are, what is happening on the shelf, whether equipment is operating efficiently or which task requires immediate attention.  

When low-power connectivity is combined with ESLs, smart devices, AI vision, and IoT platforms, it can create visibility across products, shelves, and equipment. 

At the product level, stores can execute price updates, promotions, and near-expiry product management more efficiently, reducing paper usage and food waste. 

At the shelf level, systems can quickly identify out-of-stock situations, misplaced products, or display irregularities, improving inventory turnover and on-shelf availability. 

At the equipment level, connected management enables organizations to continuously monitor lighting, HVAC systems, refrigeration, and other equipment, supporting predictive maintenance while reducing unnecessary energy consumption and unexpected downtime. 

Can you share an example where Bluetooth technology helped prevent spoilage, unnecessary disposal, equipment failure, excess inventory, or other forms of waste? 

One example involves store equipment management and predictive maintenance. Lighting, HVAC, refrigeration and digital signage operate for long periods in retail stores. Without a unified view of their status and timely maintenance, stores can face unnecessary energy consumption, equipment anomalies, unexpected failures and avoidable repair or replacement.  

Hanshow’s NexOptim digital store operations solution uses smart devices, low-power wireless connectivity, and IoT platforms to digitally manage equipment status, energy consumption, and maintenance needs. Low-power connectivity technologies, including Bluetooth, provide an important foundation by enabling distributed equipment to be continuously connected, identified, and monitored. This helps stores transition from manual inspections to data-driven proactive management. 

The value of this solution lies in transforming equipment failures, energy waste, and maintenance costs from reactive operational problems into continuously optimizable processes. Through equipment visibility and predictive maintenance, retailers can identify abnormal operations earlier, reduce unnecessary energy consumption and unexpected downtime, and extend the lifespan of equipment and infrastructure more systematically. 

Beyond sustainability, what operational or business improvements can organizations achieve through greater visibility and connected intelligence? 

Greater visibility and connected intelligence can deliver direct business benefits. 

First, operational efficiency improves significantly. Stores can complete price updates, promotional execution, replenishment, and picking tasks more quickly while reducing manual inspections and repetitive work. 

Second, inventory performance and on-shelf availability improve. By gaining more timely visibility into product locations and shelf conditions, retailers can reduce losses caused by out-of-stock situations, misplaced products, and excess inventory. 

Third, omnichannel fulfilment capabilities become more efficient. More accurate product location, pricing, and inventory information supports faster online order picking, click-and-collect services, and instant retail fulfilment. 

Fourth, customer experience is enhanced. Connected labels, mobile devices, and smart shopping carts can help consumers access product information more easily, locate products faster, and interact more seamlessly with digital store services. 

Over the longer term, the connectivity of products, shelves, equipment, and operational workflows will become a key foundation for intelligent store operations. Through the integration of ESLs, IoT platforms, and AI capabilities, Hanshow aims to help retailers evolve stores from simply manageable environments into intelligent spaces that are perceptive, collaborative, and continuously optimized.