Electronic paper is storming into the trillion-yuan market track
According to the latest data from the "Quarterly Report on Global E-paper Market Analysis" released by RUNTO, the global shipment of e-paper modules reached 580 million units last year. The growth of the market size is still mainly driven by electronic tags, with modules for tags accounting for as high as 95.4% of the total market shipments. The agency forecasts that by 2030, the value of the global major end-use application market for e-paper will reach 20 billion US dollars.
Big Players' Bets: Walmart' s In-Store Signage Replacement Initiative
Amid the paperless transformation, retail giant Walmart has taken a leading role. Starting in 2024, the company rolled out electronic shelf labels (ESLs) on a large scale, with a plan to deploy approximately 450 million units across 2,300 stores nationwide by the end of 2026. As of the end of 2025,350 million units had already been installed, and nearly half of its US stores are in the process of replacing the paper price tags that have been in use for decades.
Walmart's heavy investment strategy centers on efficiency improvement: electronic price tags can synchronize with the back-end in real time, and promotion response is shortened to the minute level, delivering tangible operational efficiency gains. Its exemplary effect is remarkable: it has not only driven the global retail industry to follow suit, but also seen the relevant application extending from daily merchandise supermarkets to sectors such as apparel and home furnishing in Europe, while accelerating penetration in regions including Eastern Europe, Southern Europe and Northern Europe.
Industrial Chain Resonance: TCL CSOT Joins Hands with Dongfang Kemai to Make Strategic Layout in Zhejiang
On March 31,2026, TCL CSOT, DKE and Zhihe Technology signed a tripartite joint venture agreement, marking the settlement of the e-paper complete machine project in Jiashan, Zhejiang.
As a leading domestic player in the semiconductor display sector, TCL CSOT boasts the world’s second-largest LCD production capacity and the top-ranked LTPS production capacity; meanwhile, Dynapaper, a core enterprise in the e-paper module sector, consistently ranks among the global top three in terms of shipment volume. The three parties, leveraging their respective strengths, will focus on the R&D, production and sales of e-paper end products, shore up TCL CSOT’s technical weaknesses, unlock key links in the industrial chain, and drive the large-scale and standardized application of e-paper technologies.
China is currently the global hub for e-paper manufacturing, with over 93% of the world's e-paper modules produced in the country in 2025. As giants like TCL CSOT enter the sector, the industrial chain is upgrading from module manufacturing to complete terminal devices, clearing the way for the technology to penetrate into a wider range of scenarios.
Paperless: A Green Trend of the Era
Compared with traditional LCD and LED displays, electronic paper features extremely low power consumption. It displays content by relying on ambient light, requires no backlight, and produces no blue light that harms eyes, truly delivering the experience of "reading like on paper and writing like on paper".
Walmart's replacement of electronic price tags not only saves labor costs, but also significantly reduces paper consumption and carbon emissions, making it a high-quality low-carbon human-computer interaction interface in the era of the Internet of Things.
As countries around the world accelerate progress toward their dual carbon goals, stringent environmental protection requirements and sustainable procurement standards have become the norm in the retail sector. With escalating demand for supply chain decarbonization and growing consumer preference for eco-friendly options, electronic paper is emerging as a critical link connecting business efficiency with a green future.
Driven by the combination of three major forces — maturing technology, falling costs and policy support, e-paper is starting from that inconspicuous little label on the shelf to redefine the future form of the retail industry. For every participant in this sector, the era of "paperless offline operations" has quietly arrived.
