Chinese electronic shelf label (ESL) producer Hanshow is working with Microsoft to accelerate smart retail innovation.

Signed at the Microsoft Executive Briefing Center in Redmond, Washington, the agreement aims to deepen collaboration across store digital twins, Microsoft Azure and joint go-to-market initiatives. Building on years of cooperation, Hanshow and Microsoft aim to help retailers connect physical store intelligence with secure, scalable cloud capabilities, enabling more visible, responsive and intelligent store operations while delivering a better customer experience.

The collaboration has evolved from large-scale IoT and SaaS deployment to AI-driven innovation for physical retail. Since joining Microsoft’s AI & IoT Insider Lab in 2019, Hanshow has worked with the tech giant across cloud infrastructure, in-store IoT, data intelligence and retail AI scenarios.

Today, more than 200 million Hanshow ESLs are supported on Azure, while multiple co-sell offerings have been made available through the Microsoft ecosystem. Most recently, Hanshow launched xPilot in collaboration with Microsoft at last month’s NRF 2026 Apac in Singapore. Built on Hanshow’s store digital twin and Azure capabilities, xPilot is a real-time store execution AI assistant designed to help retailers turn store insights into faster decisions, clearer workflows and measurable operational impact.

“This agreement marks a new chapter in Hanshow’s long-standing collaboration with Microsoft,” said Liangyan Li, senior vice president at Hanshow. “For Hanshow, this collaboration is about bringing trusted, scalable and future-ready digital store solutions to more retailers worldwide. By deepening our relationship with Microsoft, we aim to support global retail customers with stronger technology foundations, greater operational agility and long-term business value.”

Sandy Gupta, vice president at Microsoft (www.microsoft.com), added: “Retailers are entering a new era where cloud, AI and partner ecosystems must work together to solve real operational challenges. By combining Microsoft’s cloud and AI capabilities with Hanshow’s deep expertise in store digitalisation, we can help retailers unlock new levels of intelligence, efficiency, experience and innovation across physical retail.”

Building on this agreement, Hanshow and Microsoft say they will continue to strengthen collaboration across cloud-enabled retail innovation, ecosystem development and global customer engagement.

“Retail transformation is becoming increasingly ecosystem-driven,” said Philippe Brochard from Hanshow (www.hanshow.com). “By working with Microsoft and other global partners, Hanshow is helping build an open, practical and scalable innovation ecosystem that brings digital transformation closer to real store operations.”

Launched last month, xPilot uses Microsoft Fabric to unify in-store sensing data with retailer business data, creating a connected data foundation for real-time retail operations. On top of that foundation, AI agents powered by Microsoft Foundry help translate live store signals into faster decisions and more consistent execution across store environments.