For retailers, it is imperative that customers be satisfied with their experience when shopping at the store. RFID is helping to improve that experience by ensuring greater accuracy for inventory.
 
“The retail industry is moving faster than ever before and consumer demand is increasing,” said Francisco Melo, VP/GM global RFID for Avery Dennison. “For retailers to win in a highly competitive marketplace, they need to ensure they enable great consumer experience. A number of studies have shown that if you meet consumer needs and don’t disappoint them then it has a positive impact on the brands. RFID gives brands and retailers visibility over what they have and where they have it – meaning that they are able to meet consumer expectations. RFID is also improving efficiency, which allows retailers to get to market faster and have more control over their inventory.”
 
“RAIN RFID and RFID items from the Impinj platform are a foundational component for the future of IoT,” said Gaylene Meyer, VP, global marketing & communications for Impinj. “When you can track any item, whether it is an apparel item in a retail store or your suitcase that is being transported by your airline, you are able to gain new information about those items. Multichannel retailers are able to get more information, to move goods to locations that need them most.
 
“With RAIN RFID, store owners have the ability to track their merchandise throughout the store, and they have access to detailed information on which products are selling, which products remain on the shelves, and which products customers are initially interested in, but abandon before purchase,” Meyer reported. “By analyzing which products are, for example, left in the dressing room, brand owners can identify particular styles, colors, cuts or materials that catch customers’ attention initially but don’t convert into sales. And they can adjust designs accordingly. Customers benefit from increased inventory visibility and can find products they want in the store. When a store’s inventory is not tracked, items can be easily misplaced, leading to frustrated customers who can’t buy the item they’re looking for (even though it’s actually in the store). Other customer benefits include the convenience and speed of cashier-less checkout and more.”
 
Carl Rysdon, VP of RFID solutions for Checkpoint Systems, noted that RFID is connecting the physical object to the digital world, enabling retailers to use whatever channel they want to use.
 
“RFID is helping retailers operate more efficiently in many ways,” said Rysdon. “First, the inventory accuracy allows them to spend less time moving stock around, carry less inventory for the same sales and increase margins, and promise product to their customers when they want it where they want it.”
 
Food packaging is one area of interest. Avery Dennison offers intelligent labels such as the ADTP2 EcoCut Solution, a printer that allows retailers to customize the size of their labels. The WaveSafe RFID inlay is microwavable for up to 5 minutes in a microwave and is ideal for grocery store owners.
 
“Innovation in the technology is opening up new opportunities to apply RFID to products that have historically been difficult to tag, including liquids and metals,” Melo said. “At NRF this year we launched our WaveSafe UHF RFID label that can withstand five minutes in a microwave. This addresses previous consumer safety concerns and enables retailers to have confidence tagging all products with RFID. The future segments for RFID adoption will likely be food, beauty and aviation.”
 
Meyer noted that 10 years ago, retailers were just becoming aware of the long-term benefits associated with RAIN RFID, and much has changed since then.
 
“A small number of early adopters started testing RAIN on cases and pallets in their supply chains,” Meyer said. “In addition, adoption began in select food and beverage applications and within the healthcare market. But Impinj had a vision of digital life for everyday items—a world where trillions of individual items from apparel, to golf balls, to pharmaceuticals could be wirelessly connected to the Internet and deliver meaningful information to businesses and consumers.
 
“Today, we are seeing global adoption across diverse markets including retail, supply chain and logistics, healthcare, air transportation, industrial manufacturing, and more,” Meyer added. “Supply chain and logistics companies have gained accurate real-time information about the parts, packages and assets that move through their operation and supply chain and can operate with greater efficiency and accuracy. With RAIN RFID, they are able to optimize operations, increase efficiency, and reduce cost with shipment verification, asset management, and warehouse inventory location tracking.
 
Meyer offered the example of hospitals utilizing RFID to improve patient care.
 
“The healthcare industry has focused on patient quality-of-care with hospitals and healthcare providers facing increasing pressure to obtain real-time data about assets, inventory, staff, and patients,” Meyer said. “With RAIN RFID, they are able to automate asset and inventory management, improve process flow, increase charge capture, and improve the patient experience.”
 
“RFID is providing benefits across the supply chain,” Melo concluded. “For consumers, they benefit from an enhanced experience through product availability, for brands and retailers, Increased visibility of inventory means that product is available for sale, resulting in increased sales and reduction in markdowns.”