Continuing on with our five-part series in which we review the advantages of RFID within several industries, we examine the advantages RFID is providing the retail industry:

Inventory Shrinkage (Shrink) Reduction

• Track retail items between point of manufacture or purchase from supplier and point of sale.

• Real-time notification of security when RFID tagged items leave area without payment

• Competitive advantage – saving money on theft allows to offer product at lower prices

RFID Smart Labeling

• Monitor unattended inventory

• Automatic item identification on mixed pallets

• "Smart Shelf" systems – designed to provide real time tracking and lovating of tagged items on shelves

• Shipping and Receiving applications

Shelf Stocking

• Real-time notification of out-of –stock items

• Improvement of product replenishment

• Retention of consumers who may turn to competitors if inventory item is out-of-stock

• Automated charting and tracking for improved product forecasting

Check-out Process  

• Reduce time spent in line

• Reduce labor/time cost of employees

• Streamline check-out process with ability to scan multiple items and pay for them all at once

Overhead Reduction

• Track product shipping and receiving from point-to-point automatically versus manual tracking to save time and labor cost

• Know how many units of inventory or on-site via automated RFID system versus manual process, saving labor and time cost

• Efficiency in error reduction reduces manual labor cost