RFID technology is far from new; in fact, it’s already been through not one but multiple hype cycles, including a jumpstart provided by Walmart in 2003 when the retailer mandated RFID tagging by its top 100 U.S. suppliers (and continuing to today). Through it all, the technology’s capabilities — paramount among them the ability to improve store-level inventory accuracy — have proven not just its efficacy but its versatility.
Following are five examples of retail RFID deployments that highlight how the tech can solve various industry pain points.
Pain Point #1: Selling Apparel Items in a Cashierless Store
Amazon has deployed its Just Walk Out (JWO) cashierless technology in a range of sports venues, providing friction-free checkout for customers and faster transactions for retailers. But these systems’ reliance on computer vision technology made it a poor fit for apparel sales.
“At computer vision-based checkout-free stores, products are arranged on shelves or tables so the system can see which items are being taken,” wrote Jon Jenkins, VP for Just Walk Out technology and AWS Applications in a blog post. “This means products like clothing need to be packaged in bags or boxes — but that’s not always the way people shop for soft goods. Customers want to see clothing on hangers, pick them up, feel the fabric, try them on, and may even return the items to other shelves or locations in the store.”
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Working with Avery Dennison, Amazon incorporated RFID into JWO cashierless locations at Lumen Field, home of the Seattle Seahawks, in September 2023, tagging jerseys, hats and other items that customers could carry out (or even wear) without standing in a checkout line.
“Delivering a great fan experience is central to everything we do here at Lumen Field, and our customers love the convenience of Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology,” said Zach Hensley, Seahawks VP of Operations and General Manager of Lumen Field in a statement. “Eight of our concessions locations are already using Just Walk Out technology and seeing great results. Now, we are excited to be the first NFL stadium with an RFID-enabled Just Walk Out technology store so fans can grab their favorite hats, jerseys and more and simply walk out. We are seeing great traction for this new store, and our fans are enjoying the experience.”
Pain Point #2: Tracking Sales Down to the SKU/Size Level
With approximately 95% of Perry Ellis products tagged with RFID at the factory and advanced RFID deployed in its retail stores, the apparel brand relies on the technology to better manage merchandising at its relatively small stores, which range from 1,500 to 3,000 square feet. Inventory must be carefully sorted between the sales floor and the backroom, and each store requires a clear view of inventory to ensure customers aren’t disappointed because in-demand items are out of stock.
Additionally, the use of RFID solutions from Mojix helps Perry Ellis get a more granular understanding of what products are selling in what stores. It’s one thing to know that a certain SKU is a top seller at a certain location, but understanding the exact size and color that is driving those sales can take merchandising to the next level.
“If you look purely at physical inventory, we don’t have big discrepancies — it’s less than 2%,” said Sandeep Baghel, VP of Information Systems at Perry Ellis in an interview with Retail TouchPoints. “But if you look at sizes, that varies a lot. That means we have opportunities lost at the store because we don’t have the right size, and replenishment is driven by what corporate believes is in system. If sizes have been messed up for whatever reason at our stores, we’re not going to be planning properly and not going to be selling properly.”
Pain Point #3: Subpar Fitting Room Experiences
RFID-powered solutions offer customer-facing benefits, like the fitting room technology that Under Armour has deployed. Customers take RFID-tagged apparel items into the fitting room, and the tags activate a touchscreen that allows shoppers to learn more about the item via detailed product images and descriptions, as well as communicating with Under Armour associates to request different colors, sizes and more. It’s a good match for Under Armour, which offers products requiring a more considered purchase journey.
“The more complicated a retailer’s category mix is, the more this technology can help simplify that journey,” said Steve Rowen, Managing Partner at Retail Systems Research in an interview with Retail TouchPoints. “Because the reality is, most consumers are not going to bother to learn about your products as much as you want them to, particularly in fashion, especially if it’s an impulse buy. The simpler you can make it for customers to get a different item, a different size, a different color or a different model at that actual point of decision, the more of a win it will be.”
In addition to enhancing the shopper journey, the solution from Crave Retail gives Under Armour access to rich data sets detailing store-level activity. “Traffic is an opportunity to not just close the sale but to gather insights from our customers in stores,” said Josh Denton, Head of Direct to Consumer for the Americas and Global Retail at Under Armour in an interview with Retail TouchPoints. “Looking at the 50 million-plus visits we get each year, getting insights from that customer in the fitting room is one of the best ways to accomplish that.”
Pain Point #4: Inventory Accuracy that Isn’t Very Accurate
RFID’s biggest claim to fame — its ability to improve inventory accuracy — remains a key virtue of the technology. It’s been demonstrated many times, including at Siman Group, which operates 15 large department stores across Central America. Deployment of an item-level RFID solution from SML raised inventory accuracy levels from the 65% to 70% range up to 95%.
Additionally, Siman can now perform weekly stock counts of more than 250,000 items per store; previously, counts had been limited to twice annually due to the pre-RFID complexity involved. The solution also supports omnichannel offerings such as buy online, pick up in-store (BOPIS) by improving how the retailer tracks inventory across the chain.
“The impact of the item-level RFID technology has been immediate,” said Alejandro Choussy, Regional Logistics Manager at Siman in a statement. “Across our stores we had an inflated view of our inventory levels, often leading to frustrations for customers and staff when products weren’t available.”
Pain Point #5: Omnichannel Offerings Need RFID to be Operationalized
Youth-oriented retailer Pacsun had been upgrading various parts of its tech stack, but the enhancements weren’t complete without RFID. In addition to boosting inventory accuracy and providing insights to support its replenishment decisions, the solution from Nedap supported increased usage of BOPIS as an omnichannel fulfillment option.
“Pacsun shoppers are social media savvy and shop our exclusive merch drops with urgency,” said Shirley Gao, Chief Digital and Information Officer at Pacsun in a statement. “We pay attention to our customers’ desired preferences and listen to them every second of every day — including their expectations of a seamless shopping experience. Partnering with Nedap is helping us unlock competitive advantages as we tap into data-rich fulfillment and operational cheat-codes to get the right product to the right stores for the right customers.”
Pain Point #6: Replenishment Processes that are Too Slow and Manual
Fashion retail group Bestseller rolled out an RFID solution from Nedap to all 380 Vero Moda stores to improve the efficiency of how products are received and to enable real-time replenishment capabilities. Bestseller is aiming to optimize its store operations with a single view of all stock, which will help Vero Moda offer the right products at the right location without requiring high amounts of safety stock.
Additionally, cutting down the number and size of deliveries is expected to improve both profitability and sustainability, and more streamlined stocking practices can help associates focus on the customer experience.
“As a company, we take nothing for granted, especially not customer loyalty,” said Casper Terp Harboe, RFID Project Manager at Bestseller in a statement. “To keep our customers happy, we always need to have the right product available across all our sales channels without overstocking and overproducing. Our stores play a vital part in this ambition.”
