RFID improves logistics – helping you get what you want when you want it

Today’s consumers are more demanding than ever before. They want products – whether food, clothes or electronics – to be available at all times and in the right colours, sizes, flavours and models. Shoppers expect full service and comprehensive product information, and they want manufacturers to remain accountable for their goods for years after these have been purchased.

With so many challenges, retailers are responding by improving the entire shopping experience by means of RFID. Inside the shop, the technology allows shoppers to benefit immediately from in-store promotions. It is suitable for use with touch screens and makes it easier to exchange faulty products.

In the back office

Behind the scenes at shopping outlets, RFID is making logistics more efficient – for the benefit of both companies and consumers. It helps keep shelves full of the products you want and need by improving logistics and warehousing processes. This also means that the things that are important to you – including the post in your letterbox and the newspaper that is delivered to your doorstep –arrive with fewer delays or errors.

RFID has so much potential in the retail industry that many people forget that it is also ideally suited for other applications, such as the travel, transport and healthcare sectors.

EPC-based RFID is often called the next-generation barcode. During the first 25 years in which the barcode was used in the United States, manufacturers, retailers and consumers saved $17 billion annually, helping drive down prices for consumers. One retailer which tested the technology observed a 16 percent reduction in out-of-stock items. Just imagine what the impact of RFID could be!