The RFID reaches maturity in fashion retail and apparel.
According to a European study led by University of Parma , RFID systems installations in fashion and apparel companies have passed the initial adoption stage and are currently in the expansion and maturity phase .
The study, entitled "RFID Barometer in Retail", examined approximately 160 companies in the sector using RFID technology between 2001 and 2018. The group studied the use of RFID in six categories: Plant Management, Customer Relationship Management, Marketing and Promotion Management, Logistics, Inventory and Supply Chain, and Brand Protection.
Throughout this study, and according to the study co-author and professor of the Department of Engineering and Architecture at the University of Parma, Antonio Rizzi, the group of researchers has witnessed an evolution of RFID technology since 2001.
In the early years, a small number of concept tests were being conducted to improve supply chain visibility, inventory accuracy and shop floor replenishment. Over time, as early as 2012, they saw the number of pilot projects increase significantly, while the deployment of complete RFID systems was underway and the number of requests increased from the initial 3 to a total of 16. Today, RFID has been used to address 18 usage cases, including returns, «omnicanal» retail and process automation.
Above all other industries, the apparel retail market represents the most compelling use case for RFID technology. Products have a limited sales window, as fashion is seasonal and rapidly changing, and the high number of stock keeping units makes the environment complex and therefore able to take advantage of RFID traceability. Products rarely include metals or liquids, the two materials that pose the most challenges to radio frequency traceability.
Analyzing this sector directly, the researchers found that it is far ahead of other sectors when it comes to the use of RFID. In fact, 75 percent of the UHF RFID tags produced worldwide are sold to this industry.
Given that the market represents around 80 billion garments and accessories sold annually, the number of RFID tags used and their use will be of great importance and value for the study of RFID.
In turn, within the industry, of the case studies, the researchers found that 22 percent consisted of proof-of-concept, 32 percent were in the pilot phase, 27 percent used a phased deployment approach and about 14 percent had completed full deployments.
As for RFID tags, the largest percentage of tags used (59%) were price tags with EPC UHF TAGS embedded. The remaining 41% were equally divided between RFID tags on garment care tags, sewn tags and hard material tags.
Undoubtedly, one of the objectives that have driven such growth is the search by the most innovative companies, the establishment of the famous channel: «Omnichannel», a multichannel approach to sales that seeks to provide customers with a complete shopping experience. Whether shopping online from a mobile device, by phone or directly at the physical store, the customer will always be able to receive a unified and registered treatment by the company at all times, regardless of the channel used by the customer.
The advantages for the users of these systems have been, among others, the reduction of the time of processing of the products, the increase of the precision of the inventories and the reduction of the times of follow-up of the same ones. In terms of reducing inventory time, in fact, 41 companies said they have achieved such benefits, while five indicated that the reduction was 90 percent or more, while others reported a decrease of between 60 and 100 percent. They also indicated sales gains due to improved inventory accuracy, and 19 reported that RFID had been able to generate a reduction in inventory losses.
With this information in hand, Antonio Rizzi warns us and says that retailers who have not yet adopted RFID, run the risk of falling into the category of «laggards» and potentially losing business to their more innovative competitors.
We can assume that the study will continue over the next few years as, according to the co-author: «This is something we will continue to update constantly year after year.
NextPoints will follow the information revealed by this study with great attention.
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