Retailers set to Benefit from RFID Industry Growth

07 Mar 2014
By Lea DeJarlais 

Impinj’s CEO/President William Colleran, Ph.D., recently spoke with SCAN, the Data Capture Report, about the growing RFID industry, Impinj’s xArray™ reader system, and the benefits RFID offers to retailers.

The RFID industry is growing at a healthy rate of 35% year over year, with no signs of slowing. Recent efforts to remove challenges associated with adopting RFID, as well as a renewed focus on R&D, has fueled development of hardware and software that enables users to achieve the full benefits allowed by RFID. The retail industry is well positioned to benefit from this RFID industry growth. Impinj’s new xArray™ reader system, set to ship later this year, is an all-in-one device that will allow retailers to manage their inventory levels, reduce retail shrinkage, and create an omni-channel experience that brings online conveniences to retail locations. With a 40 foot diameter monitoring area and the ability to read thousands of tags very quickly at any orientation, the xArray™ reader system is ideal for retail spaces.

Dr. Colleran outlined the various stages retail RFID adoption will likely occur. First, retailers will use RFID at the item level to monitor inventory and increase sales. This is already happening in some retailers, like American Apparel. Second, RFID will tie brick & mortar sales to online offerings, making retailers with physical locations more competitive with online only retailers like Amazon. The last step in adoption will be showing what items are available in nearby stores at any given time. A customer may shop online to gather product information, but the store’s ability to guarantee an item is in stock nearby will encourage customers to make in-store purchases rather than waiting for items to ship from retailer distribution centers. A study conducted by the global management consulting firm A.T. Kearney found that 40 percent of consumers spend more money than they had planned in stores, while only 25 percent reported online impulse shopping. Thus, driving customers into retail locations plays an important part in increasing sales.