Rewriting Cost-per-Use, Staples Trials Reusable RFID Tags
Written by Evan SchumanTraditional arguments against item-level RFID use is that it only makes economic sense for products costing more than $100. But that assumes one-time use. With a trial with re-usable tags, Staples is throwing out all the old rules.
Staples in Canada started its trial this month at one of its Montreal stores, selectively tagging about 2,000 items representing some 300 SKUs out of the 7,500 SKUs in a typical location, said Joe Soares, director of process engineering for Staples and Business Depot. The tags themselves are higher-end active tags, which would typically cost Staples between $5 and $8 each. For the six-week trial, though, Soares said, "it's not costing us anything" because the costs are being picked up by partners, including Fujitsu and AbsoluteSky.
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3 Comments | Read Rewriting Cost-per-Use, Staples Trials Reusable RFID Tags
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June 8th, 2007 at 4:03 pm
I think that it is not a bad idea but as far as product return fraud. At the RFID item level tagging process, when a customer returns a product it can be identifed to know whether it was actually purchased or not by reading the information written into the tag at the point of sale. When a customer returns the product at the service counter a reader will be able to read the tag to make for it is a good return.
June 11th, 2007 at 2:45 pm
It is not suprising that Staples is trying the Item-level use of RFID. The true benefit of RFID tagging is at the item level, much more so than at the supply chain level.
The reason that most pilots started at the supply chain level is simple. It has been cheaper to enter into such a pilot.
The additional concept of appying re-usable active tags is a further display of creativity that will no doubt result in validating our continuing belief that item-level RFID tagging will succeed and “will deliver the goods.”
The industry needs creative, bold thinkers–IT leaders with balls–to act in order to reap the benefits of what i think is a highly promising technology.
June 12th, 2007 at 6:28 am
The main reason retailers have trouble maintaining accurate inventory with bar codes is the lack of discipline needed to scan the item as it moves through the system. Most retailers have not gone beyond doing price lookup at POS with bar codes at the item level.
The Staples scheme is based on tagging items as they enter the system, entering the data into a new server, and maintaining the flow automatically. Aside from the additional cost, it is hard to believe that retailers can enforce the needed discipline in tagging, and data entry when they are not able to enforce the needed discipline in reading bar codes.