A group of like-minded retailers, brands, solution providers and trade associations joined forces on Thursday 22 March 2018 to bring the benefits of RFID technology to the Australian retail sector. Calling themselves the RFID Coalition, the group agreed to share projects, experiences, solutions and case studies with the aim of understanding how the technology can be applied for the greatest benefit.
Initial areas of interest include loss prevention, improved customer experience, inventory control, reduced labour costs and improved point-of-sale checkout. These are benefits currently being enjoyed by many international retailers such as Zara, Uniqlo and Lululemon and the aim of the RFID Coalition is to support local companies adopt the technology here in Australia.
“Some time ago, GS1 worked with tag manufacturers to develop the Gen2 EPC tag. This standardised tag coding and reading across the sector and opened up closed loop supply chains. However, we are yet to see the rapid expansion of take-up that we expected, so we believe this group can pave the way for a greater understanding of the benefits and faster adoption of the technology. The best way to achieve this is through an industry wide approach. With an industry approach, suppliers can be confident they are investing in the right technologies for all their customers,” said Sean Sloan, Manager Business Development and Partnerships for GS1 Australia.
Some of the companies supporting the work of the RFID Coalition include Myer, Country Road Group, Spotlight Retail Group, Puma, Nike, Target, Super Retail Group and more. “We are pleased to be involved from the beginning of the RFID Coalition,” said Gary Stones, National Retail Operations Manager, Myer. “The trials we have already run with this technology have proven to bring great benefits to Myer. We are keen to continue further RFID business benefit testing in other store locations across additional merchandise categories.”
Myer worked with the team at Checkpoint Systems to implement an RFID pilot using GS1 standards at the Melbourne store on Apple products. This case study titled, ‘Myer puts RFID business benefits to the test’ demonstrated the improvement of stock control and inventory accuracy and was officially launched at the RFID Coalition event.
The launch was just the beginning and the RFID Coalition is keen to engage other retailers and brands to ensure that Australian retail as a whole takes advantage of this existing technology and learnings.
For more information and to join the group see https://www.rfidcoalition.org/ or email [email protected].
About RFID Coalition
This group is focused on understanding the benefits and accelerating the use of RFID technology within retail across Australia.