A national retailer is transforming the customer shopping experience with RFID technology.
The century-old department store plans to eliminate traditional register stations and create anytime, anywhere checkout over the next two years, according to an article on Retail Info System News’ website.
It’s a new idea and it will be interesting to see how it plays out. RFID is very expensive and retailers typically only use it on their high-ticket items.
Many questions remain unanswered. Is it going to replace scanning? Is this store going to replace all points of sale? How is mobile going to be involved?
There are some interesting advantages that this might have for security. Having an RFID chip in each item means that retailers can track a garment after it’s left the store.
But again, the problem with this is that tracking is expensive. Will it proliferate around the industry? Perhaps. Only time will tell.
Speaking at a recent conference, the company’s CEO admitted that his company is entering uncharted waters.
“We’ll be doing something that no other retailer has done completely,” he said. “Most retailers use RFID for internal operations and inventory management, but we’re going to jump right to the customer.”
The move to RFID implementation, the CEO added, is the next step in the company’s rebranding campaign that launched this year.
Source: Retail Info Systems News, July 2012
