RFID Tags' Four Mainstream Application Scenarios Lead Intelligent Transformation

In the retail industry, from procurement, storage, packaging, loading and unloading, transportation, distribution, sales to service, the entire supply chain is interconnected. Enterprises must have real-time and accurate knowledge of the flow and changes of the entire business flow, logistics, information flow, and capital flow. RFID effectively provides input/output of business operation data, control and tracking of business processes, and reduces error rates for the retail industry. Therefore, RFID technology is highly attractive to the retail industry, which focuses on logistics and inventory management, and retail giants have also shown great enthusiasm for it.

1. Supply Chain Management in Supermarkets Based on RFID

In recent years, the rapid development of RFID technology has brought leapfrog development opportunities to the supply chain management of the retail industry. As international retail giants such as Walmart, Marks & Spencer, Metro, Albertsons, and Target have successively announced the mandatory use of RFID supply chain management technology, competition in finished product supply chains has become crucial to the success of the retail industry in the future.

There are two main reasons for the high application of RFID tags in the clothing industry: First, tags in this scenario are consumables, and once the electronic tags reach the final stage, i.e., the consumers' hands, the mission of the electronic tags is completed; the other reason is due to their increasingly low manufacturing costs. Currently, the average cost of a single electronic tag in this application scenario in China is less than 1 yuan, which is roughly less than 1% of the selling price of a garment.

There are various types of unmanned convenience stores, but they all rely on RFID technology. Each item is tagged with an RFID tag for checkout and payment, and they are also equipped with surveillance systems, remote customer service, and other functions.

According to the current status of warehouse management and the feasibility study of RFID technology in logistics management, embedding advanced RFID data collection methods into the WMS system can manage RFID tag-identified storage locations and pallets. This can not only realize the informatization and modernization of enterprise logistics management but also improve enterprise logistics management level and efficiency, reducing management costs.