A New Era For RFID in Retail

This content is republished from Accenture.

RFID continues to resonate among retailers.

Radio-frequency identification (RFID) has fast-evolved from a technology used at the fringes of retail, to a global technology that is delivering business results to retailers everywhere. In the eight years that Accenture has studied RFID in retial, we have learned that not only is RFID here to stay - it's growing. 

After a year like no other, retailers are using technology to adapt to disruption and are implementing a wide range of technologies to keep up with the pace of change. RFID is high on the list with just 5% of retailers we surveyed not considering RFID. In fact, the majority of retailers (80%) said the benefits of RFID cannot be replicated by another technology. 

About the research

Accenture's fourth bi-annual Retail RFID Study features survey data from 120 executives from hardlines, softlines and grocery retailers across North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific. The study is supplemented with secondary industry research and qualitative insights from an RFID technology provider.

After nearly a decade of research into RFID, we have seen that softlines retailers lead the way in adoption, but they are also setting the stage for hardlines and grocery retailers who are now exploring the technology. RFID has typically been used for inventory visibility and asset tracking to conduct inventory counts and reduce out-of-stocks, but, in this years findings, we learned that the most adaptive retailers are discovering many new use cases. Although inventory visibility remains the top use case across all three segments, supply chain visibility, omnichannel offerings such as ship-from-store, buy online and pickup in store (BOPIS) and self-checkout are close behind. 

RFID is clearly here to stay, and it's exciting to imagine how retailers will use it next.

Want to learn more about Accenture's RFID studies? Click here to download this resource.