rfid inventory solutions - an apparel exclusive...

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AN APPAREL EXCLUSIVE REPORT

OCTOBER 2015 • www.apparelmag.com6

When it comes to RFID in the world of retail, every yearbrings its share of exciting developments. This year wasno different. Propelled by the accelerating convergence

of digital and physical stores, plus the hype surrounding theInternet of Things (“IoT”), the retail industry is now believed tobe utilizing around 4 billion RFID tags per year, according toIDTech Ex. And this is just the tip of the iceberg.

One sector with tremendous growth potential is specialtyapparel. The sector’s four largest companies — Inditex, FastRetailing, Gap Inc. and Hennes & Mauritz (H&M) — collectivelysell more than $80 billion per year. The global rollout byInditex’s Zara division, announced in 2014 but initiated evenearlier, might be having an impact:• Fast Company published a profile of Gap Inc. in March 2015

that referenced a range of internal projects. One is a projectof unspecified scale involving RFID-tagged clothing. The cur-rent status of that project is not known.

• GS1 Japan has indicated that Fast Retailing, whose portfolioof brands includes Uniqlo and GU, is currently conducting anRFID trial in its GU chain of stores.

If you also account for the revenue of other specialty appar-el retailers currently using RFID, including the company-ownedstores of prominent apparel brands, you can begin to picture ascenario where more than $100 billion of specialty apparel mer-chandise will be routinely tagged each year.

Other channels are seeing impressive activity too. Targetannounced in May the first stage of its chain-wide rollout. Aeonis trialing RFID in its private-label apparel and footwear depart-ments, according to GS1 Japan. And it is reasonable to speculatewhether the multi-technology Experience Center recently builtfor Walmart in Bentonville, Arkansas signals an impendingresumption of Walmart’s RFID program.

For readers who have not followed RFID closely in recentyears, there are several other important retailers whose entirefleets of stores have been using RFID for quite some time.Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s, Marks & Spencer, JC Penney, Kohl’s,Lord & Taylor, Hudsons Bay, Saks Fifth Avenue and Adler arenotable examples. This list is not exhaustive. Decathlon, a retail-er of athletic wear and sporting goods, is in the midst of a glob-al rollout.

The rise in the number of tagged products in the market-place has led to a renewal of interest in automating the datacapture process, whether it be with mounted readers, robots orsmart shelves. At the same time, the array of handheld RFIDsolutions available to retailers has never been more impressive.Handheld devices have delivered excellent value for years, andtheir price and performance have improved even further in thepast year.

Retailers and suppliers are moving beyond the primary “usecases” of inventory accuracy, on-shelf availability and productlocation visibility. They are increasingly advancing to secondaryuse cases such as zone productivity analysis, smart fitting rooms,intelligent loss prevention, and DC operations.

This year’s report on the use of RFID in the world of apparel,footwear and accessories will review these and other trends. Wewill also discuss the past 12 months’ most significant develop-ments and offer up some forward-looking guidance.

As always, regardless of whether you are a retailer, a mer-chandise vendor or a technology provider, our goal is to posi-tion you to make informed decisions based on your company’sunique objectives and commercial realities. As you read thisreport, bear in mind that there is a considerable amount ofinformation that cannot be shared due to confidentiality obli-gations.

THE YEAR’S BIGGEST DEVELOPMENTS

1TARGET ANNOUNCES CHAINWIDE ROLLOUT: Mass merchantTarget announced a chain-wide rollout in select Soft Line cat-

egories, with all stores to be using RFID in 2016. The first waveof merchandise, all to be at tagged at source, will include homedécor and apparel for women, children and babies. Target madea strategic decision to fast track its RFID program and align itwith the company’s much publicized focus on signature cate-gories. In its announcement, Target cited RFID’s ability to provideshoppers with a truer picture of the availability of product atspecific stores, plus the positive impact that RFID will have onTarget’s ability to fulfill online orders placed for store pickup.

2 AMAZON PUTS ITS WEIGHT BEHIND RFID: Not only hasAmazon become a sponsor of Auburn University’s RFID Lab,

Amazon’s senior vice president of worldwide operations and

RFID continues to proliferate in the world of fashion, with an uptick in use at bothends of the price spectrum. Apparel’s 9th RFID Report identifies the year’s most

pertinent developments and shines the spotlight on industry leaders.

JOHN-PIERRE KAMEL, PRINCIPAL AT RETAIL CONSULTANCY RFID SHERPAS

MARSHALL KAY, PRINCIPAL AT RETAIL CONSULTANCY RFID SHERPAS

AN APPAREL EXCLUSIVE REPORT: BACK TO THE FUTURE: RFID AND THE INTERNET OF THINGS

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customer service has declared: “RFID-taggingtechnology … gives us the opportunity to speedup the receipt of goods into the building. It givesus better tracking of shipments out to customers,and, when connected to our existing softwareand robotics infrastructure, it should help us tofurther speed delivery to customers.”

3 TESCO ROLLS OUT RFID TO ALL APPAREL INUK STORES: Tesco is the world’s second-

largest retailer by revenue. All apparel destinedfor its UK stores is tagged with RFID at source.

4 RAIN ENTERS THE LEXICON: Member compa-nies of the RAIN RFID Alliance, a non-profit

organization which is similar to the non-profitsthat have propelled the growth of Bluetoothand Wi-Fi, have dramatically stepped up theirefforts to promote the term RAIN, with the goalof making it equally well known to shoppers.RAIN has made big strides in its second year ofexistence under the leadership of Steve Halliday,its president, and it is poised to further acceler-ate the proliferation of UHF RFID by augmentingthe important work being done by GS1. Manytechnology companies now speak of RAIN tech-nology, not RFID technology. In part this is abranding initiative, aiming to attach a less tech-nical name to the underlying technology. AsHalliday likes to say: “No one walks into a hoteland asks if the hotel has 802.11b in their lobby.They ask if the hotel has Wi-Fi.”

5 TESCO TESTS ROBOTS IN FIVE STORES: Inaddition to its apparel rollout, Tesco is evalu-

ating whether robots can provide a cost-effectivealternative to Tesco’s current practice of usingemployees equipped with handheld devices toperform RFID cycle counts. Other retailers arealso conducting in-store trials of robots.

6 AUBURN UNIVERSITY OPENS ITS RFID LAB:This lab provides the Auburn team an envi-

ronment to continue their important work. Withimportant “end user” sponsors such as Amazon,Target and Saks Fifth Avenue, among others,there is broad support for the independent test-ing that the team performs, including theTagged Item Certification program.

7 MCS USE BY BRANDS TAKES FLIGHT: Severalbrands have embraced an encoding method

called MCS (short for Multivendor Chip-BasedSerialization). Brands have the responsibility ofensuring unique serialization of each tag. With

multiple encoding points in the value chain,there is a risk of duplication and a need for com-prehensive serialization management. The useof MCS simplifies serialization management.Brands can leverage the serial number on thechip itself to ensure uniqueness and do not haveto worry about EPC allocation ranges to differ-ent manufacturing sites. It is worth noting thatMCS does not eliminate the need for strong seri-alization management capabilities, especially fortraceability.

THE HARDWARE BATTLE: HANDHELD READERS VS. ALTERNATIVES

There is a movement afoot to migrate awayfrom using handhelds to count inventory.Advances in infrastructure-based solutions, aswell as robotics, are making this possible. Noneof this is unexpected. Infrastructure-based solu-tions can also deliver valuable visibility into prod-uct movement and product location. Dependingon the solution employed, it is also possible toget continuous visibility of all product residingwithin a defined section of the store.

Even the most ardent supporters of human-less reading solutions seem to agree, though,that retailers cannot at present lean entirely onhardware to achieve their objectives. Retailerswho rely on mounted reading solutions to tracktheir inventory will still want to perform occa-sional secondary checks with handheld readers,simply to confirm that every single piece ofinventory was successfully detected.

We will now go into more detail about hand-held solutions, infrastructure solutions androbots.

HANDHELD SCANNINGThe use of handheld scanning continues to be

the most common and least expensive way to rollout a retail RFID program. Handhelds work verywell and they help retailers drive significant ROIand business value, provided the retailer paysappropriate attention to the people and processpieces of the puzzle.

On any given day, there will always be a smallpercentage of employees who fail to completetheir counts properly. Failure to “detect and cor-rect” can compromise the quality of your data.RFID applications typically use cycle count


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thresholds to try to ensure that people are counting correctly,but this approach is far from foolproof. So, how should retail-ers address this issue? They should incorporate execution man-agement into their culture:1. Institute a comprehensive training program. Since employ-

ee turnover is notoriously high in the retail industry, this isvery important. Teach people how to cycle count properlyfrom Day 1 and make them understand the significance ofthis task.

2. Generate some friendly competition between your storesand establish a mentoring program to help weak storesimprove. We have seen chain-wide competitions have a bigimpact on the quality of counts, using metrics such as store-level accuracy and in-store out of stocks.

3. Continually monitor the effectiveness of store cycle countingand be sure to report back to head office. Create a compre-hensive execution dashboard. Also, invest time identifyingemployees in need of re-training.

4. Make this about more than cycle counting. The more associ-ates understand how the data will be used, and how it canhelp them in their daily activities, the more likely they are totry to do it right.

PERIPHERAL DEVICESPeripheral RFID Readers are devices that can be attached to

an existing non-RFID mobile device to enhance functionality.Often, but not always, these peripherals take the form of a sled.

They are very significant because they let retailers:• Leverage existing devices to roll out RFID in their stores. This

has the potential to save retailers a lot of money, because theperipheral device costs much less than an entirely new RFIDhandheld;

• Utilize iOS/Android devices and other non-traditional enter-prise wireless devices for RFID deployments.

One major technology player’s decision to finally enter the RFIDperipheral reader segment is big news — and bad news formany smaller vendors who have been making a living in thisunder-serviced segment. That company’s announcement isimportant because retailers can now purchase a peripheral froma heavyweight in the market for enterprise-class mobile devicesthat is known for providing high quality support and mainte-nance on a global basis.

There are many Bluetooth-enabled RFID peripherals in themarketplace today that are viable options for deployment.Preliminary analysis has shown that a few of these peripheralsperform just as well (and in some cases better) than traditionalRFID enabled handhelds. We suggest that retailers see for them-selves by conducting tests in their own environments, with theirown merchandise and their own tags.

Before selecting their preferred device and preferredprovider, retailers should ask themselves the following questions:

üWhat is the read performance of this peripheral?

üWhat is its battery life?

üWhat is its “street price”?

üWill my current mobile devices support this peripheral?

üHas my RFID software integrated support for this peripheral?

They should also conduct a comprehensive requirementsassessment and a thorough cost/benefit analysis before select-ing their peripherals provider.

MOUNTED READERSMany retailers are exploring enhancements and alternatives

to manual cycle counts. One option is using traditional RFIDreaders and antennas to automatically capture the movement ofproduct as it arrives in a store, moves from back-of-house to thesales floor (or vice versa), and as it exits the store. These optionsare not new. In fact, they have been around since the very firstretail RFID solutions were deployed. But their ability to deter-mine directionality and accurately read higher volumes of tagshas improved, and they have also become more affordable.Retailers must compare the cost of implementing these solutionswith the projected reduction in store labor to conduct cyclecounts. There need not be a complete abandonment of manualcycle counts. Some retailers transition away from a daily cyclecount to a weekly, bi-weekly, or even a monthly count. The sav-ings can be large depending on the size of your store and thenumber of times per month you currently cycle count.

The other type of fixed infrastructure approach is to mountoverhead readers and use these readers to rapidly count all ofthe inventory sitting within the read field and also track themovement of items between different zones of the store. Backin 2011, we coined the term “hands-free RFID” to describethese solutions. They are sometimes also referred to as“always-on” solutions.

Great solutions often take time to become mainstream.There have been two primary impediments in recent years tobroader adoption of hands-free RFID solutions. One, theyrequire a larger capital outlay than handhelds and doorwayreaders. Two, making the data actionable is not as simple.Thankfully, the vendors have worked hard to address this latterissue by introducing software suites. The three largest hands-


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free vendors have introduced software designed to make it eas-ier for retailers and software providers to access the location-based information that these systems produce.

Many retailers are now incorporating some form of auto-mated data capture into their solution design. This is excitingnews for IoT enthusiasts.

GOT ROBOTS?“You’ve got to be pretty desperate to ‘make it’ with a

robot!” That’s what Homer Simpson blurts out upon learningthat his sister-in-law is considering becoming pregnant throughartificial methods.

But it is inspiration, not desperation, which has led a grow-ing number of retailers to explore the possibility of using robotsto perform their RFID cycle counts.

Their interest is longstanding. Ten years ago people begantoying with RoombaTM vacuum cleaners and equipping themwith RFID readers. The results were encouraging, but did not suf-ficiently meet retailers’ needs. Over the past decade the notionof deploying robots in stores has gained traction, typically foruses other than performing RFID cycle counts. A good exampleis the robot being trialed by home improvement powerhouseLowe’s in some of its Orchard Supply Hardware stores. Thatrobot is intended to interact with customers and help them nav-igate the store. Invariably, retailers ask if robots can also beleveraged to perform RFID cycle counts. The answer is yes. Onecompany’s tag-reading robot won RFID Journal’s Coolest Demoaward two years in a row, in 2012 and 2013. We know of a hand-ful of companies that have competitive offerings.

The most publicized retail RFID trial involving robots is occur-ring in Britain at Tesco’s stores. Having already initiated a roll-out of RFID tagging across its entire line of apparel (known bythe brand name F&F) to all of its UK stores, Tesco is now also

investigating whether robots can provide a cost-effective alter-native to their current practice of using employees to performRFID cycle counts with handheld devices.

Each robot performs counts several times per week, notonly on the sales floor but also in stockrooms. The robot’smanufacturer states that, depending on several factors,including the height of the robot and the configuration of theRFID readers and antennas it is carrying, its robots can readmerchandise sitting as low as six inches from the ground andas high as 12 feet.

OUR THOUGHTS ON ROBOTS

THE INTERNET OF THINGSBack in 2005, when item-level RFID was in its infancy, the ini-

tial excitement about the Internet of Things had started tofade. And fade it did. In the eight years that followed, interestin IoT remained flat, as evidenced by Figure 1. (next page)Things began to change in 2013, and since then IoT has becomeincredibly trendy and widely written about in the trade press.

For those unfamiliar with the concept, IoT is the term for anincreasingly connected world where people’s lives are made eas-ier by automated communications taking place over the Internetbetween devices and objects. RFID is one of many technologies

Cycle counting with handheld devices is fairly cheap, and if the retailerdevotes proper attention to training its employees and monitoring results,it is usually performed accurately. The cost-justification of this (or any)additional capital investment needs to be very clear.

If a retailer is drawn to robots primarily for non-RFID uses, and the valueof those non-RFID uses is sufficiently large, then it makes sense to alsoinvestigate the feasibility of utilizing the robot to perform RFID cyclecounts.

The robots being presented to retailers today appear to have beendesigned to appeal primarily to mass merchants and “big box” specialtyretailers. They do not appear to have been created with small shops inmind.

For a robot to perform a cycle count effectively it needs to be able to readmerchandise sitting on high shelves and low shelves. This is more chal-lenging, yet not impossible, in situations where the retailer has metalshelves.

Stores that have multiple levels or locked stock rooms will present achallenge in the near term. Work is being done to program robots in away that gives them the ability to operate elevators and open doors.

Depending on a retailer’s needs, robots could be a viable alternative toRFID solutions that rely upon fixed infrastructure mounted at doorways oron ceilings.

We believe that there will be a gradual increase in the use of robots onsales floors in the next three years.

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that can produce these communications. Examples of IoT includethe Fitbit fitness tracker and the Nest thermostat that allows youto change your home’s temperature using your smartphone.Extending the IoT vision to the world of Retail RFID, the holygrail is the notional “intelligent store” that literally counts andtracks its own inventory without any human intervention.

Item-Level RFID matured considerably during IoT’s decade ofhibernation. Standards were ironed out to ensure interoperabil-ity. The performance of the equipment and tags advancedsteadily. The software became much more sophisticated. Andcosts reached their sweet spot. Not surprisingly, as all this wasunfolding, a critical mass of respected retailers emerged whotrialed the technology, tinkered with their operating practicesand moved forward with chain-wide rollouts.

The steady proliferation of RFID was already well underwayprior to the re-emergence of IoT. In our opinion, RFID’s growthin retail in recent years is almost entirely due to the rise ofomnichannel and has very little to do with the renewed hypesurrounding IoT.

SAAS TAKES A STEP FORWARDAs the RFID market continues to mature, the range of soft-

ware options available to retailers continues to expand. The lat-est software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings coming to market willsurely increase the number of small and medium-sized retailersusing RFID in their everyday operations. Until now, the cost ofpurchasing, maintaining and supporting a scalable, robust,enterprise-class RFID software solution has not been trivial. Formany small and medium-size retailers, the capital costs to rollout these types of solutions have been too high, despite therebeing ample ROI. This new breed of SaaS middleware offersbetter functionality and reliability than earlier SaaS offerings.

RFID SaaS models typically follow one of two primary billingmethods — “cost per site” or “pay as you go.” With the latter,the retailer pays per tag read. We think the “cost per site”model will ultimately become the more prevalent model,because it offers greater simplicity. The per site price can range

FIGURE 1: GOOGLE SEARCHES FOR “INTERNET OF THINGS” [2006-2015]

ADVANTAGES OF GOING WITH A SAAS MODEL?

• CAPEX-to-OPEX Cost Savings: Leveraging a SaaS allows organizationsto move from the capital-heavy expense of installing, maintainingand upgrading IT infrastructure to an OPEX-driven service.

• Scalability: With a SaaS you can start small and simply add morehorsepower to your solution when you need it, on demand.

• BI and Reporting Capabilities: For many small and medium-sizedbusinesses, BI usually means unwieldy spreadsheets or MicrosoftAccess databases. When leveraging a SaaS model, retailers canusually get access to much more comprehensive BI and reportingcapabilities without needing to be BI experts themselves.

• Ability to Upgrade: You never need to worry about hardware orsoftware updates for your RFID solution. In a SaaS model this is partof the package. Management of upgrades can sometimes burden asmall IT department.

• Backups and Disaster Recovery: Your data is now in the cloud,managed by the SaaS provider. Backups and disaster recovery areincluded as part of the service.

DISADVANTAGES OF GOING WITH A SAAS MODEL?

• One Size Fits All: When using a SaaS you generally need to go with thecommercially off-the-shelf product in order to keep it cost effective. If youhave unique use cases and require customization, SaaS may not be for you.

• Security: While item-level RFID solutions do not share any highly sensitivecustomer or transaction information, there is always a security risk withusing cloud-based solutions. This must be addressed thoughtfully, especiallyif any sales information is being shared.

• Performance: WAN latency almost always exceeds LAN latency. There isalways a performance hit when moving a solution off premises and into thecloud. The question you need to ask yourself is if the degradation inperformance will have any real impact on your business.

• Connectivity: While web-based accessibility is a definite plus of the solution,your dependence on connectivity to the cloud for the solution can be an issuein the event of connectivity loss. It should be noted that POS issuesassociated with connectivity loss would trump RFID issues every time.

• Integration: Do you plan on integrating the RFID data with multiple back-endsystems? If so, this can be costly.

Source: Google Trends

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from $100 to more than $500 per month, depending on theamount of software functionality and hardware incorporated inthe solution, and on the length of the contractual commitment.This is not very expensive, compared to the cost of purchasingservers, readers, software licenses, backups, support and main-tenance. SaaS can often be a pretty good deal. As always,though, the devil is in the details. Retailers considering SaaSshould work with independent experts to make a proper finan-cial and technical comparison.

RFID AND NFCRFID technologies continue to make a significant impact on

the world of retail, whether it be the Electronic Product Code(EPC), which is creating the inventory accuracy that underpinssuccessful omnichannel initiatives, or near field communications(NFC). NFC is enabling customer-centric applications such asGoogle Wallet and Apple Pay, and also in-store customer mar-keting and extended packaging applications. Even though UHFRFID and NFC can both be classified as RFID technologies, theirtags and readers are not compatible with each other. As such,there are no synergies to be had in combining the strengths ofeach technology to create a new and immersive customer expe-rience. Nevertheless, there is strong interest in the market fordual-tag inlays that contain RFID and NFC on a single inlay.

This year we got our first indications that a dual-tag solutionwas coming, but pricing remains an open question. NFC tags aretypically much more expensive than UHF RFID tags. Given thelarge volumes that UHF RFID tags are purchased in, even a mod-est increase in price will hinder the uptake of this type of tag.

BEACONS AND RFIDMany of our clients have asked us whether beacons and RFID

can work together. The answer is yes. There are many ways thatbeacons operate, but most beacons today operate using eitherBluetooth Low Energy (BLE) or Wi-Fi. Beacons are used to geo-

locate a smart phone or mobile device within an indoor environ-ment. This is typically used to drive applications like indoor navi-gation, location-based marketing, location-based customer serv-ice, clienteling, personalized assistance, mobile payments and BigData analytics. We have long believed in the value that beaconscan drive from an analytics perspective, bridging the informationgap between the online and brick-and-mortar worlds.

An additional benefit of beacons is that retailers who usehandheld RFID devices to count their inventory can now getbetter visibility into the location where each item was detectedby the handheld device. At the moment a tag is read, the RFIDsystem can link the read of the tag with the location of thehandheld, as indicated by the beacon system. As a result,instead of simply knowing that Garment #1234567 was countedon the sales floor and not the stockroom, the system will indi-cate the zone on the sales floor where the tag was situated. Thiswill help employees retrieve items more easily when servingshoppers or fulfilling orders for in-store pickup or shipment. Itwill also help them find items that have strayed from wherethey are supposed to be merchandised.

Retailers who choose to deploy beacons and hands-free RFIDsystems in conjunction stand to gain significantly more insightsto bridge the visibility gap between online and brick-and-mor-tar, including information such as in-store click-through (alsoknown as “path to purchase”) and much more.

FINAL THOUGHTSRetailers and brands are understandably excited about the

lift in margins and revenue being achieved when single-unitSKUs sitting on store shelves are exposed to online shoppers.This has been a real eye opener for many. Macy’s has led theway with this. Once again it feels like Macy’s plays chess whileits peers play checkers.

It is great that retailers who wish to maintain a high level ofinventory accuracy with reduced reliance on their employeesnow have an expanded range of solutions to consider. After all,

WHO SHOULD CONSIDER A SAAS SOLUTION?

ü Companies with a small or stretched IT department

ü Companies without a robust support or helpdesk capability

ü Companies looking to deploy an “out of the box” RFID solution with little or no customization

ü Companies with limited integration needs and requirements

ü Companies with limited BI or reporting capabilities

www.apparelmag.com • OCTOBER 2015 17

JOHN-PIERRE KAMEL is a Principal at retailconsultancy RFID Sherpas, a consultingpractice devoted to the profitable applicationof wireless and mobility technologies. A recognized leader in the Canadian and U.S.

RFID communities, he brings 15 years of enterprise strategyand solutions integration experience. Prior to joining the firmJohn-Pierre led the RFID practices of VeriSign and BellCanada, where he was responsible for all RFID sales,marketing and delivery activities. Earlier in his career, John-Pierre was the Canadian Lead for the Mobility SolutionsPractice of Capgemini (formerly Cap Gemini Ernst andYoung), where he led projects in mobile strategy andbusiness development for many of North America’s largestorganizations.

MARSHALL KAY is a Principal at retailconsultancy RFID Sherpas. Serving aninternational client base, the companyprovides a range of services to retailers andsuppliers, including strategy consulting,

business case analysis, planning, solution architecture,vendor selection and project management. Marshall alsoadvises technology vendors, investors and industryassociations. Prior to launching this practice in 2007, hedirected the North American RFID program of retailconsulting firm Kurt Salmon. During the course of his careerMarshall has advised the presidents of several leadingapparel companies.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Copyright© 2015 by Edgell Communications Inc. All rights reserved.

the value that RFID tags deliver increases even further when tagsare used for more than just cycle counts. The ability to have con-tinuous visibility into product movement is exciting too. Theemerging retail analytics community is going to be in heaven.There is a lot of grist for their mill. Even the data produced byhandheld readers can yield meaningful insights.

On the software side, the range of credible choices hasexpanded. Small and medium-sized retailers that have not yetstarted their RFID journey no longer have excuses, now that theSaaS offerings have evolved further.

The breadth of tag, software and hardware alternatives onthe market today is at an all-time high. So too is the interest in

interactive retail applications such as smart screens and smartmirrors. More than ever it makes sense to work with independ-ent experts who can quickly present your full range of options,rather than rely on people who only expose you to the offeringsthey sell.

“Predictions are hard to make, especially about the future.”This quote is widely attributed to Nobel physicist Niels Bohr,despite sounding like something Yogi Berra would have said.The fact that we no longer feel any need to make predictions inthis report speaks volumes about how firmly entrenched RFIDhas become in large segments of the apparel and footwearindustries. n

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