Alliance, Seeonic, UPM Raflatac Collaborate on Item-Level Retail Display

In 2006, Alliance acquired partial ownership of Goliath Solutions, which provides Walgreens with its promotional-display tracking system. But the Goliath system is dissimilar from what Alliance hopes to accomplish with Seeonic. "The two approaches are very different—like night and day," says Jim Einstein, Alliance's executive VP and general manager. "Seeonic is all about inventory control on a real-time basis, but Goliath is about helping retailers comply with point-of-sale display programs."

Technology alone can not improve business operations, however. Even with the help of an automated system, retail store employees need to act on the data collected and ensure the physical sales-floor inventory is adequate. This was evident in Procter & Gamble's decision, earlier this year, to halt its promotional-display tagging project, wherein contract manufacturers placed RFID tags on displays sent to RFID-enabled Wal-Mart stores (see Procter & Gamble Halts Tagging of Promotional Displays). While P&G's pilot program showed that RFID had the potential to improve promotional effectiveness, it was not leading to better promotional compliance among Wal-Mart's sales associates, according to one anonymous who had spoken to RFID Journal.

According to Einstein, one retailer—which he could not name—plans to launch a test of the MAXRPM/Seeonic system this summer. The system, he says, could be deployed in a number of ways—the retailer could purchase the reusable frame and RFID components outright, or a third-party merchandizing company could buy them and lease them to the retailer, or the retailer could lease the system direct from Alliance.

Placing an RFID tag on each product placed on a display would not make good business sense for all products, however. Manufactures would have a hard time justifying the added expense of tagging low-cost items, such as soap or snack foods. But one product category in which this item-level approach may be embraced, Einstein says, is entertainment—specifically, movie DVDs. Because they are relatively expensive (compared with many consumer packaged goods), often the target of thieves, and in high demand for just a short amount of time following their release, movie DVDs make a good candidate for item-level tagging and real-time tracking during their initial promotional period. Tesco, in fact, has tested an item-level tagging system with RFID-enabled shelves (see Tesco to Expand Item-Level RFID Trial).

"We have talked to [DVD] replicators about the [MAXRPM/Seeonic] system, and we're talking to some retailers about it now," Einstein states. "There is a prototype of the system at the University of Arkansas' RFID lab right now. I don't know how much traffic that lab gets, but I know that [representatives from] Wal-Mart go there, so we hope to expose them to the system."

A prototype of the MAXRPM/Seeonic system will also be on display at UPM Raflatac's exhibit area (Booth 1804) at RFID Journal LIVE! 2009, being held next week in Orlando, Fla. At the show, Alliance will distribute prototypes of RFID-enabled loyalty cards that retailers could use to offer discounts to shoppers who present their cards to RFID-enabled displays in a retail store. The company will then select attendees carrying the loyalty cards at random, and award them movie DVD as prizes.