Apparel Retailers Get RFID

I asked the group if we could go around the room so that each participant could say what word enters their heads when they hear the term "RFID." I expected to hear responses like "scary" or "futuristic," but instead, I heard such replies as "transformational," "promising" and "inevitable."

It was encouraging and showed me that the technology has perhaps crossed a mental chasm—retailers no longer view RFID as something in the distant future. I did hear concerns about tag cost, integration challenges and competition with other technology projects, and that's understandable. At least two companies, for example, were in the process of upgrading their back-end enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, so taking on RFID now would be impossible for them.

Everyone at the table had a sophisticated understanding of radio frequency identification. I heard two executives talking in great depth about strategies to integrate RFID data with back-end systems. (How to integrate RFID data with business applications is the cover story in the upcoming January/February issue of RFID Journal's print magazine.) There were also discussions about the challenges of tagging at distribution centers until more suppliers tag items at the factory level.

I left the dinner greatly encouraged. At events like this, I often hear knee-jerk skepticism from end users. But none of that was evident that evening. Instead, there was a lot of clear-eyed thinking about the benefits that RFID can deliver, and the tasks ahead to seize them.

Mark Roberti is the founder and editor of RFID Journal. If you would like to comment on this article, click on the link below. To read more of Mark's opinions, visit the RFID Journal Blog, the Editor's Note archive or RFID Connect.