Jul 28, 2008RFID Journal and the American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA) have announced today that new products and services will be exhibited by the leading providers of RFID technology for the retail apparel, footwear and accessories sectors at RFID in Fashion 2008, the third annual event for companies in the retail, apparel, footwear and accessories industries.
The conference will be held Aug. 13-14 at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. Here is a sample of what will RFID in Fashion 2008 will feature:
• Dean Scarborough, president and CEO of Avery Dennison, will detail the services his firm offers to retailers and brand owners starting small-scale RFID implementations. The company will demonstrate how its RFID strategy results in minimum investment and fast return on investment (ROI), and how it provides a competitive advantage for customers.
• Checkpoint Systems, the event's platinum sponsor, will preview a dual-technology tag and antenna solution, operating at both RFID and electronic article surveillance (EAS) frequencies. And OATSystems, recently acquired by Checkpoint, will demonstrate its item-level solution designed to give retailers real-time insight into their inventory, both on-shelf and in the back room, thereby reducing cycle counts to minutes, instead of hours or days.
• VRF Holding will demonstrate its new item-level Markdown Tag, which uses RFID and electronic paper to enable real-time automated price changes. The company says its system dramatically reduces labor costs associated with markdowns, improves inventory management and loss prevention and helps retailers increase sales by reducing out-of-stocks (OOS). VRF will also showcase a new dressing room application as part of the solution.
• Mojix will demonstrate the Mojix STAR System, which can locate specific tags in 3-D space, and show how it provides complete visibility to tagged items across an entire retail floor, thereby improving efficiency and effectiveness of all business processes in use.
• Seeonic will display its Smartwatch solution, which features inventory management of items displayed in retail fixtures. This solution, used by maternity apparel company Tomorrow's Mother, helps track inventory in real time to reduce stock-outs and overstocks. Al Dittrich, CEO of Retail Associates—which operates Tomorrow's Mother—will present an objective case study on its use of this solution.
• AgileTag will display its ShelfAware product line, a patent-pending system enabling retailers to self-install and evaluate RFID technology with greater ease, reduced risk and lower costs than was previously possible. The system, which can be placed on any standard store shelf, automatically collects nearby tag IDs and wirelessly transmits them to inventory computers. Its low cost (less than $200 per reader in large volume) and ease of installation, AgileTag says, make it possible for any retailer to track individual items.
• Vue Technology will be showcasing its enterprise item-level RFID products and solutions for the apparel and footwear industry, including in-store solutions for retailers and vendor-managed-inventory solutions for manufacturers. Vue's solutions enable source tagging and tracking goods through the supply chain ultimately with reporting at the corporate level.
• Academia RFID will promote the launch of its new industry-specific RFID training course, "RFID Retail." The course covers advanced concepts of RFID technology for retailers and marketers, specific RFID retail applications with a proven ROI, tools to help build the business case and calculate ROI, and best RFID practices for retailers.
• ADT will display its Sensormatic iREAD platform and dual-technology (RFID/EAS) hard tags. The company will explain why easy installation and low cost of ownership make these solutions an affordable option for item-level data gathering, as well as for tracking store fixtures.
"The reason we teamed with RFID Journal to produce an RFID event specific to the retail, apparel, footwear and accessory sectors is that many of the applications are unique and the solutions are different from other sectors," says Mary Howell, the AAFA's VP of industry relations. "So we're very pleased that attendees will be able to see the technology that they could install today and begin benefiting from immediately."
"RFID technology is evolving quickly, and I think attendees will be surprised by the quality of the solutions being exhibited," says Mark Roberti, founder and editor of RFID Journal. "Companies are no longer selling generic tags and readers—they are producing products that solve real business problems in this sector."
