The push for greater supply chain visibility, sustainability, and efficiency has sparked an accelerated adoption of item-level RFID technology across diverse industries. From retail and parcel logistics to food safety and healthcare, organizations are embracing intelligent labels to gain unprecedented control over their operations.
This shift is driven by rising consumer and regulatory demands for transparency and traceability, along with the move toward source tagging, where products are “born digital” at the point of manufacture. To explore these trends, we sat down with Mathieu de Backer, general manager of Avery Dennison Smartrac, a leader at the forefront of this transformation.
De Backer brings a unique perspective to the world of digital identification, with a background that spans both creative and technical domains. A customer-centric approach, which considers the needs of the end consumer, brand, and factory alike, has been a hallmark of his leadership at Avery Dennison.
In our conversation, de Backer details the technological advancements and strategic partnerships shaping the industry’s future, chip innovations enabling smaller footprints and higher sensitivity, as well as the power of the atma.io connected product cloud—now connecting over 30 billion unique items.
RFIDJournal.com: Mathieu, thanks for joining us today. What was your first job in the industry? What is something that you learned in those first years that still drives you today?
Mathieu de Backer: Thanks for having me. Actually, I’ve had two ‘first jobs’, each shaping how I work today. In textiles, I began as a trend and color watcher, tracking emerging styles and translating them into insights for design and production. It taught me the value of detail, timing and how consumer preferences ripple back through the supply chain.
Then in RFID, my first role was developing a low-cost integrated solution. The focus was on aesthetics and handfeel (also known as fabric hand), combined with engineering and scalability to ensure the technology created real impact.
Across both of those early experiences, the common thread was this: the customer is always at the center. But ‘customer’ can mean many things— the end consumer, the brand, the factory, a logistics partner. Each has unique needs, and true innovation comes from balancing those perspectives. If you can make life easier for all stakeholders, you create solutions that last.
RFID Trends
RFIDJournal.com: What are the most significant trends driving demand for RFID inlays and solutions?
de Backer: RFID inlays are experiencing significant growth as industries push for greater visibility, automation and trust across supply chains. From apparel manufacturing and parcel shipping to food safety and healthcare, leaders are recognizing the value of item-level RFID. By embedding RFID at the product level, organizations can speed up operations, reduce uncertainty and gain greater control over the movement of goods, leading to an enhanced consumer experience.
Take food safety— RFID is being used to help companies track products through the supply chain, minimize recalls and reduce waste by ensuring items are stored, shipped, and sold within safe timelines. Alongside these operational benefits, regulatory requirements and rising consumer expectations are placing pressure on companies to deliver greater transparency regarding the origins and safety of food and other products.
Another key driver of demand is the widespread adoption of source tagging, which allows products to be tagged at the point of manufacture. This shift reduces the need for costly and error-prone manual tagging further down the supply chain. Also, as RFID intelligent labels become more cost-effective, their application is extending to items once considered too low in value to track.
Chip development is advancing rapidly too, with a focus on smaller footprints, higher sensitivity, and greater sustainability through reduced silicon usage and the integration of recyclable antennas.
RFIDJournal.com: What industries are showing the most interest in RFID solutions, and why?
de Backer: Retailers who use RFID intelligent labels at the product level operate with a much clearer picture of each store’s on-site inventory, allowing for better management of stock flow across the business.
In apparel, retailers are accelerating adoption of source tagging at the point of manufacture, ensuring every item is ‘born digital.’ RFID inlays enable precise inventory management, omnichannel fulfilment, and reduced shrink. Tags can work as a deterrent to shoplifters if linked to store alarm systems. They can also be used to prove the authenticity of branded goods and for evidence that items have been stolen from specific stores or warehouses due to the unique digital identity stored in each tag. Use of RFID inlays can also help ensure consumers have a frictionless self-checkout experience.
The parcel shipping industry is making great strides, too. The surge in e-commerce has created demand for real-time tracking at the item level. RFID inlays offer more reliable scans than barcodes and do not require line of sight, reducing misroutes and lost packages. Postal and logistics providers are exploring high-volume, low-cost UHF inlays that can be embedded at the label stage, creating operational savings across hubs.
In food safety, traceability and compliance are driving adoption. RFID or BLE tags enable automated cold chain monitoring and recall readiness. Advances in the technology will further allow both consumer transparency and industrial supply chain integration. Across other sectors, such as health and beauty and homewares, RFID inlay miniaturization and enhanced read performance are improving tag usability on challenging materials like curved bottles and metallic trims.
Transparency, Traceability Demands
RFIDJournal.com: How do you see RFID technology evolving to meet future demands for transparency and traceability?
de Backer: Recent enhancements, as well as legislative demands, are positioning RFID tags at the forefront of the drive for better visibility and traceability in supply chains.
Real-time analytics and AI integration will transform RFID from only a tracking tool to a predictive business intelligence platform, enabling proactive decision-making across supply chains. At Avery Dennison, we see firsthand how interest in item-level visibility is expanding beyond traditional retail to pharmaceuticals, automotive and food sectors, with our atma.io platform now connecting over 30 billion unique items globally.
Sustainability compliance requirements are pushing RFID evolution towards supporting circular business models, such as buy-back programs, waste reduction and transparent sourcing verification.
It’s exciting that the business world is aspiring to circular economy integration through RFID-enabled solutions like our recyclable tags with CleanFlake technology. These are the first RFID labels to receive APR Design for Recyclability recognition, and are validated for compatibility with North America’s PET recycling stream.
RFIDJournal.com: How does Avery Dennison stay ahead of evolving client needs in the RFID and labeling space?
de Backer: As emphasized through our commitment to “Making Possible,” client-centricity has never been more important. To stay ahead of client needs, we monitor industry developments and trends and are in constant dialogue with clients regarding their operational and strategic challenges.
We carry out industry surveys and publish research reports— such as our whitepaper Boosting Margins– The Power of Enhanced Fashion Supply Chain Visibility that revealed serious item-level visibility limitations based on a survey of 250 senior fashion retail supply chain leaders in the UK and US.
Avery Dennison benefits from a global reach with startup agility— leveraging our Fortune 500 footprint while maintaining nimbleness to rapidly adapt solutions. A great example is our new IML portfolio launched in July 2025. These intelligent labels are designed to be embedded into plastic items, such as packaging cartons, during the injection molding process. This offers high durability, excellent RFID performance, and support for circularity and reuse systems across multiple sectors.
Finally, we’re committed to a continuous innovation pipeline— celebrating 90 years of Making Possible from Stan Avery’s first self-adhesive label to today’s connected product cloud solutions.
Meeting the Needs of Different Industries
RFIDJournal.com: How do you balance innovation with the practical needs of clients in industries like logistics, retail, and healthcare?
de Backer: Great question. Thanks to our decades of experience across sectors, we’re acutely aware of how important it is to tailor every solution to clients’ unique goals, challenges, and opportunities. To achieve this, we take a scalable solutions approach. For example, our Optica portfolio of supply chain solutions offers everything from basic RFID tracking to comprehensive end-to-end supply chain visibility, allowing clients to start small and expand.
We also offer industry-specific customization. This includes developing targeted solutions like AD Spiral U9 IML for food-safe reusable containers versus AD Anchor U9 IML for industrial logistics applications.
We proactively set up systems to streamline implementation. A great example is our ARC certification compliance, which ensures our RFID solutions meet retailer requirements like Walmart’s mandates, preventing costly distribution disruptions for suppliers.
RFIDJournal.com: How does Avery Dennison define “ecosystem partnerships,” and why are they critical to your innovation strategy? Can you share an example of a successful ecosystem partnership that has driven innovation or sustainability?
de Backer: As an RFID inlay manufacturer and supplier, it’s important for us to engage in cross-industry collaboration, connecting IC (semiconductor chip) suppliers, retailers, brands and other technology providers to create comprehensive RFID solutions that address entire supply chains rather than individual components.
Our technology integration partnerships include Zebra Technologies, Amazon Just Walk Out, and retail point of sales (POS) systems, which create seamless operational experiences. We work closely with leading semiconductor suppliers, like NXP and Impinj, to bring the latest RFID capabilities to our solutions. We also invest in emerging technologies, such as ambient IoT-based supply chain intelligence through our work with Wiliot, demonstrating how our progressive family of intelligent labeling solutions enables us to meet a variety of industry needs.
RFIDJournal.com: What challenges do you face when building and maintaining ecosystem partnerships across industries?
de Backer: Our mindset is to always view challenges as opportunities to improve. This helps keep us focused on addressing complex issues that arise when building and maintaining ecosystem partnerships across industries. One of the primary obstacles we encounter is the varying compliance requirements across retailers, which creates significant complexity for suppliers serving multiple channels. The combination of localized knowledge, industry understanding and extensive capabilities through the partnerships we cultivate are essential to navigating the challenge.
Technology standardization presents another significant hurdle when integrating RFID with legacy systems. This requires careful middleware and backend system coordination across different IT infrastructures, particularly since client and partner data is not always RFID-ready. The integration process demands sophisticated technical expertise to ensure seamless connectivity between new RFID solutions and existing business systems.
Perhaps most critically, there’s an urgent need for industry education to help businesses overcome misconceptions about RFID implementation costs and complexity. This educational gap is particularly striking when considering that our survey of 300 retail leaders found 76% of respondents say they are already using or planning to adopt RFID.
Five Year Forecast
RFIDJournal.com: How do you see client expectations evolving in the next five years, particularly regarding sustainability and digital transformation?
de Backer: Client expectations will evolve significantly over the next five years, particularly in areas that are central to all corporate decision-making: cost savings, coping with market uncertainty, and advancing more sustainable, circular business models. New and emerging use cases will put increasing pressure on suppliers to develop the right tools and technologies to meet these evolving demands.
We anticipate an ever-increasing desire to reduce waste, coupled with mandatory sustainability reporting requirements that will drive demand for comprehensive end-to-end traceability solutions. Clients are also facing mounting consumer transparency demands, making robust tracking capabilities not just advantageous but essential for business operations. This shift toward accountability will fundamentally change how companies approach their supply chain visibility.
The transition to circular economy business models represents another major evolution in client expectations. Rather than focusing solely on traditional loss prevention, clients increasingly expect RFID solutions to enable sophisticated product recovery, reuse, and recycling programs. This expanded scope requires more versatile and intelligent tracking systems that can support the entire product lifecycle.
Real-time operational intelligence will move far beyond basic inventory tracking to encompass predictive analytics capabilities. Clients expect AI-powered insights for demand forecasting and supply chain optimization, as everyone is trying to increase profits by boosting productivity and inventory accuracy. This demand for advanced analytics represents a fundamental shift from reactive to proactive supply chain management.
Seamless omnichannel integration has become a critical expectation, with clients demanding RFID solutions that work flawlessly across physical stores, e-commerce platforms, and mobile applications without operational friction. This presents a massive challenge, so the more we can help streamline implementation, the better positioned our clients will be to meet consumer expectations across all touchpoints.
RFIDJournal.com: You previously served as Vice President of Innovation & Sustainability; how do you balance these two pillars in your decision-making?
de Backer: I soon discovered that these two pillars are interconnected. The circular economy as an innovation catalyst, where sustainability requirements like Digital Product Passport (DPP) compliance don’t just create regulatory hurdles, but actually open up entirely new markets and drive breakthrough solutions. Our IML portfolio for reusable packaging exemplifies this dynamic, where environmental necessity sparked creative engineering that delivered both sustainability benefits and commercial value.
What really drives my decision-making is maintaining a measurable impact focus, prioritizing innovations that deliver quantifiable sustainability benefits rather than pursuing feel-good initiatives that lack concrete results.
This approach has taught me that the most powerful innovations emerge at the intersection of sustainability imperatives and market opportunities. When you can solve an environmental problem while creating genuine business value, you’ve found that sweet spot where both pillars amplify each other’s impact.
Avery Dennison’s Future Focus
RFIDJournal.com: What excites you most about the future of Avery Dennison and its role in shaping sustainable, intelligent solutions?
de Backer: The potential we’re unlocking through connected product ecosystems particularly energizes me. Imagine a world where every physical item possesses a digital identity through platforms like atma.io, enabling unprecedented transparency and opening up entirely new circular economy applications. We’re fundamentally reshaping how we think about the relationship between products and their lifecycle impact.
What makes this even more compelling is how we’re expanding these innovations across sectors. We’re taking RFID applications far beyond their traditional retail roots, pioneering solutions in healthcare, automotive, logistics, and food safety. This cross-sector approach allows us to create comprehensive solutions for complex global challenges that no single industry could tackle alone.
Perhaps most inspiring is how we’re building on our remarkable 90-year legacy of “Making Possible” while simultaneously pioneering the technologies that will define the next era. Our work on recyclable tags and DPP compliance is actively shaping what intelligent, sustainable business will look like in the decades ahead.
For me, the greatest satisfaction comes from being part of a team that’s building bridges between today’s realities and tomorrow’s possibilities, shaping a more sustainable, transparent global economy.