RFID Journal announced today that next week’s RFID Journal LIVE! 2014 conference and exhibition will feature an item-level retail and apparel workshop, as well as a conference track focused on retail and apparel.
LIVE! 2014 will be held on Apr. 8-10, 2014, at the Orange County Convention Center, located in Orlando, Fla. The Item-Level Retail and Apparel Workshop will take place on Apr. 8. Retailers worldwide are employing radio frequency identification to track individual items, thereby improving inventory accuracy and enabling them to have products on shelves when customers want to buy them. During this workshop, attendees will hear where the benefits are and how to achieve them—plus, they’ll receive an update on the GS1 US Item Level RFID Initiative, which is helping to develop standard ways of deploying the technology, as well as best practices.
The conference’s opening keynote presentation will be presented by Kim Philips, the head of packaging at Marks & Spencer (M&S), a leading retailer in the United Kingdom, and Richard Jenkins, the company’s RFID program head. M&S expanded its use of RFID technology last year, and plans to have all of its apparel and home goods tagged by this spring (see Marks & Spencer Rolls Out RFID to All Its Stores). The presenters will share why the company expects the technology’s future potential benefits to provide greater visibility and accuracy of all stock at the item level, from when goods leave a supplier to when they move through the distribution chain and into stores, as well as an opportunity to reduce the costs of annual stock-taking. They will also explain how RFID can help to eliminate the loss of margin associated with excessive markdowns, theft and fraud.
In addition, the conference will include presentations from:
• Lifestyle retailer Alex and Ani, which will discuss how deploying Bluetooth beacon technology at its stores has improved engagement with customers (see Alex and Ani Rolls Out Swirl’s Bluetooth Beacons at 40 Stores)
• Macy’s, which will take part in a session explaining where the benefits of item-level RFID are and which applications will deliver them (see RFID a ‘Very Big Part of Macy’s Future’)
• Hudson’s Bay Co. and Saks Fifth Avenue, which will explain how an RFID system deployed in the shoe department of Saks’ flagship store helps increase sales by ensuring customers can see all shoes available for sale, and detail Hudson’s Bay’s plans to roll the technology out to additional stores (see Saks’ RFID Deployment Ensures Thousands of Shoes Are on Display)
What’s more, the conference’s Retail/Apparel conference track will feature sessions presented by Tyco Retail Solutions, Hy-Vee and Accesso Technology Group, among others.
“RFID promises to transform the retail sector, enabling brick-and-mortar companies to compete with online retailers,” says Mark Roberti, RFID Journal‘s founder and editor. “Retailers that want to learn how RFID enables a true omni-channel strategy should attend the Item-Level Retail and Apparel Workshop and listen to these case studies.”
LIVE! 2014 will feature four industry-specific and four how-to conference tracks, as well as eight in-depth preconference seminars and workshops, four post-conference seminars, fast-track training presented by RFID4U, the RFID Journal Awards, the Coolest Demo Contest and a co-located event, IEEE RFID 2014. The conference will also offer exhibits and demonstrations conducted by more than 200 of the industry’s leading technology firms. More information can be found at www.rfidjournalevents.com/live.