Macy's will use RFID technology in all its products

Speaking at the conference and exhibition RFID and apparel retailers held in New York, Bill Connell, the vice president of logistics and operations, revealed that his company plans to have the 100% your articles labeled end of 2017. To achieve this goal, the retailer asks all its suppliers to deliver products with high passive RFID tags ultra frequency (UHF) based on the EPC Gen standard 2.

"We still have much work to do to make our suppliers agree to apply the tags during manufacture", says Cornnell. "But we are ready and will continue to expand the use of RFID technology. We move to additional use cases that are possible thanks to RFID technology ".

At 2015, Macy's announced that it was expanding the implementation of RFID technology in all business lines in its stores, except jewelry and cosmetics. These two categories were not a focus as it was a challenge to find tags that worked effectively and not have a negative impact on the presentation of articles. "Now we work with GS1 and others to find solutions for these categories", afirma Connell, "Both the technology and presentation techniques to incorporate these categories". Nevertheless, points, there is a possibility that Macy's can not solve these problems for late goal 2017.

By the end of this year or early 2017, Connell said, over 60% of all products in Macy's stores will be labeled and will make a monthly count with RFID mobile readers. Macy's published the labeling requirement in the vendor standards manual,es. Now, the retailer is working with suppliers so they can label during manufacture.

There is a greater "understanding and acceptance of the benefits" among suppliers, Connell explained.

According to Connell, Macy's has been continuously expanding to other categories, and it discovered that the technology adds value in all its stores. "We're finding that in household products has greater applicability", says.

More effectively replace the use case was made that Macy would be more involved with RFID technology, Connell explained, but the company also discovered other benefits. "One discovers this ability to expand and do other things to make a big impact on sales and profitability", he claimed. "Y, I assure you, we monitor our performance in these categories steadily. We are very pleased with the results, both operationally and from a financial perspective ".