Marks & Spencer has extended its item-level radio
frequency identification trial to cover its autumn/winter clothing
range. The move will increase the total number of items tagged by
the retailer from 25 million to 49 million.
As part of the trial, the retailer's suppliers in 20 countries
tag every item in six clothing categories.
M&S started using RFID because it wanted to improve stock
control and ensure customers could find clothes in the size they
wanted.
Although tagged garments are on the shelves of every M&S
store, the retailer is reading tags at only 42 outlets. Staff in
these stores use Bluetooth retail handheld devices from RFID
systems integrator Intellident to scan garments in a weekly stock
check. Every tagged garment in a store can be read in 90
minutes.
The handheld devices transmit each tag's unique number to an
Intellident Mobile Store Reader base station over the Bluetooth
connection. The base stations then transmit the data to a managed
database, which can be interrogated by M&S's head-office
applications.
The tags, which are produced by supplier Microelectronics, cost
between 10p and 12p each. The cheapest garments that M&S has
tagged are ladies' jeans costing £9.99.
Speaking at last week's IDTechEx RFID Smart Labels conference,
James Stafford, M&S head of clothing RFID, said, "Sales results
are very encouraging."
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