In addition to the many apparel case studies that have been conducted, there is evidence of a huge shift in store fulfillment of ecommerce orders for other products via omnichannel. A few notable examples are:
- Best Buy – 40% of all their orders are picked up in store via BOPIS.
- Dick’s Sporting Goods – Up to 70% of their ecommerce orders are fulfilled with store inventory.
- Zumiez – Closed their only fulfillment center and now fulfill 100% of their ecommerce volume from their 700+ stores.
- Target – Fulfills 96.4% of their ecommerce volume from their stores.
This shift from distribution center to store fulfillment, and the necessity for accurate inventory records, has driven many retailers to adopt RFID technology to manage their inventories.
Maybe the biggest shift happened when Walmart deployed RFID and set tagging mandates for products in several categories, including:
- Apparel
- Home & Bedding
- Electronics
- Sporting Goods
- Toys
- Tires and Car Batteries
- Coming soon
- Lawn & Garden
- Automotive Parts
- Hardware/Paint
- Gaming/Cameras
- Stationary/Crafts
The impact of Walmart’s tagging mandates is now reaching other retailers and brands, paving the way for wider adoption of RFID technology in the industry. For instance:
- More brands/wholesalers are having to tag for billions more items in the supply chain, and this has driven the price of RFID tags to under 4 cents.
- If you are a brand that sells to Walmart or any other retailer with an RFID mandate, fractional tagging makes no sense, and they are tagging their entire inventory.
- Tommy Bahama does not use RFID in their stores today, but they tag their entire apparel line with RFID since they are mandated by Dillard’s, Nordstrom, Macy’s, etc.
- Dick’s Sporting Goods and Hibbett Sports are deploying RFID in their stores since their top sporting goods brands like Nike, Adidas, Puma and Under Armour began tagging their products.
As more retailers rely on store fulfillment for their ecommerce orders, and as Walmart adds new categories of products to their tagging mandates, we can expect wider adoption of RFID technology across the industry.
