Popularity Of Omni-Channel Retailing And Item-Level Tagging Catalyses The Global Radio Frequency Identification Market

Numerous benefits, including improved inventory management and supply chain visibility, are driving adoption, finds Frost & Sullivan

The proliferation of omni-channel retailing is heavily augmenting the demand for radio frequency identification (RFID) technology. As retailers moving away from the brick-and-mortar concept to e-commerce, RFID assumes great importance especially for efficient inventory management.

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, Analysis of the Global RFID Market in Retail (http://www.frost.com/ma9a), finds that the market earned revenues of $737.8M in 2014 and estimates this to rocket up to $5409.0M in 2020. The study covers middleware, hardware and tags.

“RFID’s ability to increase transparency across the whole supply chain has been one of the key reasons behind its strong adoption among retailers globally,” said Frost & Sullivan Electronics & Security Industry Analyst Ram Ravi. “By using this technology, retailers can track and trace goods as well as identify any bottleneck in the supply chain and address it immediately.”

With the rising prominence of item-level tagging in the retail industry, RFID demand will continue to grow. Mandates from large retailers such as Walmart (www.walmart.com), Gerry Weber (www.gerryweber.com/en) and Metro (www.metrogroup.de/en) to implement item-level tagging in their outlets will particularly boost the tags and hardware segments.

While improvements in RFID technology drives the likelihood of adoption among retailers, the lack of knowledge on these products and fear of compromising customer-related information pose a challenge to market progress. Also, issues pertaining to consumer data privacy and security can slow down the pace of market development.

“As the market for RFID in retail is still nascent, participants need to showcase the benefits of their products to customers through training and tradeshows,” noted Ravi. “Additionally, emphasis on offering a wide range of RFID products and strategic services to gain a competitive edge in the market is important.”

Analysis of the Global RFID Market in Retail is part of the Automatic Identification & Security (http://www.autoid.frost.com) Growth Partnership Service program. Frost & Sullivan’s related studies include: The Global Finger and Palm Vein Biometrics Market, Global 2D-Barcode Scanners Market, Global RFID in Manufacturing Market, and Global RFID Tags Market. All studies included in subscriptions provide detailed market opportunities and industry trends evaluated following extensive interviews with market participants.

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