RFID 도입하려고 하는 유니클로

Uniqlo’s Parent Company Bets Big on Tiny RFID Chips - WSJ

Uniqlo’s Parent Company Bets Big on Tiny RFID Chips

음, 다른 회사도 계속 시도하긴 했었는데 이번엔 될까. 잘 모르겠다. 

 

At Uniqlo’s Fifth Avenue store in New York, shoppers can checkout simply by placing their goods in gleaming bins of automated stations. Unlike the self checkout process at many stores, customers of the casual apparel retailer don’t need to scan individual items or look up prices on a screen—they can simply drop their items in a bin and pay.

This next-generation process is powered by radio frequency identification readers inside the checkout machines, which automatically read hidden RFID chips embedded in price tags. It is the strategy of Takahiro Tambara, chief information officer of Japan based Uniqlo’s parent company, Fast Retailing Co., Asia’s top clothing retailer. Mr. Tambara set out on a mission several years ago to transform the way customers shop in its bricks-and-mortar stores, which are still key to the company’s business model even as more commerce moves online.

Mr. Tambara said the self-checkout machines are part of a broader effort to improve Uniqlo’s supply chain with RFID. All Fast Retailing brands, including Theory and Helmut Lang, began embedding RFID chips into their price tags in 2017—allowing the retailer to track individual items from its factories to warehouses and inside stores. That data is critical for Uniqlo in improving the accuracy of inventory in stores, adjusting production based on demand, and getting more visibility into its supply chain, the company said.

“We did not introduce RFID because we want to automate the checkout process; we wanted to develop a platform so that it can be utilized across the supply chain,” Mr. Tambara said.

Newer and cheaper RFID chips, reader hardware, and software are enabling retailers such as Uniqlo to implement the technology at lower cost and with more precision, said Praveen Adhi, a senior partner at McKinsey & Co. who leads the consulting firm’s retail operations practice in the Americas. The cost of RFID tags has fallen from as high as 60 cents a tag a few decades ago to about 4 cents a tag, and reader hardware has improved in range and accuracy, he said.

Uniqlo said that RFID has resulted in “significant reduction in out-of-stock” items on the sales floor, and that it has contributed to “reducing lost opportunities and improving customer satisfaction.” The company declined to provide more specific information regarding the business impact of the technology.