RFID Labels – Validators LLC

Jan 16

Possible Reasons Why Walmart and Dick’s Sporting Goods Want Full-Scale RFID Labeling

Since RFID operates on a radio frequency, it does not need to physically “see” the codes it is reading, unlike a barcode scanner. This portion of the application is a major time saver, allowing the operator to scan an entire warehouse or retail center of +100,000 items in seconds. Rather than the need to scan +100,000 items in a warehouse, +100,000 times, one-by-one-by-one with a barcode system. Imagine telling your management team that an entire warehouse inventory check took less than 10 minutes, rather than the grueling days or weeks a physical check with a barcode scanner takes!

Why are Retailers Requiring RFID Labels on Products?

Walmart is currently requiring all suppliers of goods in Home Departments, Electronics-Toys-Seasonal (ETS) Departments, and Hardline Departments to use RFID labels on all inbound products; with compliance mandates starting in 2024. Dick’s Sporting Goods is also requesting suppliers of goods in most departments use RFID labels on all inbound products as of January 1, 2025. Luckily, our team at Packaging Validators has multiple factory-direct RFID label manufacturers here in the USA, to help our clients stay in compliance.

Still, many of our Packaging Validators clients have asked us “why are they doing this?” We aren’t psychic (yet), but here are our thoughts on what the push is all about.

Inventory Accuracy: The well-established equation for inventory is shipped products to stores – cash register sales = retail inventory.

Challenge: This equation does not account for theft, misplaced inventory, or incorrectly scanned merchandise.

Sales: If the product is correctly located to be within the store planogram, it is more likely to be found and sold. Likewise, if the consumer can find the correct size, color, flavor, SKU#, located in the correct area, the consumer is more likely to find and buy. They are also more likely to return to that store for the convenience of proper organization.

Challenge: If the product is in a display, action alley, back stock room, return service counter, or anywhere else in the store outside of the planogram, the retail associates and consumers cannot locate the desired item; more than likely resulting in a lost sale and if happening frequently enough, potentially a frustrated or lost customer.

Ecommerce and Online Competitors: With the rapid growth of Amazon, American consumers appear to crave more and more convenience; and convenience these days means click button, buy item, item shows up within 12-48 hours, all without leaving the comfort of the couch. Amazon is also using automatic price comparisons at other retail stores, reducing the need to look for “the best price.”

Challenge: Amazon doesn’t have consumers wandering through warehouses and moving products around. No consumers picking them up, putting them in a cart, and putting them back in the wrong place or shop lifting them.

Solution: If Walmart and Dick’s can ensure accurate inventories, then they can compete with Amazon by having same-hour / same-day pick-up or delivery if inventory is nearly 100% accurate.

Replenishment Speed: Once a consumer puts a retail product in their cart, another consumer cannot buy it out from under them (with socially acceptable manners).

Challenge: Traditional bar coding doesn’t subtract the item from inventory until it’s purchased at the cash register.

Solution: RFID can be set up to allow for replenishment as soon as the item is depleted from the shelf. If not returned to the correct shelf, RFID can help quickly locate the misplaced item.

Of course, there are other reasons management teams, investors, and executives are looking into RFID as an option for their businesses. The trend is that RFID will continue to rapidly grow. Adoption rates of RFID Label Compliance Mandates are rapidly increasing, and raw material costs continue to decrease. RFID is nothing new, but it is here to stay.

Let us know how our team at Packaging Validators can help your company with RFID label compliance, sourcing factory-direct domestic RFID labels, procuring RFID label application equipment, or procuring RFID label reading equipment and software.

Give us a call at 317-740-0123 or schedule a quick 15-minute meeting with us using the Calendly Link: https://calendly.com/chris-validatorsllc/15min

Conveniently located in the USA – 755 W. Carmel Drive, Suite 216, Carmel, IN 46032

Blog Sources and Additional Information

Jan 08

Quick History of RFID Labels and Barcode Systems and The Growth of RFID

Quick History of RFID Labels and Barcode Systems and The Growth of RFID

These days, there are a lot of discussions around the “novelty” of “magic” RFID technologies. Not to burst any bubbles, but RFID is nothing new. For 23 years, I have sold RFID labels to companies looking for solutions on quickly checking inventory, rather than the inventory standard of barcoding systems. So, if RFID has been around, why are we just now buzzing about RFID?

History on RFID Labels

With roots tracing back to WWII (the Germans used a crude method of RFID to help them see which airplanes were theirs) and origins all the way back to 1935 (physicist Sir Robert Alexander Watson-Watt), Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) has been rapidly adapted as a valuable tracking tool for many industries. Like most technology, the early stages of RFID (1940’s and 1950’s) were mainly utilized for military and aerospace efforts. In the 1960’s, companies started utilizing RFID for merchandise tracking solutions or theft prevention. The 1970’s was the first big explosion of RFID technology. With companies like RCA expanding research efforts and multiple other avenues like rewriteable (Mario W, Cardulla) and passive (Charles Walton) RFID tags, the sky seemed to be the limit. However, RFID didn’t initially takeoff in the mainstream market…

What About Barcodes?

Figure 1: Wrigley’s Chewing Gum at Marsh

Barcodes were initially invented in 1949 (by Norman Woodland and Bernard Silver) as a “Classifying Apparatus Method,” for faster checkout times and fewer pricing errors from manual input. Barcoding was first commercially utilized in the 1960’s with recognized industry standards coming into play in the 1970’s. The Uniform Product Code (UPC for short) was introduced in 1973 and in 1974 was officially adopted and installed in the supermarket Marsh for Wrigley’s Gum (in Troy, Ohio). This is the universally familiar series of bars and spaces we know today.

However, there are limitations to barcode systems. To name a few: barcodes require the barcode reader (or scanner) to physically “see” the code it is scanning, there is still human error in scanning the wrong barcode, and the extraordinarily time consuming and repetitive process of scanning individual barcodes one-by-one-by-one.

Why did Barcodes Takeoff and RFID Stay Stagnant?

If barcodes and RFID were both born and bred around the same time, why did barcodes leave RFID in the dust? I can’t go back in time and give an exact play-by-play, but I can tell you the most

Figure 2: Sir Robert Alexander Watson-Watt with the first RFID reader.

likely reasons based on my 35+ years of label and packaging experience. One of the largest drawbacks for RFID were the hardware and software limitations prior to the 2000’s. Since RFID utilizes radio frequencies, there were more issues with High Frequency readings, and with reading frequencies through liquids or metals. As with most new technology, the hardware required to create the RFID labels (chips and antenna) were not in a price range that many companies were willing to invest in. Additionally, the software systems required to maintain the RFID’s data were expensive, massive, and rudimentary.

So, why is RFID just now seeming to takeoff?

A mix of technological, economic, and social changes over the last 5-10 years have made RFID a much more attractive and beneficial option. Massive software advances have made it easier to utilize and maintain RFID readers and systems. Computers went from the size of warehouses to the size of the ones we keep in our pocket every day (cell phones). From an economic standpoint, the raw materials needed to create the RFID chips and antennas are now less expensive and more accessible; more companies are willing and eager to invest. We also had the COVID era that ushered in a “touchless technology” ideology. While this is less pertinent, the touchless tech age is expanding advances in RFID and similar technologies (NFC, BLE, UWB, QR Codes, Etc.), increasing desire and accessibility even further. Another way to look at it are all the analogies between land-line phones (barcodes) and cellular/mobile phones (RFID).

Fast-forward to today, barcodes can be supplemented and/or complemented with an RFID label.