RFID in 2006: A Story of Extremes

Speaking to many consumer goods manufacturers IDTechEx has found considerable foot dragging resulting in pallet/case tag purchases being as little as 250-300 million tags in 2006 at the heavily loss making price of around 10 to 15 cents each. Readers are also being sold at a heavy loss. Some participants have seen benefits. Procter and Gamble found that tagging display cases for Wal-Mart with shared information led to a sales increase 19 percent of Fusion blades caused by more timely arrival at shelf. Hanna Candle Company found 90 pallets worth $12.6 million went missing but were found with the RFID reducing a knock on effect for ordering. However, these benefits are not necessarily paybacks and companies are not saying they are sustainable.