IDTechEx released a new report, entitlled Apparel RFID 2013-2023, that finds that RFID tagging of apparel is now the largest and fastest growing application of RFID in retailing, the retail supply chain and associated industries. What’s more, the systems and tag business in the apparel RFID space is expected to grow at double the rate of the overall RFID market through the next ten years, according to the report.

Sure, that’s just one study. However, over the past couple of months, several strategic partnerships formed between Jamison RFID and Truecount; Port Logistics Group and Tagsys RFID; BizSlate and R.E.R. International, support the claim that RFID technology is starting to gain real momentum within the industry.

One of the biggest drivers of RFID technology in retail is the need for better inventory accuracy—a problem that IHL Group has estimated costs retailers $800 Billion worldwide. In an effort to help our customers tackle this global problem, reduce shrink, and increase shoppers’ loyalty, we recently teamed with RFKeeper. RFKeeper offers solutions that are completely scalable—from a single store deployment to tracking inventory across the entire supply chain. Most importantly, these solutions can be achieved with minimal integration effort to existing systems, which we know is a big concern for many our customers.

It’s a fact that most retailers today are at least using some mix of mobile technology/solutions in their stores. From our perspective, specifically, we’ve been busy helping many of our customers develop a comprehensive mobile solution to keep them on par with their competitors.

Sure, the tremendous growth of mobile technology in retail over the last few years has left many throughout the industry—including myself—wondering how long it will be before mobile completely transforms retail as we know it. But is the traditional POS really dead?

Well, not quite, according to the latest results from IHL Group’s POS Vendor Shipments Database. As a matter of fact, the research concluded that the overall penetration of POS devices continued to expand in 3.9% in North America and 4.6% worldwide in 2012. What’s more, growth is expected to continue at 3.6% worldwide for 2013!
 

In last month’s blog posting, I gave a recap of some of the latest retail trends that were showcased at the annual NRF Big Show in New York City. One thing I noted was the significant rise in IT spend—especially mobile spend—that we are seeing throughout the industry. Sure, this means more investments in mobile devices like tablets and handhelds, but it seems that the advent of the BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) culture is creating a noticeable shift in momentum.

According to Boston Retail Partners’ 14th Annual POS Benchmarking Survey, more than 10% of retailers currently allow customers to use their own devices to check themselves out of the store. While 60% of retailers plan to increase spending on mobile POS solutions, 24% are planning to invest in customer-owned mobile devices as POS.

Perhaps most telling, though, is the fact that more than half of the retailers surveyed agree that customer-owned mobile devices may account for up to 50% of the POS technology devices by the end of 2014.