Wal-Mart said its practice of making its distributors put RFID tags on merchandise is paying off--at least for the retailer. Wal-Mart said it had reduced by 16 percent the number of out-of-stock products on store shelves during a 29-week period last year. The process of ordering and receiving RFID-tagged shipments is three times faster than for non-tagged shipments, and RFID has helped to eliminate excess store inventory due to unnecessary replenishment by suppliers, Wal-Mart said.
Wal-Mart stunned its distributors when the company announced it would require its top 100 suppliers to use RFID tags on cases and palettes of consumer goods shipped to its distribution centers and stores by January 2005. Many of the retailer's suppliers say they are trying to justify the cost required to meet Wal-Mart's mandates.
For more about Wal-Mart's RFID success:
- take a look at this article from Internet Retailer