The first RFID traceability case in the fashion world goes back to ten years ago: G&P Net (Peuterey & Geospirit brands).
Since that moment, we have gone a long way and the number of fashion&luxury industries that have decided to adopt this technology has increased. It has been the retailers’ exigencies to push such trend, as our RFID Specialist has firstly told us: the frenzied search to satisfy multichannel needs, the will to improve customer experience, the insistence in accurateness regarding stockpiles and inventories.
It all comes from the unique and unambiguous identification of every single garment. What does that mean? It means that, if I apply an RFID tag to two pieces which are identical in size, model and colour, these two garments will become unique and it will be possible to identify them precisely along the whole production line, from manufacture to the point of sale. This distinction cannot be made by means of the barcode and besides, if I need to read many garments at the same time, I might inadvertently read the same item several times or not read it at all. Using RFID, it is not necessary to see the article to identify it. This exemplifying video on functioning and utilization of RFID technology can help to understand its potentialities.
Being able to trace every single garment from production to logistics and from logistics to the stores and check that goods are in the right distribution channel are exigencies that have driven one of the best-known worldwide brands in outdoor and urban fashion to adopt an optimization solution for its productive-logistic process, as well as aiming to use RFID to fight against the grey market.
Before this technology arrived, there was no certainty about the effective correspondence between what was ordered and what was in fact produced by manufacturers or about whether a garment really arrived at the point of sale. Now the brand can precisely and quickly control incoming goods and guarantee that they will be correctly shipped to its own distribution channels.
The solution adopted allows the brand to verify at any given time the respect for the agreements made with partners along the whole production line: fight against the grey market and clothing traceability never go out of fashion.
