Stores Magazine has a great story on how RFID seems to be finally ready for Retail. It has some great examples on how customers are using it and reaping benefits like achieving inventory accuracy of 95% or 17% improvement in inventory accuracy or 14% sales increases etc.

To describe retailers’ return on investment for item-level RFID projects as “impressive” may be the understatement of the year.

The Bloomingdale’s store in Manhattan’s SoHo district is achieving inventory accuracy of 95 percent, a lift in sales and margins and improvements in inventory shrink rates. At Dillard’s, a 17 percent improvement in inventory accuracy has been reported, along with time savings of 96 percent when it comes to performing cycle counts. And, with 100 percent of its merchandise tagged, American Apparel is achieving 99 percent inventory accuracy and a 14 percent sales increase.

RFID Data Integration comes as #3 in the list of Retailers planning for new technologies deployment after #1 demand signal technology and #2 predictive analytics.

Sahir Anand, vice president and principal analyst with the Aberdeen Group, says data his company has compiled reveals that an astounding 70 percent of retailers rate themselves “average” or “below average” when it comes to inventory management processes, citing lack of inventory accuracy, visibility and tracking capabilities as some of the key culprits. When asked about the technologies they would look to deploy in the next 12 months in an effort to enable better inventory management, 20 percent cited RFID data integration — less than the 30 percent who cited demand signal technology and 25 percent who intend to invest in predictive analytics.