Casual apparel retailer Uniqlo is erasing the gap between inventory management and customer checkouts at the store. The Wall Street Journal reports the company is applying a new generation of radio frequency identification readers in its checkout machines, allowing shoppers to simply drop their goods in bins at automated checkout stations that read the RFID tags, removing the need for scanning by hand.
It’s the strategy of Takahiro Tambara, chief information officer of Japan-based Uniqlo parent Fast Retailing, Asia’s top clothing retailer. Tambara says the self-checkout machines are part of a broader effort to improve Uniqlo’s supply chain that includes a heavy dose of RFID.
Read more: Uniqlo Parent to Audit Working Conditions at Third-Tier Suppliers
The company began embedding the chips in its price tags in 2017 to better track individual items from its factories and warehouses to stores. Newer and cheaper RFID chips, reader hardware, and software are enabling retailers such as Uniqlo to implement the technology with even greater precision.
