Growing sales and the 2014 European Retail Technology Award in the Best Enterprise Solution category resulted from the introduction of RFID technology at Adler Modemärkte. Smartrac is their exclusive supplier of RFID inlays, as well as some unique expertise.
Success – so the saying goes – has many fathers. That is certainly the case with the RFID project that Adler has implemented together with consulting specialist TAILORIT. Over the last two years, some 170 stores in the Adler Modemärkte AG network have received state-of-the-art RFID equipment. The hardware consists of antennas for detecting delivered goods, RFID printers, hand-held readers for data collection on the shop floor and – last, but not least – individualized RFID tags for all items on sale. Adler utilizes Smartrac’s Web-type UHF RFID inlays.
Web inlays are designed for the unique identification of items such as apparel and electronics. They are suitable especially for item-level retail, logistics and supply chain applications. Web products are compact and ideally shaped inlays for apparel hang tags providing high read reliability with low total applied costs. Web inlays with NXP U-Code G2iL IC are approved and certified in the University of Parma’s RFID Lab tests, where the Web inlays have proven their excellent performance.
Smartrac’s RFID inlays form the backbone
Success requires RFID labels that perform perfectly according to pre-defined specifications – for handpicked prototypes as well as mass-produced items. To be on the safe side performance-wise, label supplier Odendahl-Etiketten GmbH exclusively utilizes RFID inlays manufactured by Smartrac. The company’s global manufacturing network represents the industry’s biggest production capacity, totaling 1.7 billion units per year.
According to Torsten Strauch, Head of Business Segment Retail at Smartrac, “One of our key strengths is flexibility and scalability: our inlays are perfectly suitable for both manufacturers and logistics providers. Thus we are able to cover the whole delivery chain.”
“RFID inlays are anything but dumb transponders. Instead they are the basis for successful and award-winning solutions like the one deployed by Adler. During the rollout, which took place in 170 stores to an extremely tight schedule, we were again able to prove that we can reliably deliver huge quantities with top-notch quality.”
Support during the project
Smartrac proved to be a valued partner right from the start of the award-winning project, contributing on a conceptual level as well as providing support in the field. Throughout, SMARTRAC’s Field Engineering Team has supported Adler’s stores and TAILORIT’s experts by providing specific RFID expertise.
