Keyword

RFID, Retailing; Case Study

Abstract

Customers are more demanding in terms of responsiveness, level of service, quality of products and costs. Firms only could reach these goals simultaneously if they invest in new technologies. A new technology that has received considerable attention from academics and practitioners, especially among retailers, is the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) because of its large scope of application, advantages and potentialities. This paper aims to present the potentials, requirements, advantages and disadvantages associated with the utilization of RFID both, in general and to the retailers. It intends to highlight the benefits associated with the utilization of the RFID technology in logistics field. That is, it wants to emphasize the importance of this technology to firms perform the logistics activities faster, with more quality, cheaper and with more responsiveness especially in the last echelon of the distribution chain, the retailer. To illustrate this, a case study is presented with a Portuguese fashion retailer about the introduction of the RFID technology and the analysis of the situations that motivate their adoption, as well as the gains reached, difficulties and improvements to the future


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