Supply chain

German retail giant Metro Group has announced a major rollout of item-level RFID in conjunction with suppliers Checkpoint Systems, Impinj and Reva Systems.

Metro has today (20 September) showcased its new RFID-based facilities at its flagship Galeria Kaufhof store in Essen, including 'smart mirrors' that provide customers with information on complementary products, and 'smart shelves' that show what products are on the rack.

The RFID system also controls the reception of inbound goods and real-time inventory management.

Metro has been using RFID in logistics and warehouses since 2003, but, according to ABI Research, this is the first "large-scale application" of ultra high-frequency RFID to track merchandise from distribution to point of sale.

Metro head of research and innovation Christian Plenge said RFID helped "fill the void" between products being received and sold. "We can now see products in those steps of our process chain which so far weren't illuminated by the inventory management system."