if the shoe fits—tag it!

From Manolos to Guccis, a European shoe retailer hopes to stomp out theft and kick-start sales by putting RFID tags on every pair of high-end shoes it sells. RENO, Europe's second-largest shoe retailer, plans to roll out RFID technology at 700 stores in six countries by the end of May. The company is using new digital radio-frequency (NDRF) technology.

"Not only should NDRF goods tagging help us to effectively reduce losses, it should also further improve the shopping experience for the customer," says Hans-Werner Königs, RENO's divisional manager of organization and goods control. "There are many advantages to effective goods tagging. After all, every item that's stolen has a direct effect on a company's operating result."

Checkpoint Systems is working with RENO on the source tagging program. According to Checkpoint, RFID tags are integrated directly into the shoes, so that shoes can be displayed in pairs and in boxes for customers to select themselves, without the danger of theft.

RENO also has plans to further optimize both its market presence and its operational processes. "To be successful in the shoe retail trade, the goods have to be presented in the right way. As well as displaying shoes in pairs and in boxes, an open shop construction is also particularly important," says Königs. Improvements in the business process include simpler deactivation of the tagged goods at the point of sale. That will speed up the cashier transaction as well as eliminate the risk that a customer will leave the store with a tag that's accidentally been left activated, thereby triggering a false alarm.

"RENO's decision for radio-frequency source tagging is a further step toward a uniform standard in security technology," says Ulrich Schäfer, vice president and general manager at NCE, a unit of Checkpoint Systems. "For retailers, radio-frequency source tagging is the best option for reducing the costs of shrinkage. At the same time, they are able to create a customer-friendly shopping atmosphere, which will help to boost sales."

By the end of May, the system will be rolled out at stores in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Slovakia, Czech Republic, and Hungary. In the future, the millions of tags required by RENO will be provided via CheckNet, Checkpoint's service and tagging platform. The wafer-thin tags, designed especially for shoes, will be supplied to production locations in the Far East.

"From a strategic point of view, as any other retailer, we 'dream' of fully automatic goods and date tracking—from the supplier to the branch. What's more, we'd like to make work processes as simple as possible for our staff working in the branches," says Königs.

Several other retailers are chasing the RFID dream as well. Marks & Spencer, another European retailer, is aggressively pursuing an expansion of item-level tagging for its apparel lines. Japanese retailer Mitsukoshi has turned to RFID to increase sales at its stores in Tokyo, where the technology helps customers find the right size shoe. The technology is used at seven locations across the country, and the retailer reports that sales have increased by 13 percent since the tagging program began.