Study says Wal-Marts RFID Deployment Going Well

137 firms are supposed to ship RFID tagged goods to Wal-Mart in January 2005. A new study by Incucomm found different responses to Wal-Marts mandate, and found some surprising facts.

Dallas, TX (PRWEB) January 7, 2005 -- 137 firms are supposed to ship RFID tagged goods to Wal-Mart in January 2005. A new study by Incucomm found different responses to Wal-Marts mandate, and found some surprising facts.

Among the surprises were the following findings:

•    Active resistance was much less common than has been widely reported. Only about 3-6% of the 137 firms targeted by Wal-Mart plan to resist RFID deployment.

•    Spending per vendor has been far less than many sources projected. Incucomm estimates the median spending was about $200,000. Incucomm found this level of spending, lower than many had predicted, was caused by at least three factors.

•    The most promising areas of ROI for Wal-Mart and its CPG suppliers may be provable by mid-2005. If Wal-Mart chooses to share this information, the debate on ROI could end quickly.

•    Many firms are achieving 100% read rate success. Success in compliance varies widely at this point, but the degree of variance will probably diminish quickly with nearly all SKUs and vendors achieving compliance with Wal-Marts requirements.

•    RFID solutions and product firms with large promotion budgets have not been able to leverage their name recognition into System Integrator wins -- if anything, there is a negative correlation between PR and advertising spending and market share in support of the 137. Brand name and aggressive advertising have had little effect on the pragmatic, performance driven buyers who support logistics in Wal-Marts vendor community.

The report outlines progress by suppliers of tags, labels, readers, label printers and systems integrators in winning market share, and helping clients comply with Wal Mart requirements.

The report also reviews the RFID deployment goals for Wal-Mart and Wal-Mart suppliers, ROI goals, and other factors related to the effort.

The report should be helpful for CPG vendors who want to understand the lessons learned from others in the Wal-Mart RFID trails. In addition, the report is intended to help those interested in market trends and early market share in the new wave of RFID.

Firms mentioned in the study include: Accenture, Alien, Avery Dennison, Bearing Point, Capgemni, Dallas Morning News, Department of Defense, DOD, EPC, EPCGlobal, Federal, Alliant Techsystems, ATK, Gillette, Johnson & Johnson, HP, IBM. Intermec, Impinj, ISO, Kraft, Levi Strauss, Nestle-Purina, Matrix, MGM, New York Times, Omron, Proctor & Gamble, Phillips, Printronix, R4, Rafsec, Sams Club, Samsys, Sony, STM, Symbol, Texas Instruments, Thing Magic, Unilever Wal-Mart, Winchester, Xterprise, and Zebra

More details, a Free Summary and the full report can be found at www.incucomm.com

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