Marks & Spencer Expects to Achieve 100 Percent RFID-Tagging by 2017

Global retailer Marks & Spencer (M&S) is expanding its use of EPC ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) RFID technology at most of its stores, from 80 percent of its general merchandise toward a goal of tagging 100 percent of goods within the next two years. The company has already been tracking 100 percent of its chilled food items via 10 million tagged food totes as they move through the supply chain and into stores. Last year, M&S reported that all merchandise at 750 of its U.K. store locations will be identified via RFID tags, which will be implemented by spring 2015, and that RFID will be employed by 200 of its factories throughout 20 countries (see Marks & Spencer Embraces Change). The company says that it is very near to achieving these goals. Currently, 100 percent of the clothing it sells is now RFID-tagged, as is half of its homeware items—bedding, bathroom products and soft furnishings.