Lawson, one of Japan’s top convenience store chains, has started deploying RFID tags in its outlets across the country.
The company has chosen an RFID solution that includes the M700 endpoint IC family by leading RAIN RFID technology provider Impinj. The M700 IC enables wireless connectivity for individual items in Lawson stores.
“We are working on digitalisation of our retail locations to create the convenience store of the future,” said Kunitsugu Makino, deputy senior vice president, Lawson.
“Once RAIN RFID technology is implemented throughout our entire supply chain and in all the products in our stores, the increased functionality enabled by the Impinj M700 ICs will give us better item-level inventory visibility, while also allowing us to deliver frictionless consumer self-checkout and loss prevention,” he added.
Lawsons has a network of nearly 14,700 stores across the island country. It is one of the five top convenience stores involved in Japan’s RFID project launched in 2017 by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI). The project aims to introduce electronic tags for all products sold in their convenience stores by 2025, which is estimated to be 100 billion products annually. Other convenience store chains involved in the project include Seven-Eleven Japan, FamilyMart, Ministop and New Days. The project was conceived to partly address the labour shortage in the industry.
RIFD uses electromagnetic fields to identify and track tags attached to objects automatically. RFID is superior to barcode, because it does not require the tag to be within the line of sight of the scanner.
Latest RFID innovation
“The quality, performance, and features provided by Impinj ICs ensure that we can consistently exceed our customers’ expectations, as the leading RAIN RFID tag manufacturer in Japan,” said Taiho Nakamura, Naxis COO. “We are very excited about the new innovations in the Impinj M700 IC family. The better performance and new functionalities will allow us to deliver the tags that our customers need today and into the future.”
The Impinj M700 family of endpoint ICs delivers two key features that significant improved connectivity for an estimated 100 billion items per year in Japan:
- Smaller, higher-performing endpoint ICs enable smaller, higher-performing RAIN inlays that can be embedded into product packaging.
- Shrinking and enhancing the endpoint IC logic enables frictionless point-of-sale and RAIN-based loss prevention while optimizing efficiencies and costs
According to Chris Diorio, Impinj founder and CEO, the company’s new family of M700 IC shows the path to embedding billions of RAIN RFID ICs into everyday items.
“We are excited to deliver products that expand the Internet of Things to encompass every item in convenience stores and drugstores,” Diorio said. “Impinj’s vision to connect every item in our everyday world to the cloud is fully aligned with Japan’s convenience store and drugstore initiatives.”
