Logistics, stock-taking, and electronic article surveillance, alongside brand protection and enhancing the customer’s interactive shopping experience of high-quality branded goods
With its extensive expertise in textile manufacturing and consistent market orientation, in just a few years TexTrace has developed from an RFID start-up company into a specialist provider of woven brand labels. This Swiss company now manufactures quality textile labels for international upper-mainstream brands on in-house, specially developed machines, produced in increasingly large volumes. In an interview with ‘RFID im Blick’, Sybille Korrodi, Head of Marketing and Business Development at TexTrace, talks about strategies, technical innovation and benefits for the retail industry.
What can woven textile RFID labels offer, and what special features do they have?
Woven RFID brand labels are part of the fabric of the product, and are produced on dedicated machinery which is specially developed in-house. TexTrace offers precision and 100% quality control. The antenna and chip are firmly woven and integrated into the fabric, setting the TexTrace label apart from conventional RFID labels. A special feature is its robustness, which I would say is a unique selling point. The textile label survives dry cleaning or even stonewashing processes, such as those used in denim manufacture. Besides, the integration of RFID into fabric does not affect the brand label’s look or texture. Design and image are important aspects in the fashion industry - especially for high-quality brands.
Is the product suitable for all fashion retailers?
This depends on retailers’ own supply chain and processes and the added value that they are looking for. As a result, woven RFID brand labels are not (yet) suitable for or of interest to every fashion retailer today. A hang tag may be the simpler, practical RFID sol tion. For discounters, other solutions might be more appropriate due to their price and shop policy. Generally speaking, vertically integrated brands with own retail stores will enjoy genuine added value with our solution because they can use RFID for several different applications. A retailer who “just” inventories tagged goods provided by their vendors will find no significant additional benefits of RFID in a textile label. But of course, there are exceptions: For example, a woven RFID label with a custom design would provide a distinctive added value for a large department store operator with own brands.
Read the complete interview at "RFID im Blick" Online.