ORLANDO, Fla. - At the RFID Journal Live! 2014 conference in Orlando, Florida, RFID Journal today announced that Marks & Spencer (M&S) has won the Best RFID Implementation Award for its use of item-level RFID to improve on-shelf availability at all of its stores. As the winner of a Best RFID Implementation Award, Marks & Spencer demonstrated the best use of RFID technology in improving its supply chain and retail operations.

As the largest UK clothing retailer with 766 UK stores, M&S is focused on providing an exceptional customer experience to the 21 million shoppers who visit its stores each week by ensuring that the correct product mix is available in-store and online. Since partnering with Avery Dennison in 2003 for RFID on clothing, Marks & Spencer has moved to 100% RFID tagging for all its general merchandise to create accurate, holistic tracking of stock throughout its supply chain. As a result, M&S has improved inventory accuracy up to 50% and cut out-of-stocks by 30-40%.

Kim Phillips, head of packaging for Marks & Spencer, comments, “Marks & Spencer is honoured to win a Best RFID Implementation Award for our decade-long commitment to the technology. Having accurate stock information is a driver for our whole business, especially when it comes to omni-channel. Our partnership withAvery Dennison has been vital to the management of stock levels and ensuring that the correct product mix is always on display and available to our customers. The benefits we’ve experienced with item-level RFID go far beyond quantifiable savings and production times, allowing us to provide an enhanced customer journey that keeps us competitive in today’s challenging omni-channel retail environment.”

Working closely with M&S, Avery Dennison RBIS has developed RFID tags that are fully integrated into a complete range of labels and tickets. Currently there are multiple tag formats that use different color codes for each size. To date, Avery Dennison RBIS has supplied over one billion RFID tags to M&S with no data loss. Additionally, over 200 factories in twenty countries apply RFID tickets and labels for distribution in stores.

For the future, M&S is planning the development of RFID to cover the additional categories of jewellery, cosmetics, homeware and gifts, with implementation for cosmetics and beauty by the spring of 2015.

A judging panel of five prominent researchers and industry opinion leaders considered the company that best demonstrated how RFID is delivering real value to shareholders. The RFID Journal Award for Best RFID Implementation was presented on April 10, 2014, at RFID Journal Live! Held at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida.