In today’s economy, retailers face a difficult situation. Competitive product pricing, unreliable supply chains and rising overheads put retailers under enormous pressure compared to e-commerce companies.

Additionally, retailers need to reduce the risk of shoplifting and employee fraud at every step of their operations. To effectively address such challenges, many retailers are utilizing RFID to prevent theft and reduce management errors.

RFID chip technology can store specific information at different stages of the tag. Companies can add timeline nodes for products arri at specific locations, track the time between destinations, and record information about who accessed the product or identified stock at every step of the supply chain. Once a product is lost, the company can find who accessed the batch, review upstream processes and identify exactly where the item was lost.

RFID sensors can also measure other factors in transit, such as recording item impact damage and transit time, as well as the exact location in a warehouse or store. Such inventory monitoring and audit trails can help reduce retail losses in weeks rather than years, providing an immediate ROI. Management can call up the complete history of any item throughout the supply chain, helping companies investigate missing items.

Another way retailers can reduce losses and determine who is responsible for them is to track the movement of all employees. If employees use access cards to move through different areas of the store, the company can determine where everyone was when the product was lost. RFID tracking of products and employees allows companies to locate possible suspects simply by extracting each employee’s visit history.

Combining this information with a security surveillance system, companies will be able to build a comprehensive case against thieves. The FBI and other organizations already use RFID tags to track visitors and people within their buildings. Retailers can use the same principle to deploy RFID in all their locations to prevent fraud and theft.