Marks & Spencer Group plc has come a long way from its humble beginnings in 1884 as a penny-bazaar stall in an open-air market in Leeds, England. Millions of people shop at its nearly 400 stores in the United Kingdom each week, and during the last few months, customers at nine of those stores have been trying on men's suits and shirts tagged with tiny radio-frequency identification chips. Soon, the retailer will use these chips on women's lingerie and clothing in 53 stores.
"RFID, used to tag and identify individual items, is the one technology that can make a dramatic and rapid improvement to customer service in our stores," says James Stafford, head of RFID at Marks & Spencer, which had revenue of $15.9 billion last year.
Without item-level RFID tracking, it's nearly impossible for the company to keep up to date with 100% accuracy on items that come in complex sizes, such as bras, which have 68 size variations. That results in frustration for the customer who can't find her size in stock "and for our staff who want to help the customer and complete the sale," Stafford says.
