Strategic implications of RFID implementations in the retail industry supply chain

Radio Frequency Identification, or RFID, has been attracting considerable attention from large retailers and consumer goods manufacturers with the expectation of improved efficiencies, and significant business benefits. Despite many useful applications, the technology's potential has yet to be fully realized. The aim of this paper is to highlight RFID's promises as well as its pitfalls in the retail supply chain, discuss potential strategic benefits of this technology, explore the many factors that may contribute to RFID success, identify the implementation challenges and key business drivers, and suggest a possible relationship among implementation factors and success variables.