Item-level RFID in retailing: What can B&M retailers learn from online retailers?

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Bureau, Sylvain^; | Zhou, Wei^; | Piramuthu, Selwyn^;

Affiliations: Information & Operations Management, ESCP Europe, Paris, France | Information Systems and Operations Management, University of Florida, FL, USA | RFID European Lab, Paris, France

Note: [] Corresponding author: Selwyn Piramuthu, University of Florida, USA. Tel.: +1 352 392 8882; E-mails: sbureau@escpeurope.eu; wzhou@escpeurope.eu; selwyn@ufl.edu

Abstract: When online retailing became prevalent more than a decade ago, there was a natural tendency for these retailers to mimic as many essential characteristics of the B&M (Brick & Mortar) retail stores as possible to facilitate smooth transfer of customer experience from B&M to the online shopping environment. Online stores have evolved over the years and have diverged enough from their B&M counterparts to lay claim to their own idiosyncratic characteristics. Given that enough online retailers have been successful, it may now be the B&M retailers' turn to learn from their online counterparts. With finer-granular experience from several decades of customer online retail store shopping behavior and the fact that B&M stores are here to stay at least for the very near future, B&M retailers stand to benefit from transfer of appropriate knowledge from online stores. We provide an overview of this dynamic with the availability of RFID-generated item-level information in B&M stores.

Keywords: RFID, B&M retailers, online retailers

DOI: 10.3233/RFT-130051

Journal: International Journal of RF Technologies, vol. 5, no. 1-2, pp. 107-122, 2013