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Consumer Benefits

As businesses such as retailers and manufacturers implement EPC technology in their supply chains, consumers stand to benefit greatly. Here are some of the ways consumers may benefit, as determined by a collection of recent polls, surveys and analyst reports:

*        The price of consumer goods will drop as manufacturers and retailers eliminate excess costs from their supply chains.
–   Such issues as employee theft, shoplifting, vendor fraud, error and other diversions cost retailers $31 billion in 2001, according to a University of Florida study.

*         Prescription medicine will be protected from counterfeiting and other tampering.
–   Drug counterfeiting costs more than $200 billion in lost revenue per year, according to a Kessler International study. More importantly, counterfeiting costs lives. Experts estimate that most anti-malaria drugs sold in Africa are counterfeit.

*         Outbreaks of hard-to-trace diseases like Mad Cow will be more easily traceable to the source.
–   Livestock in some countries are already being tagged with RFID chips to track the animals – even after death – all the way to the home freezer.

*         Defective products will be more quickly and easily recalled, including cars, tires, over-the-counter medicines, food, children’s toys and baby equipment.
–   EPC technology would have enabled Chicago authorities in 1982 to retrace the “footsteps” of the Tylenol bottles that mysteriously contained poison, killing seven people in the country’s worst known case of deliberate product tampering.

*         Stolen items will be recovered more easily.
–   Locating stolen property was the No. 1 favored benefit consumers identified on a survey on RFID awareness by Cap Gemini and Ernst & Young.

*         Customers will see more benefits at checkout, with easier returns and shorter waiting times.
–   Technology eradicating checkout lines altogether is still several years away.

*         Retail shelves will be empty less often, as inventory is tracked more effectively.
–   Studies have shown shoppers fail to find items they search for on store shelves eight percent of the time; 15 percent during sales and other promotions.