Many jewelers have been talking about the new RFID (radio frequency identification) solution and the ways it can really make a difference in the store.

To help in understanding this new solution, we have a special video for you to watch. You can watch the video here.

Business analysts report that RFID is going to have a significant, beneficial impact on the jewelry industry. In one paper '24-KARAT PROTECTION: RFID AND RETAIL JEWELRY MARKETING ”', Mr David C. Wyld from the Department of Management, Southeastern Louisiana University, Hammond, LA USA said “RFID tracking will enable a whole new era of jewelry store management. The visibility such systems provide is not just on the inventory itself, but on the efforts and effectiveness of jewelry salespeople. ”

With the average jewelry store shrinkage at 2% (which equates to $20,000 per year for a store with $1M in inventory) it is no wonder Mr Wyld makes this conclusion.

Users of RFID have described amazing results. Jade Jewelry's annual shrinkage losses in a single store has declined from a quarter million dollars a year to zero since installing RFID-based inventory tracking, making its ROI on its RFID investment roughly 400%.

In addition to the amazing reduction in shrinkage, RFID also enabled Jade Jewelry to reduce the time it takes for staff to inventory count the store from two to three days to ten minutes.

On its 'trial run' of RFID, a Boston Jeweler used a sample of 107 items and tracked those items over two weeks. A tiny fraction of their total inventory – yet it found six missing items. One can only imagine the impact over a full year, tracking the full store inventory of 3000 items. For the store manager, the test was a 'wake up call'.

And its not just preventing shrinkage and saving enormous amounts of staff time. Other jewelers have reported significant increases in visibility and intelligence reporting.

So if RFID is so good, why isn't everyone using it. Well the answer  (until now) really comes down to price. Previously the RFID solutions available were very pricey and many jewelry stores could not afford it. Now, thanks to advances in technology, the RFID solution is very affordable (it's equivalent to the cost of barcode technology) and is a simple plug and play device that makes the implementation quick and easy.

To learn more, watch the Swim RFID video