Enchanting scents with RFID technology
Paris: City of love, metropolis of the newest fashion trends and exquisite perfumes. So that in 2016 the shopping of exquisite perfumes and beauty products become a new adventure, a French provider of cosmetic items equipped its items with RFID tags. Is this the start of a completely new shopping style?
Shopping like a Sci-Fi movie
"Click & Collect" is the new name for the RFID-Service of the French cosmetic provider Sephora, which is currently in a test phase in one of their shops in Paris. In front of the perfume shelves there are small tables with touch screen surfaces. Two white circles approximately 10 cm big are printed left and right. As a customer you can walk around the shop and if you find a perfume that you like, you can put it on the right circle, which will immediately show you all the product information about the perfume and its price on the touchscreen surface. It is possible due to the tiny NFC chips which are placed at the bottom of the bottles. The RFID reader is placed under the white circle, which reads the NFC chip under the bottle and determines the appropriate software to show, all the product information on the touchscreen, which belong to the saved identification number on the chip. According to Sephora this fascinating shopping style goes down well.
New RFID system now in the testing phase
In addition to the product information the touchscreen shows also if the perfume is available in the shop. If it is available it even shows you the direction to find the perfume in the shelves. The customer therefore is able to find it and directly go to the cashier to pay for it. If it is not available in the shop and it needs to be ordered, that is where the white circle on the left comes in. The Sephora customer card can be put on top of the circle, which is also equipped with a NFC chip. The customer card will be directly captured from the RFID reader under the left circle. The product on the right circle will be directly added to the virtual shopping cart of the customer card. At the cashier the card will be scanned and all the items in the shopping cart will show and you can pay for them and decide to either pick them up on the next day or you can get it by mail. If this system works out fine for the French customers, Sephora wants to expand its system to all of its shops.
What do you think about the new RFID shopping system? Will it establish itself?
You can find the link to the original article with pictures here:
http://www.rfidjournal.com/articles/view?13881/
If you like to get to know more about the topic RFID and its application possibilities, don´t hesitate to ask PANMOBIL for a non-binding consultation:
