October 26, 2006
More Bookstores Using RFID
A number of bookstores in Europe are following the lead of libraries in an effort to tag their books to manage their supply chain and assets. While the core functionality is the same, bookstores have a slightly different purpose for tagging than libraries. The Dutch bookstore chain BGN recently started tagging their books and expect their return on investment to manifest in only 14 months.
Selexyz, the largest bookseller in the Netherlands, is doing the same thing, with the intent to control their restocking efforts and reduce labor costs. They've found that their special kiosks that allow customers to perform natural language searches for books has resulted in a 50% increase in sales. Accuracy in their processes has been 100%, except where manual processes are still being used.
Because of this success of this RFID project, they plan to follow suit in all of their stores by year-end 2007. Since big bookstores came into existence, they've not only cut earnings for the average author but also for themselves and publishers. If RFID can reduce costs for book chains, almost everyone in the loop wins (except any employees displaced as a result).
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