What Item-Level Intelligence Will Mean to Marketers

How will item-level intelligence be used to market products?

We all know Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) will help with the supply chain (inventory) and with security in stores (reducing shoplifting and employee theft).

I think it will be the backbone of retail inventory-security-transaction-merchandising integration - and online integration into the shopping experience.

The level of data that is possible and available from items and the systems that track them will have a huge impact:
- On how those items are linked to purchasers, purchase trends, and forecasting
- Direct marketing by manufacturers and retailers which means one-to-one marketing instead of one-to-many marketing
- How retailers organize and build their stores and the shelves that hold both the product and the systems to track product location
- Create real-time on-the-shelf negotiations possible (e-coupons) with a consumer and their smartphone
- Make transactions without a cash register or human intervention
- Direct offline and online interaction with a manufacturer or distributor and change merchandising into an IP based experience. When a consumer is in a store, they will be able to use their smartphone to link to a product and a mobile website (.mobi) and find out more about it, how it’s used, the benefits, even customer testimonials – yes with video!
- Implications for a consumer's home inventory. Bet you didn’t know you had one. It’s called a shopping list.

Plus many other areas of marketing using RFID....

Item-level intelligence is being used today by the US government, the US Defense Department, Homeland Security, airports, and some bigger industries. It’s still in the early adopter stage.

Stay tuned. From time to time I’ll update you on where this is and where it’s going.