Avery Dennison is working with the Japanese government on an initiative that could turn every convenience story in the country unmanned by 2025.

Stores participating in the initiative will use WaveSafe RFID tags on microwaveable products and other non-microwaveable RFID options for other types of product

The Japanese government is seeing to bring about the ‘convenience store of the future’. This is, in part, in response to a labor force crisis as a result of long-term declining birth rate, with the ageing population especially affecting the retail sector. This has seen the country’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) bring ecosystem partners together to address labor and supply chain challenges in the country’s retail industry, and propose options to overcome these challenges.

A result saw METI launch a convenience and drug store RFID initiative in 2017 as a step towards addressing labor shortages and cost, as well as reducing the burden on in-store staff created by supply chain issues from traceability and authenticity to wastage and returns.

Following a successful pilot in which three convenience stores added RFID tags to products to improve item-level inventory monitoring, METI is now targeting full rollout across all stores in Japan by 2025. Retailers involved include ​Seven-Eleven Japan, FamilyMart, Lawson, Ministop, JR East Retail Net and Japan Association of Chain Drug Stores (JACDS). All products sold in their outlets will be tagged with smart labels.

Source: Japan to create ‘convenience store of the future’ using Avery Dennison RFID technology | Labels & Labeling