Home > Fabrics & Garments > Full Story

Benetton clothing to carry tiny tracking transmitters

AP - New York

Clothes sold at Benetton stores will soon contain microchip transmitters that allow the Italian retailer to track its garments from their point of manufacture to the moment they’re sold in any of its 5,000 shops.

Benetton’s introduction of “Smart Tag” tracking technology will be the largest example of a trend now emerging in the retail industry, according to Phillips Semiconductors, a unit of the Dutch electronics giant that designed 15 million tags being delivered to Benetton this year.

Benetton’s Sisley Line of clothing will contain a Philips electronics radio frequency ID tag that will replace ubiquitous bar codes, which have to be manually scanned. An RFID tag communicates its location to Benetton’s computerised supply chain network, allowing the retailer to learn the status of its inventory at a glance and make restocking decisions quickly - even automatically, said Mr Terry Phipps, Benetton’s electronic data processing director.

While there is no indication Benetton intends to track its customers with the tags, privacy advocates are worried that the technology could lend itself to unauthorised customer monitoring.

Other businesses, including luxury clothing retailer Prada, have previously introduced RFID inventory tags. Procter & Gamble, Wal-Mart and British retailer Tesco are among companies pursuing smart tags for restocking, anti-theft and anti-counterfeit purposes.