Johnson Controls subsidiary Sensormatic has introduced two discreet RFID tagging alternatives for clothing, apparel and accessories for brands and retailers seeking deep insights without compromising garments’ look and feel.

Its RFID Seam Tag and Brand Label are available to retailers worldwide and can be sewn directly into garments without altering fit, function or impact on branding. This approach can extend the life of RFID investments, helping brands verify authenticity, deter theft and remove friction to enable a seamless shopper journey. Both are on display at this week’s NRF Protect in Texas.

“These tags turn inventory intelligence into comprehensive brand protection,” said Tony D’Onofrio, president of Sensormatic. “They represent the next era of omnichannel retail intelligence tools, pairing full product visibility and protection in a discreet package. They’re designed to be permanent and tamper-resistant, providing retailers with information needed to address total retail loss from the source through their supply chains and sales floors, and beyond. This helps enhance shopper experiences, preserve revenue and control shrink.”

These small and discrete RFID tags are durable so retailers can expand the value of their RFID and inventory intelligence investments. They are designed with the natural feel of fabric and the needs of versatile, fast production environments. The Seam Tag’s narrow and flexible design allows it to be embedded in the seam of apparel and accessories whereas the Brand Label is sewn-into the garment according to the retailer’s brand discretion. As such, retailers can protect merchandise without damaging or compromising merchandise while reducing the labour needed to execute enterprise-wide tagging.

The Seam Tag and Brand Label are designed to stay with the item for the product sales cycle. They are applied at the source and built to be an all-in-one option for inventory visibility and management throughout enterprise operations and through the sales cycle. Each tag can become a unique and long-lasting digital fingerprint, providing item-level identity from factory to store and beyond to enable inventory and omnichannel accuracy.

RFID tags should be perceived as a part of the product rather than a traditional security addition, intended to add defeat resistant friction for thieves while streamlining self-checkout and return processes for paying customers. Their design is intended to stop counterfeiting and unauthorised resales. They can bolster shrink analytics with additional context, helping retailers refine their practices to preserve shopper satisfaction and revenue alike.

They can help validate the product is authentic and are designed so they cannot be easily removed without damaging the merchandise, thus enabling identifiers that allow retailers to validate origin, verify authenticity and protect against counterfeiting, grey-market sales and return fraud on scale.

These tags are compatible with retailers’ existing RFID ecosystems and are available as part of Sensormatic’s expanding source tagging services. The brand operates RFID service bureaus around the world bringing the capabilities closer to retailers. To learn more, visit sensormatic.com.