As a manufacturer, you’re constantly looking for ways to improve your supply chain process. But before you can take advantage of the options available to you, you’ve got to make sure it helps your customers, too.

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is a powerful tool for optimizing your supply chain — and it comes with a load of benefits for both your brand and your buyers. Check out this list of some of the most powerful advantages of RFID technology: 

1. Reduced manual error

There are a lot of steps along the supply chain that depend on accurate counting. From box packing to inventory checks, your supply chain depends on precise counts, but relying on humans to do it just isn’t cutting it.

RFID consistently achieves 99.99% accuracy — compared to 70% accuracy with manual methods.

Benefit to your brand: Errors cost your brand time and money. Manual counting takes hours and mistakes made throughout the supply chain can create long lists of chargebacks.

Benefit to your vendors: Vendors make the garments and face chargebacks from late or missing items in a shipment and, as a result, they’ve got to pay extra freight to have the missing or incorrect items shipped by air instead of water. Reduced manual error means lower costs.

Benefit to your buyers: Chargebacks slow the time between your inventory order and when your garments wind up in your stores. When you reduce manual error, your customers can rely on their favorite garments being available in your stores.

2. Increased efficiency/decreases time investment 

You know the picture: sending out swaths of team members to count the garments in the back room or warehouse, equipped with a clipboard. With RFID, the days of using a pen and paper to verify garments are over.

With RFID, you can do more with less — more counts, quicker, with fewer team members. What used to take a team of people and hours of time can now be done daily with one person in only a few minutes.

Benefit to your brand: You won’t need to waste your team’s time on counting, so you can use them for more important tasks like garment production, product organization, or customer care. And you can drive down labor costs with smaller, but more productive, teams.

Benefit to your buyers: When customers need a service member to find an item in the backroom, it’ll only take a minute or two to locate it. Employers also have more availability to help customers when they’re not tied up counting inventory.

3. Reduced stock outs

Stock-outs are a major concern of retailers, but RFID software can help by:

• Signalling teams when inventory is low
• Reducing lost items in the backroom
• Improving the accuracy of delivered goods

Benefit to your brand: When stock-outs are reduced, profitability is increased — customers can trust that what they’re looking for is in stock, and they won’t need to check out a competitor's store.

Benefit to your buyers: Customers can rely on your brand for having what they want in stock, increasing customer loyalty and lifetime value.

4. Improved tracking 

Because RFID scanners create a real-time record of garments along the product journey, it’s easier to locate products anywhere in the supply chain and spot quantity errors before they become a bottleneck. 

Benefit to your brand: Bottlenecks slow deliveries, increase chargebacks, and decrease customer satisfaction. Tracking keeps you proactive in resolving these issues before they take over your supply chain.

Benefit to your buyers: It’s 2025 — everyone wants to receive their goods quickly. Smoothing out bottlenecks with RFID tracking is an easy way to keep up with delivery expectations.

5. Product journey data collection for your DPP

Digital product passports are no longer an idea of the future: they’re becoming a requirement for brands around the world. To stay compliant with emerging laws, your DPP needs to tell the full story of your garment’s journey.

RFID tracking doesn’t just improve your inventory accuracy — it empowers you to deliver supply chain data directly to your customers. Share where materials were sourced, garments were created, and every step the product took to wind up in customers’ hands.

Benefit to your brand: DPPs are becoming required, and RFID data is one of the easiest ways to collect what you need to inform your passport. Additionally, product journey information improves your brand reputation by meeting your customers’ desire for transparency.

Benefit to your buyers: Customers who prioritize transparency and sustainability appreciate knowing the whole story of the garments they’re buying. 

Start using RFID with help from Charming Trim

The advantages are clear: RFID can improve the entire inventory experience for both your brand and your customers. From reducing manual error to increasing profitability, RFID is a worthwhile investment for your brand — especially with emerging digital product passport regulations.

Learn more about how you can implement RFID throughout your supply chain by consulting with a member of Charming Trim’s team. With Truecount by Charming, you can turn your RFID hopes into reality.