Nine West in RFID Pilot

New York City Jones Apparel Group Monday announced that it has initiated a program to evaluate radio frequency identification (RFID) technology in select Nine West retail locations. The goal of the pilot program is to study the benefits that item-level RFID provides in the areas of enhanced productivity, customer service and inventory accuracy.

"RFID has interested us for some time, and we believe it has reached the point where launching a pilot program of this nature makes sense," said Norm Veit, executive VP, MIS at Jones.

The team of companies with whom Jones is partnering on the RFID initiative consists of:

*Vue Technology, which will provide the RFID software and system-management solutions;

*Motorola's Enterprise Mobility Business, which will provide fixed and handheld RFID readers and antennas;

*Avery Dennison, which will provide RFID tags and printers; and

*inCode Wireless, which will provide installation and integration services and, along with RFID Sherpas LLC, will perform operational and business case analysis.