Smartrac at NRF: Brand Protection Solutions, Retail-Optimized RAIN RFID Tags

At NRF 2019: Retail’s Big Show, Smartrac’s presentation will center on its Multi-Layer Brand Protection solutions and its expanded portfolio of innovative, retail-optimized inlays and tags, delivering on the company’s promise to help customers transform for the digital age.
 
The company’s booth (#2065) will provide visitors with the latest insights into the outcome of its software and solutions developments and strategic partnerships. Building on its expertise as a leading manufacturer of world-class RFID transponders, Smartrac’s Brand Protection solutions provide a suite of innovative and secure offerings to everyday supply chain and brand challenges whilst enabling a unified approach to reporting and analytics.
 
With multi-layer technologies, tamper-evident products, traceless markers and Blockchain supported apps, Smartrac offers a broad range of customized solutions to fit the needs of virtually any brand. Initially launched in 2017, the company has now also complemented Proofs, its secure authentication solution, with an extensive range of undetectable materials, proprietary readers and cloud-based brand protection services. 
 
Proofs offer trust and confidence to today’s customers and consumers, using Smart Cosmos as the ‘operating solutions umbrella’ for digitized products. It combines fully-customizable RFID inlays and tags, a secure way to authenticate products, and an IoT platform for product data. Smartrac partner Temera is enabling the integration of item-tracking applications with a public Blockchain. Temera will also be present at the stand and showcase its latest offerings and contributions to Smart Cosmos Brand Protection solutions. In addition, Smartrac’s market partner and digital content specialist Blue Bite is demonstrating Smart Cosmos solutions it has developed for many leading brands. These solutions leverage Smartrac’s NFC technology and provide enhanced product value and improved customer experience.
 
At Smartrac’s booth, retailers and brand owners can learn in live demonstrations how existing products are turned into Digital Product Platforms by embedding RFID intelligence into them, and how data gathered from these products can be integrated into digital processes and analytics. Visitors will also see the benefits of these solutions, which create new digital experiences for customers and unmatched value for branded goods.
 
Mammut Sports Group AG considers NFC and product digitization as an essential innovation for the outdoor market. At NRF 2019, the Swiss outdoor brand is presenting its first NFC-enabled products and the corresponding smartphone app Mammut Connect at Smartrac’s booth #2065. When a smartphone is tapped on a product’s NFC touch point, the app delivers digital content and services to customers throughout the product’s lifetime, as well as supporting retail channels with in-depth product information to enhance the sales process. All NFC-enabled Mammut products come with embedded Smartrac Circus Flex NFC tags, equipped with an NXP NTAG 213 IC. These tags are specifically designed to resist harsh environments and have passed a very strong acid test as an integral part of their value proposition and a requirement to fully support long shelf life.
 
Other focus areas of Smartrac’s NRF presentation this year are its new RAIN RFID Eagle inlays, plus its expanded UCODE 8 based portfolio of retail-optimized inlays and tags that comprise the Belt, MiniWeb, Midas FlagTag and now Eagle inlays. As of January 2019, Smartrac’s Eagle tags are the world’s smallest retail-oriented inlays that have passed ARC categories A, B, C, D, F, G, I, K, M, and Q. Available in dry and paper-tag delivery formats, Eagle inlays and tags have a compact size of 44 x 28 mm / 1.7 x 1.1 in, which allows easy conversion for end-application usage.
 
UCODE 8 is the latest generation of NXP’s UCODE series and enables superior read distances and faster inventory counts for high volumes of items. The chip features an automatic adjustment function (SELF ADJUST) that optimizes the chip’s sensitivity to gain maximum performance in different environments. This optimization is performed at startup and is enabled in the default chip configuration as delivered by NXP. Furthermore, the chip has an integrated Brand Identifier function to prove product authenticity, and a memory safeguard system to protect business data.
 
Besides these new products, visitors also can get an overview of Smartrac’s comprehensive retail-focused RAIN RFID and NFC product portfolio.
 
On top of numerous hardware and software related developments, Smartrac will also announce details of its Green Tag Program. In addition to its existing commitment to minimize the ecological impact of its manufacturing processes, the RFID and IoT pacesetter will manufacture RFID products that live up to their sustainability promise even under strict Life Cycle Assessment scrutiny. With that in mind, Smartrac’s Green Tags will meet strict criteria, such as the use of recyclable or compostable paper as the substrate and heavy metal free antennas.
 
“This year’s NRF event marks yet another milestone for Smartrac and its customers as we are offering the first look at our comprehensive Multi-Layer Brand Protection Solutions and our Green Tag Program – developments that will most likely change the game for retail and the RFID industry. With the wealth of innovative products and solutions we are showcasing together with our market partners, we are effectively helping retailers and brand owners to transform for the digital age,” said Amir Mobayen, chief revenue officer at Smartrac.